New Skete Monasteries News

  By Ralph Karow   Last week I found out that I share joint power of attorney with my sister for my 88-year-old mother. They both live out in Colorado. I had sole POA while she lived in New York, and I assumed that when my mother moved out there in 2019, a new POA was signed, making my sister sole POA. I thought everything had been squared away when she left, and I no longer had to concern myself with her material situation, so my first reaction to this news was that classic Al Pacino line: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.             It is odd when you think about it. I live 1800 miles away in a monastery, with no direct phone access. And I don’t have a driver’s license, so I couldn’t rent a car and get there to do anything even if I were to fly out. Realistically, my sister is the only one who can act directly as our mother’s agent. At least in the material world. God’s world is different. ...

  By Sister Cecelia Saturday evening, March 19, about 9:30    —    KaBooom!!! What was that? The sight and sound of a lightning strike are truly frightening and awesome! For a minute no one could move. Then came the realization that lightning had struck right outside the windows in the dining room, where three of us were sitting around the table. Another sister in the community room thought a bomb had exploded right above her, although it was actually beside her window, too, not in view but heard quite loudly. It looked like a big ball of fire exploding outside besides the loud, loud KaBoom! Crack! We later discovered that the lightning had struck the tall Norway spruce that is 6 feet from our building. From there it jumped over to the building, hitting a long copper sheeting plate along the wall that had been put down under the ground to prevent the tree roots from going under the cement slab floor. We assume that it jumped to the copper sheeting, resu...