The guests are back

Guests returned to the monastery for the first time this new year. We hosted many individuals on their self-directed retreat and a large group from Princeton, NJ, led by Professor Bo Karen Lee of Princeton Theological Seminary.

We had three birthdays this week: Br. John, Br. Aidan and The Rev. Matthew Wright. Birthdays are simple affairs at the monastery. We sing Happy Birthday at dinner and pray for the birthday person in the Prayers of the People.

Winter scenes. From top, clockwise: the Hudson frozen over with a narrow channel kept open in the middle (2 pictures); the brothers waiting for dinner to be served on the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul; Br. Robert Leo carefully doing a first sorting of books we might let go of (2 pictures); traffic jam at the enclosure coffe machine after Sunday mass.

Bros. John, Robert Leo and Bernard continue an extended effort at weeding books deemed obsolete for our purpose and re-stacking the library's collection accordingly. We are now helped by two library volunteers. Mrs. Elisabeth Sheehey of Hyde Park, NY, has joined Mrs. Susan Barbarisi, from Port Ewen, NY, on the library team. Br. John is training Elisabeth in the subtleties of online cataloguing on our computer system.

The cold weather has gotten sharper this week. The Hudson is frozen from bank to bank. The Coast Guard regularly comes through to keep a navigable channel open. It's time to listen again to Henry Purcell's "Cold Song" from his King Arthur semi-opera. I discovered this song through the German pop countertenor Klaus Nomi in the eighties. But here is a version with the lyrics (and a French translation, s'il vous plaît).

Keep safe, keep healthy.