As the next photo demonstrates, simple changes in LED lighting can transform a space rather dramatically. +The photo at top shows the Abbot’s office, which has become a temporary corridor on the way to church. Cistercians also follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, but not as well as we do. Brother Benedict has been studying with us in our School of Theology. Benedict Tran, who is a monk of an abbey in Vietnam. Joining them in the photo is fellow Cistercian Br. Ambrose, Augustine and Thomas, and Brother Matthew. I gave their community retreat three years ago, and it was nice to welcome these four as they drove to the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. +On Sunday June 27th we hosted at Saint John’s four Cistercian monks from the Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas. This will bring to fourteen the number of Immokalee students at Saint John’s this fall. It will be a delight to welcome Benny and his three classmates from Immokalee when they arrive at Saint John’s in August. Seated with them are my colleagues Matt Beirne and Jeff Glover. The photo of him and his family is at bottom. On Friday June 25th I co-hosted for lunch Benny and his family, who had driven from Florida to visit his home for the next four years. This fall we welcome the 7th incoming class from Immokalee High School, located outside of Naples in Florida. +For many years one of most gratifying projects I will ever work on has been the establishment of the Immokalee Scholarship program at Saint John’s University. +On June 22nd I participated in a zoom meeting of the Formation Committee of the Western Association of the Order of Malta. Am I naive in thinking that sloth will come to my rescue and make my move easy? We’ll see. So there you have my recipe for a successful and efficient move. Sloth beats sentiment hands down, as far as I’m concerned. Whatever I’m tempted for sentiment’s sake to take with me is something I have to cart all the way to my new room. I realize that many people think that sloth is a bad if not really deadly sin. They are headed to the dumpster, Goodwill, or the recycling bin.īut there’s one great vice that I plan to recycle into a virtue, and that’s sloth. Antique electronic equipment, worn-out winter clothes and boots, and magazines and books that I’ve not touched in years have no place in my new life. Of course I could take it all with me when I move, but that’s not about to happen. After twenty-five years in the same room, I’ve accumulated all sorts of odds and ends. My own task is simple compared to the job of getting us all organized. It’s actually worse than that, but you get the picture. When sixty-five monks all want to move at the same time, and there’s only one elevator, you are headed for trouble. Then the truth dawned on me, quite succinctly. It won’t be easy, and I finally gave up trying to write a coherent explanation of why this will be a gargantuan task. The big item facing all of us is the chore of moving back into the monastery. I can sacarcely wait to savor a view of the garden outside my new room. But I never saw any landscape other than a glimpse of the roof of the church. It also afforded me views of birds and clouds as they drifted by. It accomplished what it was supposed to do - that is, it let in the light. I’m particularly excited, because for twenty-five years the window in my room has been a skylight. Naturally we’re curious about what it will be like to live in. We are about to move into a brand-new 65-year-old building.
The halls and rooms are clean and while blinds and closet doors have yet to be installed, there’s excitement in the air. In two weeks we will begin to move back into the monastery, and the mood in the community has changed from minor irritation to eager anticipation. But now the end is near, and ironically the most recent route-change to the church - taking us right through the abbot’s office - signals that there’s not much left to do. Stuff piled all over the place demanded attention, as did the ever-changing route to the church. For over a year we monks have taken care to avoid workers and stacks of building materials that had turned our monastery into a hazard. In my post of April 12th I wrote about what it’s like to pick your way through a construction zone every day.
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