Monday, January 31, 2005


Our product - big seller at Christmas
Monastery Photos

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Bird Watching

Took some pictures of this bird....though I have no idea what kind of bird it is. I was hoping it would take off so I could get some photos of it in flight, but it was obviously quite content where it was.

Yawning Bird
Monastery Photos

Bird
Monastery Photos

Bird
Monastery Photos

Photos of the Ice Storm

Here are some pix of the property as covered in ice. It is late afternoon now and the ice is all gradually melting. The sun never did show its face - would have been quite a pretty sight had there been sunlight.

Odd design of ice - it is a vine that was covered all over with tubings of ice.
Monastery Photos

Blicky again - enjoying the warmth of the garage on this cold day. I do think he was eager to come out but I decided to let him hang out in the garage.
Monastery Photos

Brother Eutropius Bollinger, who came here from Florida. He is our plumber, does the laundry, has a great sense of humor, likes my jokes, likes Bob Dylan. We get along real fine. Nice beard, huh?
Monastery Photos

An iced-over fence.
Monastery Photos

Brother Chaminade - he is originally from Ohio and does a great job on our Trappist web site - and is also a great photographer. I have learned a lot from him.
Monastery Photos

Brother Augustine - pondering the damage. Augustine is the "work detail" monk and is probably trying to figure out where to begin with the cleaning up of all the fallen limbs.
Monastery Photos

Ice, ice and more ice.
Monastery Photos

Oscar Usher, who has worked here at the monastery since he was a kid. He and his family live right down the road, on Highway 212. He was here this morning helping Mike Wilson move a tank of diesel fuel to the generator.
Monastery Photos

Mike Wilson - a good friend of the monks and who works here, taking care of our vehicles and helping out in any way possible - like he was today, getting diesel oil to the generator.
Monastery Photos

I was down here just a few days ago, and posted some pictures when the area was bathed in sun and green. Well, it does not look all that bad today, after all.
Monastery Photos

Many limbs, such as this one, are down and are still falling.
Monastery Photos

Some kind of a bud encased in ice. Well, I suppose that we emerged from an Ice Age way back when. Amazing, how living things survive and grow to what they are destined to be.
Monastery Photos

Father Matt, cleaning the ice off a vehicle. He is, among other things, our electrician here so he has a lot on his plate today. Wires are down and the generator has been running for almost twenty-four hours.
Monastery Photos

A ceiling of icicles in the bonsai area
Monastery Photos

Cold morning - it is afternoon now and a lot of the ice has melted, though there are a lot of problems in the area due to the ice.
Monastery Photos

Sharing Some Thoughts

I am preaching later this morning - I doubt that there will be many people here this morning because there was a major ice storm and the roads are surely a mess. Anyway, I wrote what follows late last night. I will later post some pictures of what the ice looks like around here. I can hear it sliding off the roof and, every now and then, I hear the crack of a limb as it snaps off a tree and crashes to the ground. I am sure that a lot of homes are without power - we have a generator here that has been working all through the night.
I will later post some essays that have been published over the years - I can sandwich them in between the photographs.

My homliy for later this morning, here at the monastery

The Beatitudes

There are things we do quietly. I remember walking up the stairs when I was a kid, coming in late at night, so as not to wake my parents. I still remember which steps creaked and just how to insert the key in the door so that it would not make noise. We had a dog, Rusty, and I made sure to have a dog biscuit for him as soon as I stepped inside the door. It took me a while to learn that trick, as well as putting the car in neutral and shutting off the engine so the car would quietly glide down the driveway. I guess you could call it stealth at an early age. Such is the art of not disturbing things-letting waking dogs be quiet, and sleeping parents at peace.

There were more times, later, I learned to be quiet so as not to make trouble. We have all learned such things.

I found a favorite place to listen to music, which was on the third floor of the house. I could look out my window at the skyline of Manhattan and listen to the first records of the Beatles. Later, from that same window, I watched as the World Trade Center rose high, mighty and majestic from the New York skyline.

It was quiet up there. I had a desk and would write letters to my brother who was then stationed in Korea. The room had just one light, which was a goose-neck lamp on the desk. But that light was more than enough.

The beatitudes – words that are like light, and that are, in their brevity, more than enough in this brief, small space we have as life. Yet, one wonders why. There have been tomes written on human behavior, human life, human history – and unless these beatitudes are there, such tomes may as well have a huge hole in every page.

John O’Brien (one of our monks) mentioned in a homily some months back that the words of Jesus have something eternal about them. How else can we understand the beatitudes unless we find in ourselves a kind of resonance, a place in our being that says yes, I am that or want to be that or want to follow the meaning of these words.

So where is it that these words yet live?

We were taught to be quiet in church, so as to be better present to God and, I suppose, to pray to him and listen for his voice. The only voice I remember hearing is that of the good sister who warned us, out loud, not to say a thing. It is strange, when you think of it, that we must use words to point out the need for silence.

And so we speak of silence to find it.

We speak from darkness to seek light.

We speak from absence to locate and understand a presence.

We use words to situate what cannot ever be spoken.

We are give symbols to express the ineffable.

We are given the beatitudes to know something of the God who is about us and in us and who calls to us, from everywhere.

We know enough to be gentle and quiet – on the steps of our youth, in the quiet of our rooms as we read or gaze out at a great city in the making. We know when to tread gently with ourselves, with others, so as not to fall through the ice that can at times be right beneath our feet.

And so we listen again this morning to these words spoken long ago – and yes, as John said, these words have life. They are eternal. They rebuff our plans for power, prestige, finesse, advancement, title, ownership, one-upmanship. And in doing so they ask that we be gentle – that we learn from what is weak in ourselves and others. They ask that we be faithful to who we really are – but we must go quietly and gently through life in order to know who we are and where we are going. We have indeed inherited the earth. The invitation stands to move through it gently, and with love. A great city is in the making, and it is not ours. We are guests. The beatitudes, taken to heart and accepted, are its living stones.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Ice Storm

There is a lot of ice on the roads - unusual for this area. Driving will be difficult and there are no flights at the airport - apparently bus transportation is cancelled, too. If it clears up a little bit I will take some pictures. It may clear for a while later this afternoon. There is a lot of ice on the trees and if the sun comes out it will all look like a crystalline forest - trees dripping with diamonds.

Monastery Photographs

These are of the cloister, church, the Chapter Room, and the woods that surround our property.

Stations of The Cross


Cross in the forest - made by one of our monks, the stations are all through the wooded area behind the main building. It is good to walk there, on a nice day.
Monastery Photos

Hallway in Main Building


Hallway where we place our cowls. The light coming through the stained glass in the doors is always beautiful, especially early in the morning. Our mail boxes are just to the right, so there are often several monks in this area.
Monastery Photos

Cloister on a fall afternoon


The grass is a rich green in the summer. Spring is a bit far off, so the grass is a light brown this time of the year. Much will come back to life in a few months.
Monastery Photos

Stained Glass Windows in Chapter Room


These windows are beautiful and were crafted by one of our monks, who in fact made all the windows in the monastery church, refectory, library, chapter room and several other areas in the cloistered area of the monastery. His work is enchanting - the windows in the church allow a soft blue or yellow light to filter into the large church - the colors vary depending on the time of day and the window through which the light streams.
Monastery Photos

Chapter Room
Monastery Photos

Our Chapter Room
Monastery Photos

Our abbey church

Here are some more photographs of our church.

Church arches
Monastery Photos

Side aisle
Monastery Photos

Main altar
Monastery Photos

Church from sanctuary steps
Monastery Photos

Stained glass window - side of church
Monastery Photos

Church sanctuary
Monastery Photos

Cloister
Monastery Photos

Checking out the street news
Monastery Photos

Ireland

I took these many years ago. Am glad I kept the negatives.

Ballyhaunnis, County Mayo, Ireland
Monastery Photos

Small kitchen set
Monastery Photos

Old Bureau
Monastery Photos

Off to School, Ballyhaunnis
Monastery Photos

Ballyhaunnis
Monastery Photos

At play, Ballyhaunnis
Monastery Photos

On the Road
Monastery Photos

Ballyhaunnis, County Mayo
Monastery Photos

Man's best friend
Monastery Photos

Off to school
Monastery Photos

Proud of his field - County Galway
Monastery Photos

Ballyhaunnis, County Mayo, Ireland
Monastery Photos

Baby in Carriage - Ballyhaunnis
Monastery Photos

Three friends - Ballyhaunnis
Monastery Photos

Friends for Life - Ballyhaunnis
Monastery Photos

Boy from Ballyhaunnis, Co Mayo
Monastery Photos

Man at thought in his easy chair
Monastery Photos