Blessing the bees on the feast of St Francis

This past week, Br. Ephrem was visiting his family in Raceland, LA. He got home on Thursday, in time to teach a formation to the community before driving off to a parish mission in MD. He is now back home. Br. David-Bryan is in his second week of visiting friends in England.

This Sunday, we celebrated the feast of the Dedication of our St Augustine Church. It is now entering its 106th year of sheltering our prayers and worship. This was also the feast of St Francis. Our Br. Francis organized a blessing of the bees. After mass, we trundled up the hill to the beeyard, sang hymns, read scripture and said prayers. Bros. Francis and Randy donned protective headgear before entering the beeyard with holy water to sprinkle our four beehives.

Blessing the bees. From top, clockwise: Bros. Jeff, Josép, Jacob, John (all the J's to one side :-), Daniel, Bruno, Francis and Randy; Br. Francis reminding us of the saints under whose protection each beehive is named; Bros. Francis and Randy getting geared up to enter the beeyard; Bros. Randy and Francis sprinkling holy water on hives (2 pictures); a statue of St Francis near the beeyard.

On Saturday, we received Gergő Balázs, of Astoria, NY, as our latest Associate. If you have wondered about the Associates program, get in touch with Br. Bernard.

Receiving Gergő as Associate. From top, clockwise: Hudson River traffic (2 pictures: a tanker and a yacht): Br. Bernard reading prayers for Gergő and all our Associates; a "usie" with Br. Bernard and Gergő; Br. Randy praying the offertory with Br. Francis as server.

And finally, pictures taken by Sr Greta, of the Community of Divine Love, during her retreat with us last week. Thank you, St. Greta; come back soon.

Sr. Greta's pictures. From top left, clockwise: the monastic choir singing the incense rite at the start of Vespers; Pilgrim Hall; Greta's selfie with the Guesthouse in the background: Greta's selfie with our Route 9W sign at dusk; detail of the labyrinth; calligraphed quote from our Founder's Rule.

Peace and every good to you.