Here’s a photo of the MIW Class of ’17 in choir during Lauds today…
And here you can hear them at the beginning of the Office singing the hymn and beginning the first Psalm of the Office…sound pretty good!
Our ninth Monastic Immersion Weekend is in full swing and the 15 people attending have completed conferences with Mother Kathy from Crozet and Father Maurice Flood. All have enjoyed being in choir with the monks and with the new acoustics in the church the added 15 voices make us sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!
Here’s the ‘class photo’ taken in the Chapter Room:
Here’s a photo of the class with Fr. Maurice…(don’t ask me why there is no photo of Mother Kathy; hmm, let’s see ‘the dog ate it?’ Actually I just forgot to take one).
Both conferences combined real insight into monastic life with stories that show the humor and human-ness of monastic life as well. To hear Fr. Maurice talk about Merton’s last days before heading to Asia (and his death) you feel like you are there…how they would stop work each day to go to a library to say mass, how he sat in on his conferences for the Novices.
And Mother Kathy (always the MIW rock-star) having now become Superior of the monastery in Crozet, was able to really help us understand what community is, the good and the bad, and how important it is that these communities do the work ahead of time with a potential recruit to make sure she/he will fit into the community.
Our MIW concludes tomorrow after lunch and will include one more conference on “St. Benedict for the Rest of Us”-what we can take home from the monastery and use in our own lives…
Will post more later…