Mount Saviour Monastery Community Monthly News

Mount Saviour Monastery

February 2003

News:
The first of February marked the 93rd. birthday of Br. Luke. We had high tea to celebrate with his relatives and friends. The picture shows him surrounded by his sister, Joan Pape, his niece, Elizabeth Grigg, his niece, Mary Lou Heenan with her husband, Jean-Marc Vezeau.
We began daily classes for our postulants and observers: Br. James Kelly with Sacred Scriptures, Br. Pierre with the History of Spirituality, Br. James Cronen with the Liturgy & Music, Br. John with Basic Monastic Practices, Br. Gabriel with the School of the Heart based on the writings of Fr. Damasus and Fr. Martin leading a seminar on the Psalms. Students from Nazareth College and the Cornell Catholic Community spent a week-end as agroup. Sisters of St. Joseph from Rochester kept the custom of coming for one week of retreat and invite the monk for dinner on their last evening.

2002 Orchard and Garden Report:

    Despite hailstorms, late freezes, torrential rains and then no rains and lots of heat, we were blessed with over 11,000 lbs. of produce this season. Our livelihood, fortunately, doesn't depend on the weather, however many people's do. It's important to keep those who work on the land in our prayers especially when weather extremes exist. Somehow God's light always shines through the gloom.

    Thanks go to our summer program participants who helped thin the apples this year, thus increasing fruit size and removing diseased fruit from the orchard. Their efforts resulted in over 7,000 lbs. of good sized, healthy apples. We sold one thousand pounds of our finest from the book shop. In addition, 220 gallons of cider was pressed with some of that being sold as well. The sorting, selling and pressing were made possible and successful because of help received from brothers Francis and Jude from the monastery of Christ in the Desert who were here with us during harvest time.

    The garden came to a definitive close on Thanksgiving day when the temperature bottomed out at 11 degrees, freezing the few lettuces that remained. On that day we still had a few fresh tomatoes left from our bounty of over 1,200 lbs., which was about one third of this year's total garden yield. Because the summer program participants extended an already existing deer fence all the way to the ground, we are better able to keep the varmints out and enjoy more of the produce ourselves!

Br. Pierre & baby donkey

The farm has a new attraction with the birth of a donkey on Febr. 22. Br. Pierre is pictured with the one week-old baby. The predators are presently keeping their distance from the sheep. Lambing time in April could be a different story when we expect 200 lambs.

Guest Brother E-mail: guest@msaviour.org
Monastery E-mail: info@msaviour.org