Unexpected Visitors
By Sister Cecelia How hospitable can we get? On a Friday evening as we were finishing the meal, I exclaimed, “There’s a cow!” pointing to the outside patio area. Sure enough, a string of cows was trotting past the fence and were heading up toward the upper fields. Through the kitchen windows we could see them following the paths we’ve made for walking our dogs. Would they keep going and get home? As we were finishing the dishes it was Sr. Patricia’s turn to exclaim, “They are out front now!” One cow was licking the dining room window—which had just been cleaned the day before. What to do? Who to call? Since we didn’t know whether they belonged to the farmer on Ashgrove south of us or to the person who had recently put their cows in the pasture north of us, we called the local sheriff’s office. They assured us they would send someone to look into it. In the meantime, the cows—we counted around 11 of them—having circled our entire monastery, were heading toward the dri