New Skete Monasteries News

 The week of July 14th, Br. Christopher, Sr. Cecelia, and Carl Patka, a chapel community member, traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the 21st All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America. The reasons for a Council of the Church are many. One that affected us specifically as monastics was a request to report what we had done for ourselves and the rest of humanity in the previous three years since the last council. We also were asked to describe our plans for the next three years. Since many areas of church life were giving their reports, the three Stavropegial monastic communities were requested to keep their reports to only five minutes each for the Monks of New Skete, the Nuns of New Skete, and St Tikhon’s. Br. Christopher gave his spoken report first, and it follows. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share briefly with you a bit of the pulse of our life at New Skete, focusing on the monks’ community. We are taking seriously the challenge to create a viable future f...

 By Brother Theophan We live in an age of unprecedented distraction, our inner worlds often resembling a noisy, crowded ecosystem of competing anxieties, looping memories, and a relentless inner narrator. Fragmentation is now the norm—we’re pulled in a dozen directions at once. But what if this isn’t a personal or moral failing? What if it’s simply the natural condition of an unregulated mind and a numb heart—and there exists a reliable, experience-proven path, understood by both ancient wisdom and modern science, to bring harmony to the chaos? In the late 18th century, a monumental anthology of spiritual texts known as the Philokalia (literally, the Love of the Beautiful) was published in Venice. Compiled from the writings of ancient Christian contemplatives, it was never intended for monastics alone, but to make the existential truths of Christianity accessible to everyone. As Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (of blessed memory) observed, the Philokalia’s ultimate aim is to awaken...

  A continuation of interesting dog names By Ida Williams When Turkey’s owner contacted me about scheduling training for their new puppy, Goblet, all I could think was: Are they setting the Thanksgiving table? Three years ago, I wrote an article titled Gus from Accounting and Other Interesting Dog Names . Since then, we've seen over 300 more dogs come through training, and with the return of Turkey—now joined by Goblet—I thought it was time for another round of name highlights. Animal and Plant Names In addition to Turkey, we’ve welcomed dogs with names like Bear, Bee, Birdie, Cricket, Foxy, Gazelle, and Wren. Plant-inspired names are equally popular, including Aspen, Buttercup, Cedar, Daisy, Holly, Iris, Ivy, and Juniper. Food-Inspired Names Food names remain a trend, though perhaps not as strong as before. We've met dogs named Apple, Babka, Ginger, Honey, Pepper (aka Pepsi), Spaghetti, Sugar, Taco (aka Taco Lion), Tuna, and Waffles. Tuna and Waffles—sounds like ...

  Part 1 By Ralph Karow   Last month one of my closest friends for over 40 years entered life eternal. John was only a few months younger than me and was diagnosed with early-onset dementia 5 years ago. I was having weekly “facetime” calls with him and sadly watched him fade away during that time. Calls for the past few months were only possible with his wife as a go-between. His slide from home to hospice came on rather suddenly and unexpectedly. Also unexpected is that I feel closer to him now that he’s passed on than I have in probably the past 10 years. I’m saying 10 years because that’s when I think I started noticing him becoming more irritable, dissatisfied, and possibly even a little disenchanted. Things like that don’t end a connection like ours, but they do add an element of concern and desire to get to the root of whatever was bugging him and fix it. To remove the discord from the harmony we used to share. I spent the past year putting together a book like...

  By Brother Brennan Decades ago, just before my first “brush” with professed religious life, my girlfriend at the time would sometimes attend Sunday Mass with me at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in suburban New Orleans. Although she lived in the neighboring parish, we had graduated from the same Catholic grammar school, just one year apart, and thus were immersed in a very traditional Roman Catholic/Southern Christian milieu (just imagine that—a very long-established, traditional, provincial enclave of Old World Roman Catholicism below the Bible Belt). While we would eventually separate, our time together included being very much a part of the religious landscape of such a place and time. It was still the 70s, when the sexual liberation movement was kicking into high gear in the deep South, and many young people were rebelling against traditional religiosity, dissatisfied with the perceived rule-loving, devotion-addicted, spiritual stagnation of church authority. At the same...

  by Brother Christopher We are already halfway through Lent, and this might be a good opportunity to pause and ask ourselves, “So...?” Now, to be clear, I’m not suggesting that we grade ourselves on our Lenten resolutions, as that would place the emphasis on externals rather than on the real transformation this season calls for. There is a reason we have placed the cross in the narthex for each of us to reverence as we enter. It is meant to bring to mind a fundamental question: What does it mean to be a faithful disciple of Jesus? This morning’s Gospel presents a challenge that makes clear the cost of discipleship for anyone who would follow after him: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Each of us shares in the cross—each in our own way, with our own burdens, and with our own name metaphorically inscribed at the top of our own cross. There are no exceptions. To grasp the seriousness of this—Jesus is not ...