New Skete Monasteries News

By Brother Luke             Sometimes people like to point out that dog is God spelled backwards. I think it’s a four-letter word: LOVE. Of course, God is Love. But so is dog.             During Thanksgiving week, Kahn was having trouble standing. This was new, and more than just arthritis pain, so we took him to the vet for an evaluation. I did not want to hear the answer I suspected was coming. “It’s time to make the final arrangements.” We are often lucky here because when it is time to say good-bye to one of our dogs, it usually means that the dog has been retired and is going to a new family. But when we keep the dog for the duration of its life, then we, like all other dog owners, must face that day when we have to say the final good-bye to our dog.             Yes, Kahn was 11 1/2 years old. He had a good long life. But we all know that dogs’ lives are never long enough. The Psalmist, speaking of us, has it right for dogs: the years go by quickly and then they (our dog

By Brother Christopher On January 20, 2020, during the annual observance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, New Skete hosted an ecumenical day of reflection on the environment with the theme “Caring for Our Common Home.” Approximately 35 participants from Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant backgrounds spent the day listening to several formal presentations and then engaged in small group sessions that followed each presentation. A final wrap-up session synthesized the insights that came up throughout the day, which then led into Vespers in Holy Wisdom Temple to conclude the day. The impulse for this day came out of Jesus’ prayer in John 17—that his followers may all be one—coupled with a subject we know to be more vital and pressing with each day: our response to the current environmental crisis. This issue presents major challenges for all of us—Christians of every denomination, people of other faith traditions, as well as those who do not profess any reli

By Brother Luke               I got a good sense of Brother John during my visits to New Skete as a retreatant back in the 1980s. I would be in my car and Brother John would come over to me and say: “Why don’t you just stay?” In those days my visits were often with two friends, who had been coming for many years with the idea of possibly joining New Skete. They didn’t; I did. Once I joined, then every few weeks Brother John would come up to me and say: “You still here?”             Brother John and I had many conversations over the years, some quite ordinary, others soul searching, and some rather intense. After the dust settled from some of the more intense exchanges, Brother John would ask: “Are we all right?”   And I would reply: “Yes, we’re all right.”             Brother John was passionate about many things: punctuality, cleanliness, simplicity, food, the Psalms in particular and the scriptures in general, the spiritual life, but especially our breeding program. He l