New Skete Monasteries News

By Brother Luke       When we enter monastic life, one major feature of this life is the need to let go. Initially, we must let go of all our possessions and get used to the reality that we are dependent on God and not on our own resources. I found letting go of possessions was a lot easier than letting go of my way of doing things. That gets challenged all the time in monastic life. Even so, both of those aspects of “detachment” pale by comparison with letting go of relationships. Human relationships are often what touch us the deepest, and early in our new era this lesson was brought home to us in a powerful way. However, at New Skete we also learn that it applies to our pets. As a monastery where we breed German shepherd dogs that live with us and become our companions, we learn early on about the joy of having a dog companion and the pain when we must let it go. This experience is one we share with many others.       ...

Sheep barn on Ashgrove Rd By Brother Stavros Visitors to New Skete pass a sign that says “Ash Grove” as they leave the village of Cambridge heading east. The road brings them through a very picturesque valley that has maintained its rural character. It extends eastward into Vermont, ending at the slopes of three 3,000 foot-ish mountains of the “Taghanic” range. The Nuns’ monastery sits on the brow of a hill close to the village; the Monks’ monastery perches on higher ground above a south-trending dale known as Pumpkin Hook, anglicized from the name of the small Pompa-nuck native tribe. Ash Grove takes its name not from the tree but from an Irish Methodist preacher, Thomas Ashton, who with the more famous Rev. Philip Embury established a small faith community in 1770. They were mostly sheep farmers. The little church is gone, but the cemetery remains. It holds the Ashton family graves. Sheep on the original Ashton Farm Pumpkin Hook, by contrast, was industrialized for...

By Brother David It was late summer and a beautiful day: the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, there was a light breeze from the southeast. Br David decided to go for a run.   Fwap fwap fwap fwap fwap, went the feet. Huff huff huff huff huff, went the lungs. Tha-bump tha-bump tha-bump tha-bump tha-bump went the heart. At about four miles into his run, something in his chest went,  GAAACK! Br David came to a sudden stop and was a little puzzled at this. He checked his copy of Br David: an owner’s manual (6th edition, page 124) and read carefully: Fwap fwap fwap fwap fwap: feet. Huff huff huff huff huff: lungs. Tha-bump tha-bump tha-bump tha-bump tha-bump: heart. But no entry for GAACK! Br David, being a typical, 21st century, red-blooded, American male of a certain age, decided that, since GAACK! wasn’t in the book he could probably ignore it for now. But he decided that walking the rest of the course might be best because GAACK! wasn’t som...