The nuns realized that storage space
had been reduced when a break room for the employees was set up in 2003. One of
the rooms in the nuns’ bedroom area was used, but we knew we would eventually
need a better solution. So, in 2018 plans were drawn up to use the space
between the bakery and the building next to it. A space 20 feet by 14 feet would
be gained. Weather and COVID delayed progress, but gradually things were in
order and a start was made. “Pictures are worth a thousand words,” so
these will help tell the story.
The line on the wall is the angle for the new roof.
After removal of the plants,
flowers, and bushes, the dirt was leveled in preparation for the cement
sub-floor.
The cement truck finally arrived. Some tree branches had to be removed so the backhoe could get close enough.
See the pouring that took place in the above video.
Mik Klaus working on the roof connection.
Now
the siding was removed carefully so the boards could be used on the outside
bakery wall. A bakery window was carefully taken out to make room for a doorway
into the new room. There was just enough space to leave the sink in place.
The roof and outer
wall were then added on top of the cement foundation. A temporary doorway was
left where the window would be placed after the doorway was cut out of the wall
in the bakery for entrance into the new room.
Shellie and
Mik working on the interior work space before adding walls and wiring of all
sorts.
Entrance to the new room from the bakery.
The small office with a view!
The
needed storage space–not full now, but soon it will be.
The
bakery addition blends in as if it had always been here.
By Brother Luke Once again I have fallen asleep with some lights on in my room. Then a strange crunching sound arouses me. Struggling to see what's causing the noise, I look toward my armoire, and there is my five-month-old puppy, Pyrena, chewing on the wooden handle of a lower drawer. I cry out NO! and spring into action as she dashes away and hides under the bed. I pull her out from under the bed and lead her over to the crate where she will spend the night. She actually has been very good in my room overnight, but she is still teething and learning what is and what is not OK to chew on. She is not the first or the last puppy or dog to do this in my room. Yes, I am frustrated by her destructive behavior. But I also have to remember that taking on the task of raising a puppy will inevitably include episodes like this. So the puppy tests my patience. It is often thought that being so intimately involved with an...
By Brother Brennan Decades ago, just before my first “brush” with professed religious life, my girlfriend at the time would sometimes attend Sunday Mass with me at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in suburban New Orleans. Although she lived in the neighboring parish, we had graduated from the same Catholic grammar school, just one year apart, and thus were immersed in a very traditional Roman Catholic/Southern Christian milieu (just imagine that—a very long-established, traditional, provincial enclave of Old World Roman Catholicism below the Bible Belt). While we would eventually separate, our time together included being very much a part of the religious landscape of such a place and time. It was still the 70s, when the sexual liberation movement was kicking into high gear in the deep South, and many young people were rebelling against traditional religiosity, dissatisfied with the perceived rule-loving, devotion-addicted, spiritual stagnation of church authority. At the same...
by Brother Christopher It is not often that monks get to travel, given that our focus is on living the monastic life in this particular community. However, occasionally situations come up when travel is warranted, and one such opportunity presented itself recently for Brothers Christopher and Theophan. The Institute for the Study of Eastern Christianity at Catholic University of America was hosting a conference titled “Ascetic Practices and the Mind: Mental Healing in Eastern Christianity” on March 1-2. We found out about the conference when Robin Darling Young, one of the theology professors at Catholic U and an organizer of the conference, paid a brief visit to New Skete last fall. During the course of her visit she learned that Brother Theo had a background in neuroscience, and she mentioned to us how the conference planners were looking for an Orthodox participant(s) whose interests were in both spirituality and neuroscience. She took advantage of the synchronicity...
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