New Skete Monasteries News

by Diahann Hiser, New Skete Candidate There is a beautiful Akathist called "Glory to God for All Things."* It was introduced to me by my parish priest during a particularly painful spiritual counseling session a few years ago.  That was a difficult time in my life, and I found myself falling into despair.  Father looked at me with deep compassion, understanding the pain, and asked me if I had ever prayed "Glory to God for All Things."  I had not heard of it, and shook my head no.  He handed a copy to me and I took it home and read it, with tears streaming down my face. As Father instructed, I prayed the Akathist. But lying on the floor.  Face down.  Now, Akathists are supposed to be chanted while standing.  However, I could not stand.  The words of thanks poured forth from my soul, mixed with salty tears.  Giving thanks in times of trouble seems like something only holy people would do.  But truly something shifts in the spirit, when instead of moping, or

Reflections by Brother Luke             There is an old proverb: “What you don’t know can’t [or won’t] hurt you.” One intention behind this statement is that by concealing something from someone you are protecting that person from being hurt by it. Another implication is that somehow ignorance protects us from harm. By bitter experience, many people have discovered that things don’t always turn out that way.             The deterioration of the Transfiguration Temple roof reached a point in 2004 where we had to make a critical decision. If we did not at least fix the roof, leaks damaging the interior would begin to undermine the integrity of the building. So a crossroads was reached: if we wanted to keep the monks’ original worship temple, we had to replace the roof. Obviously, much more work remained to be done to restore the space, but that could be put off until we could raise the funds for the larger project. The new roof would give us time. The brothers discussed this and

By New Skete’s Kahn Von Schloss Rugland Assistant Director of Marketing and Communication          After years of working in the puppy kennel, I needed a challenge and opted to try my paw at a new job.  A part-time position had opened up in the marketing and communications office, and with all the puppy mouths I need to feed, I thought, “Hey, why not; I’m pretty good at communicating.  I bark when I want attention, whine when I don’t get it, and when I stare at someone long enough, they let me outside to answer nature’s call.” The first few weeks were a little slow.  Before going into my office I would make my rounds to say hello to my co-workers; Karen in advancement and stewardship, Carey in finance, Robin in IT, and Anastacia in purchasing.  Each person would ask if I was given a cookie that day, and I would use the “sad eyes” and “drooling” communication tools to relay that I had not, wink - wink.  This tactic worked for a short time.  Now I am limited to one or two coo