New Skete Monasteries News

By Brother Marc Labish A unique mix of musical experiences has been a vital part of my life in the church. I would like to think this led to the gradual blossoming for me of an awareness of the transcendent, of prayer and the presence of God. When I sense beauty in music, especially church music, it also gives me a further appreciation of life’s many blessings. I continue to feel excited and impelled to delve into the treasury of sacred chants from around the world. From the time I was seven as an altar server, I was immersed in the chanting of the Polish Roman Catholic Felician sisters in their huge double-nave convent church in western Pennsylvania. Since my family lived nearby, I was able to be present for their engaging worship every day, both early morning and early evening. I also enjoyed hearing the high school women’s choir from the nuns’ academy whenever they sang at Mass and Benediction on the lay persons’ side of the church. When I left home for the seminary and its high sc...

                                                                        By Brother Gregory   I’m going to talk with you about a special relationship that several New Skete monastics have and have had: a relationship with their German Shepherd dogs. Over the years I have been blessed with relationships with many dogs under my care at New Skete: Diamond, Raja, Lena, Ombra, Yaki, and maybe more, and while in Maine I had Yugi and Esra.        In 2018, yet another German Shepherd, born in Germany, came into my care and is still with me now. Her name is Quilla and she is now six years old. In 2018 Quilla gave birth to her first litter of puppies, and she was and has been a true mother, licking and cleaning all her puppies. Quilla has had four l...

  By Ida Williams with Brother Luke   During one of the early dog owners’ seminars, one of the attendees asked at the end of Brother Luke’s presentation why some monks are called father and some are called brother. I thought I knew so much back then I had worked for them for at least 5 years, so I answered, “Priests are called father, and monks are called brother.”   WRONG! Here is Brother Luke’s explanation: “In many Christian traditions, both East and West, priests are referred to as father. In addition, in Eastern Orthodox monastic tradition, all professed monks are referred to as father, and professed nuns as mother. However, monks and nuns are also referred to as brothers and sisters. At New Skete, since its founding, the desire was to emphasize the understanding that we are all equal before God and not in some hierarchical order, so we preferred to refer to each other as brother and sister rather than mother and father. Of course, when visitors come who ar...

    By Ralph Karow   When I first heard Br Christopher refer to the choir as the icon of community, I was struck by the rich ground it offered for contemplation. With so many others things to do and think about, however, I let it slip into the back of my mind until it pushed itself forward as I was writing last month’s article. As often happens, not thinking about something for a time leads to better insights later on. In last month’s article, I drifted back in time to the early Church in Rome. It was a time when there were no icons or set doctrines or a structured Church. There were also no choirs or set musical forms or a structured system of music.             One reason I’d put forth for the lack of icons is that the saints and events that were later depicted were still so fresh in memory as to be a living presence for those gathered into Christian communities. And it was also a period of not thinking , whi...

  By Ida Williams     With over 12 years of assisting the dog training program with paperwork and administration, I have seen some unique and fun dog names.     Occasionally, I will ask the owner how they came to name their dog.   Some say it was in memory of a past canine companion. Some say their kids named their dogs, mostly the dogs named after foods.   Most say it was because their puppy looked like the name.   I pulled a query on the last couple of years of dog training applications and then grouped the names into different categories.   Maybe these will help you when searching for your next pup’s name.   Funny Names   Gus From Accounting has to be my favorite name.   I would tell my husband when leaving for work, “I will be working with Gus From Accounting today.”   Not so funny names but still make me laugh:   Mercy and Echo.   I imagine the owners standing in their backyards yel...

By Ralph Karow In last month’s article I started talking about prearranging a funeral service for my mother before all of her assets go to medical care. It’s a thought that didn’t occur to me when my father had a stroke and we had to attend to his assets. It’s comfortable for me to think of all the practical and logistical reasons for why that didn’t happen, but very uncomfortable for me to allow the possibility that I wasn’t yet ready to put together a funeral, vocationally speaking. Five years ago, a service for either of them would have been one of those “celebrations of life” in a catering hall, not a religious service in a church. But five years ago I did have a dream that my mother had passed away and I had given $3,000 to a group of nuns to hold a memorial service in the basement of my parish in Manhattan. It wasn’t the modern basement, but a stone basement with burial niches in the walls and long coarse wooden tables with benches rather than chairs—a scene that brought to m...

  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. ...