New Skete Monasteries News

by Brother Luke Recently my iPod seemed to die, and I thought, Oh no, I (well, actually Ida) won’t be able to put my dog videos and photos on Facebook anymore!  But it turned out that the iPod battery was dead and it was possible to revive it. So, we were back in business. And it was a very busy time when the iPod went down. Bora had a litter of seven puppies, and then my Jaci was due to have a litter, which came one week later. I always try to capture with the iPod some of the scenes from the whelping. The primary reason for that is to keep our vet and breeding staff abreast of what is going on in case an emergency arises. But it also opens to our friends a little window into the wonder of the moment of birth for the new puppies and for me! Still, a lot goes on that is not captured by the photos. So, this is a little journey into the day, or rather the night, my Jaci gave birth to her puppies. It was Tuesday, December 13, 2016. We usually have the expectant mother x-ray...

by Brother Gregory In the monastic tradition, hospitality is a very important part of a community’s practice. At New Skete, our Rule addresses this: “Monastic tradition has always emphasized the importance of welcoming others as Christ. In a world rife with religious division and misunderstanding, we endeavor to foster unity and understanding within the Body of Christ, and without discrimination, tolerance and respect towards all.”  We do all we can to welcome others into our community as if we were welcoming Christ himself. With a nonjudgmental attitude, an open ear, and a welcoming heart, guests have often said that they feel welcomed. This time away from their daily routines helps them refresh and renew their souls and connect once again with Jesus and the Church in their lives.   Often when guests depart, they comment to us that they have received so much and that they felt blessed in our home. New relationships develop or are renewed, quiet and prayerful space ...

Despite the sooty name, Black Mountain, the climb to its top was anything but, it being swathed in orange and yellow and several shades of red. It looms above the central stretch of Lake George, imperiously lodged on the eastern shore, the backbone dividing Saint-Sacrament from Lake Champlain. The former flows into the latter and thence to the St. Lawrence and out to sea. From the more populous western shore it may seem a raven-hued silhouette before the sun clears its peak. In the latter half of the 1800s this “Queen of Lakes” was all the rage, the steep forests that gird the waters we plundered, giving up their hardwoods for the charcoal forges to springboard America’s industrial age One Cyrus Butler bought the steamboat Minne Ha Ha and erected the Ur-Adirondack Lodge, at Black Mountain point, a choice destination. With ready money from his iron works just miles north at Ticonderoga, where the two lakes copulate, he cowed the mighty ...

By Brother John      First , I wi ll s l ow l y and painfully l earn how to pray, but it won't come overnight— maybe not until I am almost dead! I must stop worrying that I cannot s ustain prayer for any l ength of time. I must do my be s t , or am I more interested in pleasing my s elf rather than God? The God of prayer is f a r more important the prayer of God , ju s t a s he is far more interested in me who prays than in the prayers I recite. I must be patient— Rome wa s n't built in a day . My bu sines s i s to manifest my good will by being ready for prayer, somewhat like   a dog who is content to s it at the master's feet. I f the master decides to pl ay with him , attend to him , fine. I f he doesn't , the pup remains in that place. If God i s go in g to h elp me, he must be free to do a s he sees fit , not as I see f it. I will try to pra y, but if I can do no more, then I s i t there and s impl y attend to God as well I can at tha t time of da y or...

by Brother Luke Shems For those of you who check out the New Skete Facebook page, you will see from time to time videos of my dogs playing, as well as our newly born puppies entering their new world during their first eight weeks of life. After the first eight weeks they migrate outside the reach of our video radar! We bid them farewell as they head off with their new families to grow up and bond with them. Sometimes, however, we have the opportunity to cast that video radar on a puppy that is being raised here. Right now that is what is happening. A puppy has joined me and my other canine charges. And this little bundle of joy is named Shems, the Arabic word for sun. Maybe I should say this little burst of sunshine! My boy Kahn is her grandfather, so I have an extra emotional tug invested in this little pup. When this process begins, namely, raising a puppy which we hope will make it into our breeding program, we have no guarantees of the outcome. At one year of age she will ...

By Ida Williams, Director of Marketing and Communications To figure out the age of your dog, you multiply his or her age by seven.  My dog is 14 years old and this would make him 98 in human years.  His energy, attitude, and loyalty would make anyone question this mathematical equation.  Over the past six years, I have found myself trying to figure out the formula needed to determine the monastic age of the monks and nuns of New Skete.  I know the year each was born, but what is their true age?   Their energy, attitude, and loyalty* belie their birth certificates. Sister Patricia’s chronological age is 84, but what is her biological age?  She gets up early for prayers and worship, heads to the bakery to make cheesecakes, orders the ingredients for the bakery and prepares the bakery schedule, makes cheesecake deliveries, works in the gardens maintaining the flowers and fruit-bearing bushes and trees, keeps the plants in the nuns’ greenhous...

By Brother Christopher I have been a monk at New Skete for thirty-five years, and during that time I’ve observed a noteworthy transition in our culture’s attitudes to formal religious practice and affiliation. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard guests and visitors to our monastery say, “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious. I just don’t find any meaning or value in going to church.” These are the “Nones,” those who answer Gallup polls saying, “Yes, I believe in God” but “No, I don’t attend any church.” They profess a vague, undefined set of beliefs that don’t demand any practical expression save trying to be a good person. Nones certainly don’t perceive any relationship between committed church membership and being good, so they often think, “Why bother? I can be just as good a person without the hassle of an hour and a half of boredom in church.” At a time when church attendance seems to be declining in all the “higher” Christian churches, what is glaringly obvious is an i...

By Sister Cecelia In 2015 the monastics had many discussions about how we would celebrate our 50th New Skete anniversary. One idea that emerged was to have a commemorative icon painted that would symbolize who we are. The monks and nuns spent much prayer and reflection on what we would like to see in the icon, and we agreed on a plan. We articulated our ideas and sent them to several iconographers with a request for an agreement as to time needed to complete and how much the commission would cost. The question came back: Why not do it yourself? You have iconographers there. So I was asked, Will you do it? Can you do it in time for the anniversary? There was no way I could complete the icon in time for the beginning of the anniversary year, 2016, but we agreed it would be sufficient if I could have it completed by the day of the Pilgrimage. So began the process of preparing the board and the drawing. Many questions needed input: which Transfiguration model to use, what size the small t...

Brother Christopher Recently I watched a PBS episode of the American Experience telling the story of “the Boys in the Boat,” the Olympic 9-man rowing team from the University of Washington that won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It was a gripping tale that described how the various members of the crew had struggled with adversity both in and beyond the sport to ultimately arrive victorious at the medal podium. Their courage and perseverance were deeply inspiring, and it was a thoroughly uplifting program. But the aspect of the story that struck me most unexpectedly was its description of what needed to take place among the crew members in order for them to succeed. The 9-man event demands that the crew work as one, harmoniously developing a rhythm with the oars that manifests a sleek elegance, gliding through the water with seemingly effortless precision. Only the crew members know the maximum amount of effort and concentration that go into winning the race at ...

By Brother Luke Every morning at Matins, the opening psalmody is followed by a reading and then a brief meditation time. Usually something in the readings will strike a chord in me and stay with me for the rest of the day. Sometimes it comes back to mind during my meditation time later in the day. A recent meditation reading about the gift of fortitude from a collection of readings by Thomas Keating hit home that day.  When Fr Thomas listed the various ways fortitude can make a difference, the reference to frustration stuck in my mind. As I pondered the connection between fortitude and frustration, another image came to mind: the Pauline description of love always being patient. In today’s world, it is not hard to feel frustration over much that we see in the news. Violence and hostility, fueled by fear, anger, and exasperation over many inequities and injustices, abound. As we notice ourselves getting pulled into that vortex, fortitude and patience may be the antidote. Ho...