New Skete Monasteries News

Photo recap of New Skete Pilgrimage held on August 10, 2013. Photos provided by Bill Samsonoff - New Skete Chapel Member  Following Matins, Liturgy started outdoors near the reflecting pool . Brother David leads the choir during Liturgy. Clergy, choir and pilgrims process into Holy Wisdom Temple to complete Liturgy. Father John Frazier censes the approaching pilgrims at the entrance to the temple. The Bible being brought into the temple by Father Deacon Jeffrey Smith. Acolyte Richard Headwell (left front) stands ready to assist the clergy at Liturgy (left to right: Fr. John Fraizer, Fr. Peter Olsen, Hieromonk Marc and Fr. Michael Pelkon) Brother Jacob's presentations on New Skete iconography were very popular. Guest speaker, art historian William Hood, opened his presentation by leading the pilgrims in the prayer "O Heavenly King" Art historian William Hood speaks to the more than 100 gathered pilgrims on the uses of visual...

A Layperson’s New View of Life at a Monastery and of Herself Written by Ida Williams, Director of Marketing, Sales, and Communications It is hard to believe that it has been over 2 years since my first day working for the monks, nuns, and companions of New Skete.   In my career in sales and marketing, I have represented a family-owned business, a non-profit organization, and local corporate entities, and have worked for two national companies, but never a monastery.   I remember my first day at New Skete.   I was as nervous as if it were my first day on my first job ever.     I reverted to my silly sense of humor and told how I explained my new job to friends as working for God, puppies, and cheesecake.   This was the perfect job for me!   I love God, I love puppies, and I love cheesecake. I was not wrong in my description of my new job, but I was wrong in my notion of what working for a monastery would be like. Much of my perce...

Written by Brother Gregory Well, it’s been a long time since I, Brother Gregory, have had a dog that was pregnant.   It was a long- expected moment for both Raja and me, and the wait was worth it. This was Raja’s first litter of puppies; at first no one knew whether she had conceived, and all eyes were on any signs that the breeding had taken. “I think she is” and “No, she’s not” were common statements among the monks. I noticed that she was showing signs of being pregnant as she displayed a quieter side of herself, and then the “belly” began to show very slowly, nipples began to develop, and eventually the “belly” became very prominent. Eventually she looked as if she had swallowed a beer barrel. Sometimes she would lie on her side, and other times she would just spread out with all four legs extended. Going up stairs was difficult, and she didn’t show her usual energy flying up the stairs to the bedroom to get her evening cookies.   My sleep was often interrupted when she...

By Brother Luke   I am sitting at my desk Monday evening, and I can see the message light on the phone blazing red. I listen to the message. It is my brother-in-law asking me to call. So, I call. Phil answers my hello with a breaking voice, saying, “Susie died this morning at 5:30.” But the doctors had been saying all the time she was in the hospital that she would regain her strength and be home in a few days. But it was not to be. Just two weeks earlier I had called and talked to Susie. We talked about her plans and what the doctors had told her. They had said that they could not stop the cancer this time, but they could continue to fight it with chemo. So the plan was for her to regain her strength, go home, and then reschedule the last two chemo sessions. As we concluded our conversation we said our usual good-byes and our mutual sign-off: “I love you.”  I did not know at that time those were the last words we would speak to each other. The next day she became uncon...

Our dogs remain forever in our hearts written by Sister Cecelia, Prioress It seems dogs do not live as long as we, and big dogs have even shorter lives.  A person who takes on the responsibility of a dog — or many dogs — is in for incomprehensible joys, sorrows, worries, marvelous awe, and delight. This year I lost my dear companion Jeck.  I was rarely out of Jeck’s sight.  People visiting me at the monastery would need to step over him (not an easy feat, he was a big dog) to get into my office.  Often he lay next to the glass doors to the bakery, watching the activity and hoping someone would sneak him a cheesecake morsel If anyone was looking for me and saw Jeck, they knew I was close by. In my grieving for Jeck, I found myself reflecting on dogs I had cared for over the years.  I no longer thought about what I lost with their passing, but about what I had gained from our time together. Jeck lying at bakery door.  Photo courtesy of Cha...

Seminar held at New Skete July 12-14, 2013 Written by Brother Christopher Group shot last day of seminar.             Over the years many friends and dog lovers have encouraged us to put together a dog seminar that would allow people an opportunity to experience our community and learn from our many years of working with dogs. For a variety of reasons we had never been able to pull it off, but we’ve always had it in the back of our minds as something we’d like to offer. Happily, over the weekend of July 12-14, we were able to finally realize this goal and welcome forty participants to our first dog seminar, which we titled, “The Art of Living with your Dog.” The event went so smoothly, and was embraced so enthusiastically by the participants, that it left all of us wondering, “Why has it taken so long for us to put one of these on?”               The truth is th...

Written by Brother Luke, Prior   So here we go again.   Next week I will welcome another little fur ball bundle of joy into my room as I embark on the adventure of raising a German Shepherd puppy for our breeding program.   Her name is Jawad, which in Arabic means “generous.” Why that name?   Well, we keep track of our litters by means of an alpha-numeric numbering system, and little Jawad’s litter number was J-20. So, we give the puppy a name that begins with the letter J. I often search for Arabic names simply because I spent the first 24 years of my adult life in Middle East Studies. What that litter number means in terms of our breeding program is that she is a member of our 504th litter of puppies since we began keeping track of our puppy litters back in the mid-1960s. That’s 26 letters of the alphabet, times 19, plus 10 (A-J of the 20th iteration), or in other words, we’ve gone through the 26-letter alphabet 19+ times over the past 40+ years! My fir...