And then there were fourteen

On our recent Monday sabbath, we were invited by our friends Janet Vincent and Kathleen Stanley for a cookout in their beautiful garden in nearby Cottekill. It was also an opportunity to visit with missionaries Monica Vega and Heidi Scmidt that were the house guests of our Cottekill friends. The weather was perfect, the food delicious and the company, a pleasure.

From top left, clockwise: a selfie with our Postulant (Daniel Beckham) and our Intern (Eric Anthony); cookout in Cottekill (3 pictures) 1 - Br. Aidan, Yanick Savain and Daniel B. 2 - Daniel B., me and Br. Randy 3- Brothers, Postuland and Intern shooting the breeze; the church with guests in the Visitors Court!

On Tuesday, I traveled to General Theological Seminary (GTS) to resume in-person Spiritual Direction with students and faculty this new academic year. I continue direction with four previous directees and got to know better three new ones. On Wednesdays, GTS has a community lunch which I got to partake of. I ate pizza in the company of a couple of new seminarians including Ryan Zavacky. Ryan was a Young Adult Service Corps volunteer for a year at our monastery in Makhanda (previously Grahamstown), in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

As usual when I visit GTS for a couple of days, I got to visit with NYC friends at night. I had a lovely dinner with Associate Zachary Roesemann and his husband Clark Anderson. Zachary is the author of many beautiful icons at the monastery. He is currently working on an icon of Pauli Murray for GTS. On Wednesday, one of my directees stood me up, so I had time to hop to a nearby art gallery with my friend Fumiko who lives on campus at GTS.

From top left, clockwise: late blooming plants are a boon to the honeybees Br. Aidan and Yanick Savain keep (unidentified daisy-like plant - 2 pictures); Ryan Zavacky in his seminarian cassock and me; my friend Fumiko Jin and I at DC Moore art gallery (a couple hundred yards from GTS). 

While I was gone, the Brothers celebrated the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. I'm sorry I missed it. But I got to listen to Br. Josép's great sermon as I uploaded it to our sermon blog on Thursday.

Also while I was gone, Br. Timothy Jolley arrived from Santa Barbara to become part of our West Park community. "And then there were fourteen" household members. And in preparation for the centennial of our Saint Augustine church, Br. David Bryan Hoopes arrived from Toronto, ON, and Br. Adam McCoy arrived from Cathedral City, CA.

It's a joy to have a nearly full choir of monks chanting the Divine Office together.

If you're not joining us in person for the centennial festivites next week, consider joining us virtually through our Facebook page where Fr. Martin Smith's addresses and the centennial mass will be live-streamed.