New Skete Monasteries News

By Ida Williams, Director of Marketing and Communications To figure out the age of your dog, you multiply his or her age by seven.  My dog is 14 years old and this would make him 98 in human years.  His energy, attitude, and loyalty would make anyone question this mathematical equation.  Over the past six years, I have found myself trying to figure out the formula needed to determine the monastic age of the monks and nuns of New Skete.  I know the year each was born, but what is their true age?   Their energy, attitude, and loyalty* belie their birth certificates. Sister Patricia’s chronological age is 84, but what is her biological age?  She gets up early for prayers and worship, heads to the bakery to make cheesecakes, orders the ingredients for the bakery and prepares the bakery schedule, makes cheesecake deliveries, works in the gardens maintaining the flowers and fruit-bearing bushes and trees, keeps the plants in the nuns’ greenhous...

By Brother Christopher I have been a monk at New Skete for thirty-five years, and during that time I’ve observed a noteworthy transition in our culture’s attitudes to formal religious practice and affiliation. I cannot count how many times I’ve heard guests and visitors to our monastery say, “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious. I just don’t find any meaning or value in going to church.” These are the “Nones,” those who answer Gallup polls saying, “Yes, I believe in God” but “No, I don’t attend any church.” They profess a vague, undefined set of beliefs that don’t demand any practical expression save trying to be a good person. Nones certainly don’t perceive any relationship between committed church membership and being good, so they often think, “Why bother? I can be just as good a person without the hassle of an hour and a half of boredom in church.” At a time when church attendance seems to be declining in all the “higher” Christian churches, what is glaringly obvious is an i...

By Sister Cecelia In 2015 the monastics had many discussions about how we would celebrate our 50th New Skete anniversary. One idea that emerged was to have a commemorative icon painted that would symbolize who we are. The monks and nuns spent much prayer and reflection on what we would like to see in the icon, and we agreed on a plan. We articulated our ideas and sent them to several iconographers with a request for an agreement as to time needed to complete and how much the commission would cost. The question came back: Why not do it yourself? You have iconographers there. So I was asked, Will you do it? Can you do it in time for the anniversary? There was no way I could complete the icon in time for the beginning of the anniversary year, 2016, but we agreed it would be sufficient if I could have it completed by the day of the Pilgrimage. So began the process of preparing the board and the drawing. Many questions needed input: which Transfiguration model to use, what size the small t...

Brother Christopher Recently I watched a PBS episode of the American Experience telling the story of “the Boys in the Boat,” the Olympic 9-man rowing team from the University of Washington that won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It was a gripping tale that described how the various members of the crew had struggled with adversity both in and beyond the sport to ultimately arrive victorious at the medal podium. Their courage and perseverance were deeply inspiring, and it was a thoroughly uplifting program. But the aspect of the story that struck me most unexpectedly was its description of what needed to take place among the crew members in order for them to succeed. The 9-man event demands that the crew work as one, harmoniously developing a rhythm with the oars that manifests a sleek elegance, gliding through the water with seemingly effortless precision. Only the crew members know the maximum amount of effort and concentration that go into winning the race at ...

By Brother Luke Every morning at Matins, the opening psalmody is followed by a reading and then a brief meditation time. Usually something in the readings will strike a chord in me and stay with me for the rest of the day. Sometimes it comes back to mind during my meditation time later in the day. A recent meditation reading about the gift of fortitude from a collection of readings by Thomas Keating hit home that day.  When Fr Thomas listed the various ways fortitude can make a difference, the reference to frustration stuck in my mind. As I pondered the connection between fortitude and frustration, another image came to mind: the Pauline description of love always being patient. In today’s world, it is not hard to feel frustration over much that we see in the news. Violence and hostility, fueled by fear, anger, and exasperation over many inequities and injustices, abound. As we notice ourselves getting pulled into that vortex, fortitude and patience may be the antidote. Ho...

By Ida Williams, Director of Marketing and Communications Inviting people into the home of your employer can be daunting, to say the least, but the eighth New Skete dog owner/trainer seminar ended this past Sunday, and with a sigh of relief I can say it went as well as the first one held in 2013. My background is in hospitality marketing and management. Coordinating events is in my skill set, but never did I imagine that I would be running events in the home of the Monks of New Skete. Years of management in hotels and resorts, a western-themed amusement park with a banquet facility, and participating in the promotion and planning of our county fair may have provided the base for event coordination, but New Skete dog seminars have been a new encounter that I thoroughly relish. Event planners know that defining your goals and objectives prior to planning the particulars of the event is key. Once the goals have been established, the rest falls in place. The objectives of hosti...

By Brother Luke After several decades, we have recreated a hiking trail up to the top of Two Top Mountain, where New Skete is located. In fact, we now have two trails on Two Top. The red trail runs from the Emmaus House driveway half way up the northeast face of the mountain on the recently created logging road and then descends to the back of the monks’ monastery next to our new smoke house.  The second trail, marked with yellow arrows, begins behind the monks’ monastery, goes up the east side of the mountain, and connects to a 20-year-old logging road up to the top of the mountain.  The descent then heads back down the west side of the mountain and turns south. It connects to the red trail, so a hiker at that point can decide to continue on down to the guest house (Emmaus House) or head up the red trail and come back to the starting point behind the monks’ monastery. Mike Bodnar, a forest ranger and friend of the monastery who will be leading the hike at our upcoming Pilg...