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!

Welcome!

Sunset at the Glinodo lakeshore.

Three turtles sunning in the pond near the admin. bldg. at Presque Isle.

Hyacinths in our yard.

 Tree in the library courtyard.

Forty-two Peace Pilgrimages

This year marked the 42nd Peace Pilgrimage on Good Friday. They began as a 7-mile three-hour trek from downtown Erie to the monastery. About 6-7 years ago we changed it to a 2-mile walk through downtown Erie, still starting at St. Peter Cathedral and now ending at the foot of State St. weaving around and stopping for "stations of the cross" at various places in the downtown area.

This year's theme was environmental devastation, especially its effects on women and children.

Here are three of our "stations":

Here's the stop at Perry Square at 6th and State St.

At the Federal Courthouse. That's the old library at the corner of 6th and French

for those who know Erie. Behind it is the new Erie Insurance expansion.

And here's the final stop near Dobbins Landing, on a fishing deck.

Holy Week

If you've ever had some personal spiritual direction you know that one of the directors' common techniques is to ask you to reflect on a scripture passage from the point of view of one of the key people in it. For instance, in the parable of the prodigal son you could look at it from the viewpoint of the father, the wayward son, or the obedient son who stayed home. It's a very fine technique and, to look at scripture stories from a women's point of view can also be quite eye-opening, especially for women themselves, who did not write the scriptures!

This weekend I was asked to read the gospel for Sunday--the one where Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem. It made me think about the differing "views" in the story and, in a rather unusual one, the experience from the donkey's viewpoint. I know that sounds very funny, but Mary Oliver wrote a lovely reflection from just that. Here it is....blessings on your Holy Week.

The Poet Thinks about the Donkey

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
clatter away, splashed with sunlight!

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.

Warmer and sunnier days

 

As the snow is staying away, pretty much, and the days are already longer and warmer, we're starting to be able to get into some of our spring/summer patterns--and we got to do one of my favorites this weekend: walk our Seven-Mile Creek path. And while we're walking, slowly, we're studying the creek to see what's new, what's old, what's happened since last October. 

This weekend the water was really "roaring" as we had quite a rainstorm the night before. But it looked quite clear and every time we go down there we run into fishermen and women, often carrying the long fish they've just caught! I think the creek has pretty much been clear all winter, so no ice fishing this year, just regular fishing!

The photo above is a look at a huge old tree that fell across the creek, maybe last year or so, and is just getting smaller each year now. The photo below is the end of the tree on the creek path. Can you see the patterns from insects inside? Very cool.

Finally, just a note about our continuing number of guests that are coming every day now. Very nice people. They enter into all our prayer, meals, etc. Next week will be the apex of the year for them: some overnighters and some locals that just come for the Triduum and Easter Sunday. Welcome all.

Spring Equinox

This is one of those poems by Mary Oliver where she combines her love of nature with the spirituality that she so often expresses so beautifully in her writing. Appropriate this year, as the first day of spring is close to Holy Week. 

Spring

Faith
is the instructor.
We need no other.

Guess what I am,
he says in his
incomparably lovely

young-man voice.
Because I love the world
I think of grass,

I think of leaves
and the bold sun,
I think of the rushes

in the black marshes
just coming back
from under the pure white

and now finally melting
stubs of snow.
Whatever we know or don't know

leads us to say:
Teacher, what do you mean?
But faith is still there, and silent.

Then he who owns
the incomparable voice
suddenly flows upward

and out of the room
and I follow,
obedient and happy.

Of course I am thinking
the Lord was once young
and will never in fact be old.

And who else could this be, who goes off
down the green path,
carrying his sandals, and singing?