Only words for a while

For 10 days or so I have been waiting to post some photos we took of stained glass in Atlanta area churches. But Blogger is not providing me with the proper links. They claim they are aware of the problem "some" of us are having with the icons on our post window. So, for now, only words.

It is hot. In the mornings, with the big fan pulling in air, the church is fairly cool and comfortable for Vigils (at 4:00 a.m.) and for some of Mass (at 7:00 a.m.), but by Midday at noon it is uncomfortably hot and by Vespers (at 5:20 p.m.) it is almost unbearable. My T-shirt is soaked by the end of Vespers -- and all I have been doing is standing, sitting, and singing.

I am in the midst of organizing the big fudge season, which will begin in mid-August this year. I have been working with Br. James (from our monastery in Lantao -- near Hong Kong) to figure out how many boxes we need to order. I will wait until the end of July to order a third of the ingredients. By the end of July all the fruitcakes should be baked for this year.

The novitiate has been asked to help prepare a display about all our deceased monks. I am working with Br. Chaminade, our archivist (he also works in the glass shop with me) to gather material on the 50 men buried in our cemetery. He has photos of most of them. Along the way, novices will interview some of our older monks to capture anecdotes about those who died before 1970. Those with memories that go back to the early days are declining and we want to gather what we can now. We have a new digital recorder to help us.

That recorder will also be used to record some books for our blind novice. He has access to books and tapes from a variety of sources, but some of the books we use are not readily available. He has some sight to get around. He reads braille and has been helping me learn to read it. I read it with my eyes, not my fingers. I use his Perkins brailler to write: it is a typewriter with six keys, three for each hand.