Some go, some come

This weekend we lost our five newest members to attendance at workshops. Two stayed rather close, traveling 85 miles or so south to Villa Maria Conference Center. A Western PA inter-formation group has been sponsoring national speakers there for many years. Men and women in formation in communities from Pittsburgh up to Erie are invited. I first heard John Allen and Ilia Delio there and they were great. This weekend it was a speaker on race and racism in the USA.

The other three traveled considerably farther to central Indiana and a Benedictine conference for all members of the four federations under age 55, the group is appropriately named "55 and Under." 

So we lost their presence, their voices and their energy but we gained the same from the guests that joined us for the Lenten vigil Saturday night, this morning for Sunday's liturgy and even some who are staying in the guest hall and hermitages.

And what else did we gain? The daffodils and tulips may still on the verge of  popping out, ditto the forsythia, but these "friends" are coming around more and more. Here are three that were grazing and romping on the east side of the Mount this afternoon.  Welcome back!