Cloisters along the Hudson

This week, Br. Robert James is on retreat away from the monastery while Br. Carl is on retreat at home. Br. Ephrem is off to Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center in Kingston, TN, to offer a diocesan clergy retreat.

We welcomed back Ben Hansknecht as an Aspirant. He will be with us for two weeks, living in the enclosure and getting a fuller picture of what the monastic life is here. He already has a pretty good idea of it for he was an intern at the monastery for a year, four years ago.

Our current intern, Clay Wackerman is away for a week visiting universities where he might potentially study next week.

On Tuesday, the men in formation and Ben and Clay went to New York City for a day. They visited the Met Cloisters museum in Fort Tryon Park, in upper Manhattan. Then in the afternoon, they walked to the Mother Cabrini shrine just south of the park. 

Several of us had gone to see the Cabrini movie last Sunday. It's a good movie and Mother Cabrini was an amazing person; well worth the watch.

Formation team pilgrimage in Upper Manhattan (five pictures). Bottom picture in the Chapter House from Notre-Dame-de-Pontaut (France) as reconstructed in the Met. From left to right: Bros. Josias, Anthony and Samuel, Aspirant Ben Hansknecht, Intern Clay Wackerman, Br. Josép.

The formation team was back to their West Park cloisters by sundown, happy with their visits.

On Friday, the formation team reinstated the vegetable garden near the guesthouse kitchen. It had been disused and reduced in area as a result of the thorough renovation of the kitchen last year. The planting boxes were put back in place and topped off with lots of our own compost. Br. Anthony has been lovingly tending to our compost piles. By now there are three of them at various stages of maturation. One pile was ready for use in the vegetable garden. Rumor has it that there will be lots of herbs growing there soon for use in our kitchen.

Monastery people and creatures. From top left, clockwise: the formation team restoring the vegetable grarden (two pictures); a gaggle of wild turkeys visiting the enclosure and strutting off their stuff; old friends reunion: Associate Bernie Poppe, of Cochecton, NY with Br. Josias Morobi (they met at our Marya uMama weThemba Monastery in Makhanda, South Africa over ten years ago).

Happy Saint Patrick's day to those of Irish descent.