Celebrating Birthdays

Yesterday at their regular monthly meeting, our Lay Cistercians celebrated Fr. Luke's 100th birthday along with Fr. Anthony's 80-something-th birthday.

Here is a picture of Luke blessing the cake adorned with images of each monk. Fr. Anthony is standing beside him.



And a shot of some of the gathered celebrants.

Sto lat

Today our last living founder celebrates his 100th birthday.

Our Fr. Luke is a Polish American from Buffalo and so we will be singing "Sto lat" (One hundred years) for him. Today we can be literal when we sing it.

PROJECT Trio

Kevin sent me some links to YouTube videos of PROJECT Trio. I have been looking at their work for a couple of days and figure I will share it.

Greg Pattillo plays beatbox flute. Here is an example.

How about a little Flight of the Bumblebee?

And the whole trio playing Bourree and Peter and the Wolf.

Back from Mississippi (or is that Iowa?)

I arrived back in Atlanta at 3:00 Wednesday afternoon.

After the week spent with the International Lay Cistercian meeting (you can read all about the week here), I spent several days at Our Lady of the Mississippi, a community of Trappistines on a bluff near the Mississippi River.

I stayed in their guest house. I cooked for myself -- one day I had macaroni and cheese and stewed rhubarb! I prayed with the community -- they have a beautiful liturgy, beautifully sung.

One day Sr. Myra took me all over their property. In the woods we saw a mine of Spain, an open pit, which was the opening to a lead mine dug by Spaniards in the 18th century. These pits are found all over the bluffs along the Mississippi. We also saw a fawn in the field, a tiny creature whose mother was nowhere near.

The weather was pleasant and breezy. Now I am back in the still oppressive heat. But the fans are on in church.

Dubuque, Iowa

I am sitting here in a dorm room at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, where the International Meeting of Lay Cistercians is taking place. Every three years, just before the General Chapter of Cistercian monks and nuns (we are the only religious order that has men and women meet together for purposes of governance), the lay communities meet. You can read about this at this web site: http://www.cistercianfamily.org/ (For some reason I do not have the little button available to add a link.)

These meetings are an opportunity for groups from all over the world to share experiences. There are three major languages that are used and I am here to translate from French to English.

The weather has been comfortable, cool at night and warm (not hot) during the day. The grass is very green.

New Abbey Store

Here is a video of our new Abbey store:

Oink!

When Jean was here we had barbecue.



And here we are: