New Skete Monasteries News

by a friend of the monastery What do a 9½-week-old German Shepherd puppy, a confessional, scripture passages, Mother Teresa, and Cardinal John Henry Newman have in common? It was Saturday afternoon and I was in the confessional because of the puppy.  She had turned our lives upside down in the short 10 days we’d had her.  My husband and I had traveled to upstate New York and back by car in just 5 days to pick her up—a trip of over 3,000 miles—spending each night in a different hotel.  Although the puppy’s acquisition was a very conscious and much anticipated one, the drone of the drive, the sleepless nights, and working with her during her waking hours to housebreak her and to capture trainable moments were taking their toll on me. I played out the Martha and Mary story, heaping unspoken blame on my husband for what I perceived was not enough help. I was harboring unkind thoughts, the stress of keeping my angry thoughts to myself had me on the verge of a volcanic eruption,

by Brother Luke             My two pups, Fintas and Iris, are heading towards their 5th month. It has been quite a ride. They are cute. They are lively. They are underfoot. They are all puppy! Kahn, now nine and a half years old, will play with them outside, but he wants nothing to do with them in my room! Although he is a bit more patient now that they are growing up, he lets them know the limits. The fact that Fintas is his son has no bearing on how they interact.             The two pups are three weeks apart in age, born June 7th and 29th, Fintas being the elder of the two, but they play as equals. Fintas outweighs Iris, but she is not intimidated by him at all. They are both cautious around Kahn in my room, but they constantly test the limits. Iris might go up to Kahn and begin to paw at his paws, wagging her tail all the time. She inches closer and begins to lick his lips, and he will raise his lips and bare his teeth. If that doesn’t get through to her, and it seldo