Deer Time

Lots and lots of deer encounters these days. There are still plenty of apples in the back orchard that attract our "herd" all day long, but especially at sunset. The crab apple trees also have quite a bit of fruit on them, so they are still in the food chain. But, the last time I checked the grapes over at Benetwood Apartments they were just about picked clean.

Tuesday night I ducked out the patio door right after supper and took what I thought would be a quick spin around the Mount. I had only reached the old greenhouse when I met four deer and had a pleasant 5-minute staring contest, in which I hope I showed no fear even though one walked toward me before stopping about 50 feet away.

After we parted I continued around the east end of the house and as I came around to the front there was a lone small deer right off the blacktop of the front circle, quietly grazing under a tree. We stared a little, too, and then I continued to the front door while she continued to forage.

Took down the last of the hummingbird feeders this week, too, and noticed that one of our sisters who works on the chapel environment placed some of the huge mum plants from Jubilee outside at our entrances. They are still gorgeous and must be a welcoming sight to our many October visitors.

See our community site for two wonderful Smileboxes of Jubilee weekend. Very appropriately named--"Smile" boxes.

Everyone Seems to Stop By

This is one of those times where it seems as if "the whole world" is passing by our front door---and stopping in. We had an 8th grade class that one of our sisters brought for the day to show them her monastery. We had a group from a parish down in the diocese come to have a little "time away" for the day. The AIM USA Board is coming for their annual meeting--10 monks and nuns from around the country, most of them abbots or prioresses. And over 40 women are participating in Benetvision's annual Readers' Retreat at a nearby conference center with many of them coming a few days early or staying later for a few days with us at the Mount.

And guess what? We love having them. Come one, come all, that's what monasteries are for; that's why we have a whole wing (15 rooms) for visitors; that's why we have 3 hermitages, and I wish we could build 3 more.

Some early autumn scenes from our place:

The Week After

Boy, is it a quiet week in Lake Wobegon these days, as we are (pleasantly) recuperating from the weekend. What a time! For a different take on our Jubilee 3-day "bash" see these blogs: Alyssa's, Carrie's.
Some exciting news, our Sister Joan has a new book out just this week, Happiness, from Wm Eerdmans Publ. Here's the review from amazon.com

"Everyone wants to be happy. Many, however, wrongly believe that happiness comes from having enough money, fame, personal comfort, worldly success, or even dumb luck. Happiness just seems to be so elusive and arbitrary — something all too often just out of reach.

Joan Chittister sees happiness differently. To her it is not a by-product of wealth or success but, rather, a personal quality to be learned, mastered, and fearlessly wielded. Happiness, she says, "is an organ of the soul that is meant to be nourished." In these pages Chittister develops “an archeology of happiness” as she conducts a happiness “dig” through sociology, biology, neurology, psychology, philosophy, history, and world religions. Sifting through the wisdom of the ages, Chittister offers inspiring insights that will help seekers everywhere learn to cultivate true and lasting happiness within themselves."

What a Weekend!

A very, very special weekend indeed. Three jubilee celebrations with a Community Dinner Friday night, the public (300+) Evening Praise and reception Saturday afternoon, and a special Sunday liturgy to cap it all off!

My favorite part or at least one of my favorite parts? To watch guests who have never been here or haven't been here in awhile or who aren't even Catholic, try to keep from gaping as they experience the best our liturgical efforts and Benedictine hospitality can offer. It's funny and wonderful!

Watch our community website this week for photos, Sister Anne's reflections and any other reports they may give about this weekend's events.

Here are some shots I got both inside and outside, since the weather was P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

Please note Our Lady of the Bathtub that has been on the Glinodo grounds for who-knows-how-long vs. the newly relocated statue of Mary from Glinodo to the Mount---courtesy of one of our very creative and artistic maintenance and grounds experts. Thanks, Gary.

Twenty-five, Fifty, Sixty Years

Halleluiah

Everyone should be born into this world happy and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I'm not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes almost forgetting how wondrous the world is and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel like I have wings.

Mary Oliver for our Jubilarians

Our gardens slowly fading into autumn.

Jubilee Week

All week the excitement builds because this weekend we will celebrate our 25-50 and 60 year Jubilarians with a community dinner Friday night and a large public celebration Saturday. The festivities spill over into Sunday as many guests stay the weekend and the liturgy planners make Sunday's liturgy a part of the jubilee time.

Profiles of the seven sisters can be found in this issue of the Mount magazine beginning on page 11: Sisters Judith, Mary Lou, Audrey, Rose Ann, Patricia, Miriam and Marlene. They are all great women---Enjoy!

A hidden rock garden at St. Meinrad Archabbey.

Benedictine Land--southern Indiana style

Two-thirds of the Benedictine communities in the US are within 100-150 miles east and west of the Mississippi River, from Canada down to the Gulf. This week I'm in the very south of Indiana and spending time in "Benedictine land--southern Indiana style."

The two huge Benedictine places here are the community of women in Ferdinand, Indiana and the men's community in nearby St. Meinrad, Indiana. Both are among the two or three largest in the US and have made this part of the country a Benedictine landscape if there ever was one, with their large, large arrays of buildings, influence and century-old affects on the people, land and Catholicism here.

My time is at a subprioresses' meeting at the monastery of women in Ferdinand and a more welcoming and lovely community there cannot be...except for my own in Erie, of course!

Enjoy the scenes.

Imposing Monastery Immaculate Conception. Newly restored church is front and center. You can see it for miles around as it is on a hill high above the little town.

Blessed Sacrament chapel behind main altar. Wooden-outlined dome mimics the stone one it is under.

One of many gardens. This one styled amid a Benedictine cross.

The view from the other swing seat where yours truly was relaxing!

Just a fraction of the buildings and land that compose St. Meinrad Archabbey, seminary, guesthouse, Abbey Press, et al. Just a monstrous plant.

Some of the 3,700+ pipes of the organ in the main church.

Art is everywhere, including right on the walls. This one in a stairway.

Unique windows in the monks' Chapter Room. The ceiling, like the Sistine Chapel, was painted by a monk and is completely covered with bible-inspired themes.