Thursday, December 25, 2014

The End of This Blog...


(NOTE:  Please scroll down to see Christmas 2014.)

I originally started this blog to share aspects of the monastery with my youth group.  Since I'm no longer doing youth work, and since so many of the things I write (and photos I take) are starting to repeat, I think it's time to close this blog.  

Of course I remain an associate of Holy Cross and will continue to go there from time to time.  If you're interested, you can find out more about Holy Cross, my photos or my more recent sailing adventures at the links below.

Holy Cross Monastery Website (Find out all about the monastery and their great retreat options.)

My Photography Page (Photos from recent trips to Holy Cross will show up in the Holy Cross gallery on the "Religion" page... just scroll down below my slide show and bio.)

Our Sailing blog (Follow along as we learn to sail around Raritan Bay, NY Harbor, and hopefully up the Hudson River.)

Thanks for reading! 

Christmas 2014

We went to the monastery for Christmas again this year.  Why?  After getting all the preparation and parties out of the way, we have found a little gem of a truly Christ-centered Christmas celebration takes place at Holy Cross each year.  So we did it again...

This is an abbreviated blog post.  Since it's my 4th Christmas here, much has already been covered and the reader is invited to navigate into the past for more "Christmas at the monastery" photos.

December 23rd

We finally were able to get away (after a visit to the car dealer) mid-afternoon which allowed us to arrive (after dealing with NJ traffic) just after Supper.  We found our room - St. Benedict - to be incredibly plush by monastery guest house standards.  Perhaps they had heard about our wedding the week before and gave us the "honeymoon" suite.


We checked in, made it to the chapel a little before Compline as the first people were gathering for silent prayer.  I brought my Fuji camera (which is know for how silent it is) and tried a "test click" before too many people arrived. After Compline the monastery enters The Great Silence (12 hours of silence from 8:30 PM until 8:30 AM), so we retired to the room and read our kindles until late in the evening.


December 24th

Reading late was probably a mistake.  I also was probably exhausted from pushing to get a major project (and everything else) finished at work.  This has never happened to me before at the Monastery, but I woke up suddenly to huge monastery bell ringing it's 10 minute warning (at 6:50AM) before Matins.  I bolted out of bed, pulled on enough to be decent and was just able to stop by the men's room and get to the Chapel as Br. Will was getting ready to ring the bell starting the service.

The rest of the day was the normal monastery schedule up to the Noon meal.  I met up with Vicky for (silent) breakfast, then we stopped and refilled our coffee and relaxed until Eucharist at 9:30AM.  After that we relaxed and read some more (get the theme here?) on our favorite sofa in Pilgrim Hall before heading to Diurnum (Noon prayers w/ a period of silent meditation) and then Dinner (our mid-day meal).





Decking the Halls

After Dinner, the guests spent the early afternoon decorating the guesthouse for Christmas.  There were lots of guests helping (along with a number of brothers) and it was all over in an hour or two.







While we were doing the guesthouse, the brothers took care of the Chapel (and, I assume, the Monastic Enclosure as well).




After relaxing & reading some more, as evening began to fall, I noticed that fog stayed in the Hudson valley all day... clearly Rudolph's services would be required tonight.


Christmas Eve

The monastery's Christmas celebration starts with 1st Vespers at 5:00 PM.  This service concludes with a beautiful candlelight procession around the Ambulatory (a passageway that goes behind the chapel) while singing Silent Night.  The procession leads to the Creche, which is then blessed.  (You can read more about this wonderful Creche in the description from 2011.)



After some Supper (Vicky loved the Ramen noodle bar), we had more time to relax and read before heading down to the Chapel for the late night activities.  We had some special music from Brs. Will, Reinaldo and Scott, followed by a midnight Eucharist.  After that, the brothers invited everyone (guesthouse guests, as well as people attending the mass) over to Pilgrim Hall for some "Christmas Cheer".







The eggnog was splendid, the food and conversation was great, but we soon retired... even with all the relaxing, we were spent.


Christmas Day

We woke up to find that the fog had lifted.  Due to the late night activities, breakfast was delayed until 8:30 AM and the normal monastic schedule was turned upside down.


After breakfast, we had time to relax and read until 11:00 AM when we had Matins.


And at 12:30 we had our Christmas Feast.  This included braised lamb shanks, stuffing, potatoes, a ribbon salad, and of course dessert.  Br. Peter (now guesthouse manager) brought out those responsible for the feast for appropriate recognition and we had a nice time chatting with our friends and brothers.




The highlight of Christmas for me these past few years has been Laurie's Sticky Toffee Pudding, which is indeed a religious experience best savored at a monastery (you don't want leftovers of this hanging around your house unless you're looking to seriously put on some weight).  It was incredible as always.



