Christmas in a monastery

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and wish you a blessed Christmastide (the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany). We had a full house of guests to celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord with us.

Each year, our landscaper/snowplowing team gift us with a beautiful 10 feet Christmas tree. Our maintenance team sets it up in a secure fashion. We soon trim it with lights. But then we wait until Christmas Eve to decorate it further with the enthusiastic help of our guests.

Trimming the tree top. We had a very tall guest to place the archangel at the tippy top of the tree (thank you, Logan).

On Christmas Eve in the afternoon, the monastic is divided in three teams. One tean helps the guests deck the halls in the Guesthouse. Another sets up the creche and decorates the church. An a third team trims a smaller tree in our Common Room and decorates it and the next door conservatory.

Guests helping to decorate the Guesthouse on Christmas Eve.

There so many helpers that this blogger can rove the house for pictures.

The enclosure Common Room creche and Christmas tree. And festive light on the plants of our conservatory.

The creche is set to receive Baby Jesus but not before the first Vespers of Christmas have been sung. At the end of Vespers we process with handheld candles around the church, singing Silent Night, until we end at the creche where the Superior puts the baby in his manger. A musical interlude follows for folks to venerate the new born before moving on to the Pilgrim Hall for singing carols and munching on cookies and apple cider.

The Christmas Schola - assembled, coached and directed by our choirmaster, Br. Josép - performed twice. Once before the first Vespers of Christmas and once before mass on Christmas day. By all accounts they sang and played music beautifully.

The Christmas Schola rehearsing, preparing for the performance and performing. Top left picture, from left to right: Bros. Josép and Scott (truncated), The Rev. Suzanne Guthrie, Bros. Will, Jacob, Raphael, Bruno, Ephrem, Daniel and John (Br. Bernard snapping the picture).

We welcomed Emmanuel (God amongst us) with joy and good liturgy. We thank our guests for their help and participation and our staff for their hard work.

Christmas Eve worship and revelry. Top left, the assembly of the faithful in front of the creche after the first Vespers of Chrismas. Center, the monks assembled around the creche. (Three remaining pictures) carol singing in Pilgrim Hall (a guest brought out his violin to accompany the singing).

In the afternoon of Christmas Day, after an early second Vespers of Christmas, we close the guesthouse and assemble in Pilgrim Hall to exchange our presents. Our presents are the ability to direct $100 dollar each to the charity of our choice. So the unpacking of our presents consists in telling each other to which charity we have given the money allotted to us and say why it matters to us. It's a beautiful tradition.

Later that evening, Br. Randy organizes a jazz evening in the Middle House common room (to not disturb our resting brothers with enclosure noise). The many musicians in the community comment on the various jazz pieces we hear. We listened to a half-dozen Christmas pieces before sampling saxophonist Joshua Redman's latest album. Another Christmas tradition now that we have done if for a few years.

Christmas jazz night. And views of ice floes on the Hudson.

The three Kings (they were actually wise men but ours sport crowns) have started making their way to the creche. The convention is that unidentified persons move the Kings and their camels forward unseen so that the illusion is that they are making their own way day by day. They start in the slype (the little bridge between the enclosure and the church) and proceed along the semi-circular ambulatory around the church. The suspense of whether they'll reach Bethlehem before Epiphany (January 6) is nerve-wracking.

Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior following their lucky star. And reflection of the Christmas tree lights on the windows of our common room.

The Monastery Column will be on a hiatus until January 18. May you enjoy the remainder of the 12 days of Christmas.