Winter storm

Br. Luc continues his visit to our Brothers in South Africa. His return home is scheduled for mid-March. Recently, he got to visit Holy Cross School in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa with Br. Scott.

On Wednesday, we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of our Lord (aka Candlemas). You can read of listen to Br. Robert James' sermon on our Sermons blog.

The beautiful side of winter. From left, clockwise, an amaryllis bulb blossoming inside the enclosure; the trees covered in ice near the river; the shimmering branches caught in ice; the Coast Guard keeping a navigable channel open in the ice on the Hudson (earlier in the week).

Here, the weather has continued to be very cold. On Friday a storm hit the Northeast. In our county of Ulster it deliveried lots of freezing rain and some snow. The majority of households lost power. When that happened our generator kicked in. But for the first time in my memory, it only restored power to the monastic enclosure but not to the Guest House where we were hosting a dozen guests. Our faithful electrician braved the dangerous road and the continuing downpour of freezing rain to come and check what the problem was and fixed it by mid-day. In the meantime, we had moved our guests to the North end of our monastic library so that they could have a warm and lighted shelter.

A faulty connector on our generator will be replaced to prevent a recurrence of this problem. As it is, the guests enjoyed getting a sneak peek at our extensive monastic library.

On Friday, we took in a few "storm refugees" in our Guest House where heat and light was now restored. Our next door neighbors, the two Companions of Mary the Apostle joined us as did the mother of Br. Aidan and her neighbor.

On Saturday morning, when it became possible to trudge up our driveway, two of us went to knock on the door of our other direct neighbors to check if they needed food and shelter and offer them to come stay at the Guest House while the power remained off. Our neighbors were pleased by the outreach but all of them had a generator that was keeping them warm and lit. Sister Annie-hannah, a religious solitary of Woodstock also took refuge with us on Saturday. As I write power has not yet been restored to her house.

That Saturday morning the landscape looked magical under the bright sun. Every tree looked as if it was made of crystal. The light sparkled in the thick coating of ice on every branch and limb.

We hope those of you affected by the storm are safe and sound and comfy in your own homes.

Safe and warm. From top, clockwise: Guests keeping warm in the monastic library while generator power is being restored to the Guest House; the Sunday morning altar party (our intern, Eric Anthony, Br. Robert James and Br. Aidan); Br. Robert Leo conversing with Sr. Annie-hannah Mancini and The Rev. Suzanne Guthrie after Sunday mass; Ellen Metzger O'Shea and her son Greg bearing goodies for the monks after Sunday mass; the said goodies being sampled by the monks with a post-mass cup of coffee (thank you, Greg).