April and May

A quiet April concluded with our celebration of the Paschal Mysteries of Easter. Once again, the sisters of Mississippi Abbey joined us for the Easter vigil and raised the liturgy to celestial levels. The sisters joined us for a brief post-liturgy sharing in the refectory before they returned home. Easter also saw the completion of a six-week candidacy period of an aspirant to our community.

We were happy to host four young men for a Come-and-See vocational discernment over the Memorial Day weekend. Two were from Iowa and the others from further west in the country. The guest house has been well-occupied these lovely spring days and we were especially happy to host the annual retreat of the Associates of the Iowa Contemplatives during the second weekend of May.

We were visited by Dom Joseph Wittstock of Holy Cross Abbey (Berryville, VA) during the last week of May. Dom Joseph is our “Commissary”, the official major superior of the community during the tenure of a non-priest (Br. Paul Andrew). Major decisions in the house need the approval of Dom Joseph and he has been in regular communication with Br. Paul. The community had drawn up a House Report which will be presented to the General Chapter this fall. Dom Joseph and Mother Rebecca met with each member of the community to get a fuller sense of the situation and the alternatives before us. Br. Paul left on June 11th to attend the Regional Meeting being held at Holy Spirit Abbey (Conyers, GA).

The absence of Br. Paul, our main organist, has meant that we will recite the offices of Lauds and Vespers for the week that he is gone. Br. Nicholas will still play the organ for the Little Hours and Compline. Unfortunately, our celebration of the Feast of the Holy Trinity on Sunday will take a somber form sans organ.

The installation of new windows has been completed. Work is progressing on the installation of two toilets at the rear of our present sacristy. The areas of our mail boxes and copy room are being spruced up with painting and new tile on the floors. The process of changing to LED lighting continues. Over 600 old lights have been brought to the city dump for disposal. Some monks are moving into empty rooms in our infirmary wing to create a more living sense of living together in common, rather than being spread about in separate spaces. We have redesigned the arrangement of seating and tables in the refectory to move us more closely together.