Mount Saviour Monastery

August 2020     News:
At the beginning of the month we were pleased to have our first two guests join the community for meals and prayer for the first time since our guest houses closed in March. Two Servants of the Word from Michigan were with us for several weeks and helped us tremendously with projects around the monastery. Currently, we are receiving guests only if they isolate for two weeks, THEN be tested for COVID-19, THEN receive a negative test result. Otherwise, the Guest Houses, Chapel and Gift Shop remain closed until further notice.

The celebration of our Titular Feast Day on the 6th, The Transfiguration, was low key and without guests as have been all of our solemnities during the pandemic. Our yearly Dedication Day which would have been celebrated on the 16th remained instead a regular Sunday for us. Our Dedication Day is meant to celebrate the combined efforts of the monks with the wider community with special thanks to God who brings it all about. We continually thank our friends and benefactors for your support in the past and ask for your continued support in the future.

Brother Mark was in and out of the hospital several times after his total knee replacement in July. Now a brother transports him three times a week for physical therapy as he gradually regains full mobility. By the end of the month Br. Mark had graduated from using a walker to just the use of a cane and resumed his rotation as weekly cook.

We received word that Father Richard Dellos, a priest of the Syracuse Diocese for more than 50 years and Oblate of Mount Saviour, died on the 11th from COVID-19 related complications. Please remember him in prayer.

Brother Antonio received word of the death of his older brother Aristeos and two of his relatives in Mexico from COVID-19 on the 16th. Please remember them in prayer as well as Brother Antonio as he awaits a date for possible open heart surgery in Rochester where he is currently hospitalized.
 

Although it has been a very dry summer, we have been blessed with abundant tomatoes and melons from our garden. Brother John of the Cross, our Cistercian guest monk from Vietnam, was one of many hands involved in making that possible. On the 25th he left with a convoy of four other seminarians to continue his studies at St. Mary's Seminary in Maryland. Please remember him and his fellow seminarians in prayer.

Ram lambs resting during their escape.