What to do?

Br. Robert James is soon coming back from his three-week South African visitation. This past week, Br. Simon was away at Mount Alvernia Retreat Center in Wappinger Falls for his pre-profession retreat.

Earth and Heaven. From top left, clockwise: bulb flowers are coming out (two types of hellebores, a.k.a. Lenten Roses); the Super Moon rising over the Hudson; Croci dotting the flowerbeds.

And then it's been quite the week as you all know. On Thursday, the House Council considered what conditions to consider for a potential closing of the Guest House. One such conditions we decided upon was the closing of public schools. The House Council is an advisory body of three senior brothers meeting with the Prior weekly.

The next morning, the Kingston School District (a city 11 miles north of us) announced its closing. We decided to go ahead with a closing after Vespers on this Sunday, March 15. By the end of the day, all schools in the County of Ulster had announced their immediate closing. This confirmed we had taken an adequate risk management decision.

For the time being, our worship continues to be public. However, when our Guest House is closed we rarely get a lot of church visitors. So social distancing will be possible in most cases.

We are planning on a one month closing with a possible reopening date of Wednesday, April 15 (in Easter Week). Holy Week will feel very different without a full house of guests.

Of course, all our decisions will need to continue to be re-visited as the situation evolves. We want to strike a balance between preserving public health, the health of our own brethren (including not a few aged brothers), the health of our staff, and continuing to offer a place of solace and respite for those seeking spiritual sustenance.

This closing is also hard on our staff who will work fewer hours and gain smaller pay.

We are exploring ways to offer some of the latter online.

Monastery people. From top left, clockwise: Br. Bernard on walk to Slabsides nature preserve with Sr. Elizabeth Broyles, CMA; Br. Carl relaxing in his cell and always learning something new; The Rev. Matthew Wright doing some reading in Pilgrim Hall; a bit of friendly competition going on between guests in Pilgrim Hall.

We pray for our guests, our associates, our staff, our friends, our relatives and all those who suffer physically or emotionally from this pandemic. Be safe and be well.