New Skete Monasteries News

  By Ida Williams  Shortly after my first year of employment, I was tasked with handling dog training client communications and scheduling.   I have to admit that it is one of my favorite aspects of my job.   I feel that I am instrumental in making a difference in the lives of dogs and their owners, not to the extent the brothers and the trainers do, but I like to think that I play a small role in helping save dogs from being surrendered to shelters.           Over the years, hundreds of dogs have been enrolled in the monastery’s training program: Dachshunds to Great Danes. Seven months old to seven years old.   Goofy to scary.   Each dog is loved immeasurably by the owners.   The owners’ goals are always the same: to include the dog more fully in their lives.                After a dog graduates from the program and the owner continues to ...

    It’s no secret that the expression "global warming" today elicits visceral reactions, both positive or negative, depending on how one believes. It doesn’t matter which side of the issue one falls on, believers or deniers, the topic has become so intensely politicized that constructive dialogue has become exceedingly difficult. For those who deny that the earth is headed on a perilous ecological course, global warming is code for an unproven political agenda fomented by the left which, if embraced, will have dire economic consequences. In contrast, those who believe in the reality of global warming and humanity’s role in deepening it warn that unless we change course in a radical way, the very survival of the earth could be at stake for succeeding generations. They cite the fact that 97% of scientists agree that global warming is human-caused as evidence of the urgency. And so culturally, it feels as if we’re at odds with each other, with Republicans and Democrats having v...

By Brother Marc               After a day of shopping early last May I returned to the monastery feeling more than the usual muscle aches. I had spent a hectic day searching for items currently unavailable or hard to find because of the pandemic. Then unpacking and sanitizing a week’s supply of groceries and bulk necessities demanded a lot of additional work. I recall another time I felt unusually tired. Nadya Goldsmith, a member of our Chapel Community, had asked whether we might plant some white lilacs and spirea at the monks’ monastery. We both thought these are attractive and uplifting in springtime, although plain but inoffensive the rest of the year. They are like the old-fashioned yellow forsythia bushes that used to flank the entrance to our smaller chapel and the lavender lilacs we have. It was around the year 2005. Nadya, an expert gardener, brought a dozen saplings she had harvested from around her home in Ca...

Trails               We have added a new hiking trail in the northeast section of our property. We have never had a formal trail in this area before. What it means for hikers is that now it is possible to make a complete circuit around the monastery starting and ending at the same point whether that starting point is the kennel areas or our Guest House [Emmaus House].           As many of you know, the earliest trails were to the south of the monastery buildings. There is one large circuit that is identified as the red trail. That trail is bisected on a north-south line by a yellow trail. The yellow trail also divides in the middle into a high trail and low trail. The low trail connects eastward via two short orange trails to the east wing of the original red trail. Within the last decade we added a blue trail that goes down to our stream which runs down in a valley on the east si...

            By Brother Luke               Well, maybe not all iPads! But we have a new development in choir at New Skete which utilizes the iPad. We are now switching over from paper copies of music to digital copies. This is happening partly due to the quarantine and even more because we are very fortunate to have a candidate, David Freiler, and a Resident Volunteer, Ralph Karow, who have been with us through the quarantine.   They both have special skills that have made this transition possible.             David is of the generation that grew up with computers and he can take pdf files and manipulate them via Adobe and construct the order of music for each service. Ralph has both computer and music degrees and experience with both so he and David have been a dynamic duo prompting and then moving this pr...