New Skete Monasteries News

   On Saturday, March 20, New Skete hosted two composer/pianists featuring music from the 18th to the 21st centuries. The experience for the audience was a reminder of what chamber music concerts were like back when they were held in people’s homes. The monks’ recreation room was reconfigured for the concert, since the piano resides there. A large semi-circle of chairs and couches embraced the piano. Everyone had a good view, up close, of the performers.   Also, a nonintrusive videographer recorded the performance for possible future availability on YouTube. So, you may have a chance to hear the concert in your own intimate space via YouTube. If you do listen in you are in for a special experience. The performers were Joel Feigin and Haskell Small. Both artists blended compositions by celebrated composers of the past, J. S. Bach and Eric Satie, with their own compositions. Joel opened the concert with two of his own pieces: “Meditation 1” and “Variations on Empty Space” follo

By Jeffrey Atwood Sometime in 1978, while wandering through a bookstore, I picked up the original edition of How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend . Memories of my childhood pet, an Irish Setter named Michael Dennis, came back to me. At the time I was traveling a lot for work, and owning a pet was impossible, but I bought the book, tucked away the idea of having a pet again, and thought to myself “Someday, maybe.…” This book was my first knowledge of the New Skete monastery. It’s not surprising that it was the dogs that attracted me to New Skete initially. My first spoken word was “dog,” and I have always loved animals, wild and domesticated; I think it’s safe to claim that I never met a dog I didn’t like, although I met a few dogs who didn’t like me. My spouse had grown up with a German Shepherd dog named Fidèl (Fido) and was especially fond of the breed. Over the next 40 years, I kept up with the monks’ publishing and new editions: How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend , The Art