Retreat 2023

This week we're on retreat for 5 days. For the first time our two 30-minute daily conferences will be offered via Zoom for anyone who is interested. Register here.

Blessings on your week, "retreating" or not!

Holiday #1

 

Our hummingbird feeders have been standing ready for a few weeks now, but the hummers are few and far between so far. Our deer are a little scarce right now, too. That's more understandable as these weeks of late May and early June are the time their fawn are coming. 

This Sunday, Pentecost, we had a full house of friends, family members and guests for a glorious liturgy to end the Easter season. Our monastery choir and handbell choir performed their final pieces of the season, as both take off during the summer weeks. Add to that that our patio furniture came out Friday and you have a true beginning of summer for sure. The weekend also brought 70 degree temperatures, adding warm, sunny days to the mix. I remember many a summer when local radio personalities would give an ongoing report on the three holiday weekends: Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. In summers when cooler, rainy weather hit one of them, we'd hear about it for weeks. If all three were that way, it was a true disaster. Whew, this year we're 1 for 1 already.

It is still possible

 

After Her Death    Mary Oliver

I am trying to find the lesson
for tomorrow. Matthew something.
Which lectionary? I have not
forgotten the Way, but, a little,
the way to the Way.

The trees keep whispering
peace, peace, and the birds
in the shallows are full of the
bodies of small fish and are
content. They open their wings
so easily, and fly. 

So. It is still possible.

I open the book
which the strange, difficult, beautiful church
has given me. To Matthew. Anywhere.

On the road to Emmaus

A very sad day for us this Sunday, as our 42-year director of Emmaus Ministries, Mary Miller, OSB, died after a short illness. Please see this link to our community website for the obituary and details of this week's rituals: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Two of Mary's nieces were able to be here throughout the weekend and entered into our prayers, meals, etc. An hour or so after Mary's passing her one niece turned to a couple of us and said, "It has been so wonderful to be able to be here with all of you. I am so grateful...this place is magical!"

She whom we love

And lose

Is no longer

Where she was before.

She is now

Wherever we are.

- St. John Chrysostom

Black, orange and ruby-throated

This weekend, due to beautiful spring weather, I spent a bit of time in our inner courtyard garden. There is always weeding of course, but this summer I'm really going to see if more hummingbirds can be enticed into visiting the garden. Ditto for Baltimore Orioles.

The Baltimore Oriole  feeder, see above, has two little cups for grape jelly and two metal posts for orange sections. At least that's what our late Sr. Mary Margaret Kraus used and they worked. She had orioles in the garden all the time. I didn't have much success last year, but I'm going to give it a really serious, check-it-and renew-it-every-day attempt this summer!

Ditto for hummingbirds there. I get them visiting my bedroom window feeder every summer, but that's on the other side of the monastery, in a more remote section than this courtyard. But I put up two window feeders, one near the front foyer's door and one at the side double doors. Both of them have nearby bushes, which they say is important for these skittish birds to "escape to" when they detect movement. So here's hoping. Both the orioles and the "hummers" will make wonderful viewing for our sisters as they pass by.

 

Happy 16th Anniversary

In some ways it's hard to believe and yet, at another angle it's not: 16 years ago today I started Light Through Stained Glass Windows! 

Here's the entry from that day. Note: there was no accompanying photo as I hadn't yet learned how to do that piece of a blog.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Stained-Glass Windows

We are all still reeling from the "official" opening of the renovated chapel this weekend. This morning's Morning Praise was breathtaking. The no-longer-carpeted floor, now ceramic tiled....and the no-longer acoustically-tiled ceiling, now Pennsylvania natural wood have transformed the sounds of the chant and music. It is overwhelming. The 16 floor to ceiling stained-glass windows still make up the north and south walls. I'm taking a seat on the north side, facing south, so that I have a view of the morning sun through the windows and their reflections on the tiles.

One of the most popular Benedictine mottoes fits the day: That in all things may God be glorified.

I started it because our website was having a hard time and I wanted to get daily news out to our oblates and friends. A few  years later the website was fine, so I shifted to more personal reflections on the goings-on.

Also, other sisters were picking up on starting blogs so there were other voices going out.

This week I have one lovely thing to "report": Our Mary Lou Kownacki is sharing her extensive book collection. A couple of her friends have spent weeks sorting through her shelves, sending some to her nieces and nephews already but leaving many good items for us. I picked up only one, Sailing Along Around the Room, a collection of poems by Billy Collins. I often heard Mary Lou mention him for his poetry really is great--he was the US Poet Laureate for a few years--and I can't wait to read some of his works, especially since they are ones she surely read.

Limbo

 Frankly, there's nothing significant to share with you this week! We're still "recuperating" (pleasantly enough) from the Holy Week/Easter extravaganzas/guests and we're not yet into the full warmth of spring that sends us outdoors at every opportunity to walk or sit in one of our flower garden areas! So here we are, kinda' stuck in calendar limbo!

But I do have some ordinary trivia, if you don't mind: 1) I just finished a great book, good enough to be on the top of the New York Times best seller fiction list for months now: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Creative, unique, clever...read about it and see what you think. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you give it a try! 2) We went to one of Erie's hidden gems this weekend, a smaller version of Presque Isle in its trails, educational endeavors and love of all things nature: Asbury Woods in Millcreek Township.

Ta da:

and 3) My friend Val and I continue our addiction to Wordle. In our version we played the same word for the month of April and daily compared our "string" from it to the word(le) of the day. If you want to play along with us in May, we just settled on our word for the month: FEAST. Good luck! Our aim is to get it in 3 guesses, 4 is acceptable, but anything more is not!