So after the pudding and coffee and some final goodbyes we headed back down the Thruway and the Parkway in time to light up our own tree, look out on the Raritan Bay and thank God for how truly blessed we have been this past year.

I hope my readers have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!


Sunday, November 16, 2014

Ballroom Dancing Couples Retreat

After a busy Spring and Summer of sailing (see Sailing With George and Vicky for details), I felt the need to get back up to Holy Cross for some retreat time.  After two "Commodore's Balls" at the yacht club, we were also looking to get started in some more formal dance training.  As I noted a week ago, a perusal of the upcoming retreat options at the monastery website provided the answer to our prayers.

DISCLAIMER:  If you're getting this by way of Google next year and considering the Ballroom Dance weekend at Holy Cross.  Know in advance that they're NOT going to teach you the "Funky Chicken".  (I always get that one messed up, and was hopeful it would be covered...  It wasn't.)  ;)

Continuing on...

Friday's trip up to Holy Cross was uneventful and surprisingly fast.  Vicky insists that was because I was snoring through a good part of it... hopefully that was while she was driving.  I remember getting onto the Thruway from the Parkway and then approaching the exit.

Anyway, we arrived and were greeted by Laurie and found our way to our room.  We were in "St. Peter Damian" which had a nice view of the river.  Looking out I noticed that a ship, The Clipper, was anchored out in the Hudson.  We spent the afternoon roaming around the monastery, checking out the gift shoppe and then settled into a comfy couch in Pilgrim Hall to read. before heading to the chapel for Vespers.





After supper, we had our first Ballroom session.  The floor in the "St. Gregory" meeting room was transformed into a "Masonite" dance floor, and we met our instructors - Joe and Julie Donato.  They run a ballroom studio across the river from the monastery (here is their website).  We also met our fellow retreaters... Charles & Elizabeth (nearest to Vicky in the photo below) and Jeff & Darlene (at the far end of the row of chairs).  I had no "dancing" photos from Friday night's session, but we worked on the basic box step and covered how to waltz.  I left for Compline feeling like... OK, I can do this for a weekend.



 I slept well... waking much later than I normally do, but waking up to an incredible sunrise as the sun just peeked out beside the Vanderbilt Estate before Matins.  Breakfast followed (I'm not spending too much explaining life at the monastery this time - read some of my earlier posts for details), and we didn't really have any dancing sessions until after Eucharist, so I had some time to get some scenery shots.  I will note that this visit had the largest amount of river traffic... maybe I'm just paying more attention to it.  The Clipper remained anchored for the whole weekend, but a couple of other ships and barges went by as well.




After the service, we had another dancing session.. this time moving onto 4/4 rhythms and adding in something called floorcraft, which is how you move as a couple around the dance floor.  This is where my brain started going TILT!!! - it's not as easy as it looks (at least not for this beginner).  More than once I found us dancing in a corner because I couldn't figure out the way to get us turned around and headed in a different direction.  I also noticed that we were "backing up the circuit" a few times.






Jeff & Darlene were positively elegant and Charles & Elizabeth also graceful had more background than us. (My dance resume includes three "lessons" in 8th grade gym class and... well that's about it.)  Afterward Julie showed us a nice way to relax our backs before we headed to Dirunum and Dinner.





After a brief rest, we resumed at 2:00.  This would be our longest session, and we covered more floorcraft, some elementary spinning (mostly of the room... inside my head) and added traveler steps (the chairs in the center are to get us all moving the same way around the floor).


Joe & Julie are demonstrating something here, but I forgot it.  I think it was the finer points for your stance during the Foxtrot.



Here they're teaching the ladies the steps involved in spinning.



And there was plenty of time to practice.  Every once in a while, things seemed to click and it started feeling right.  Usually then Joe would introduce something else.





Finally, after a cupcake treat and almost 3 hours of this, it was time for Vespers.  We had no evening session (Joe and Julie had a performance and ended up dancing for another 4 hours).  My knees were killing me at this point and after going down the stairs for Vespers, we stayed down until after Compline was over.  As I returned to our room, I looked out on the river and saw that Orion was rising just by The Clipper so I had to get a photo.


Sunday morning was a typical Sunday at the monastery.  Matins, Breakfast (DON'T miss breakfast on Sundays), break and then Eucharist, which was a little more involved than a typical Eucharist, but not as big as Christmas morning.


For today's session, Sister Shane joined us (she is a priest from the group of Episcopal nuns that are forming on the grounds of Holy Cross).  We learned a lot of Latin during this session (which I had in High School, but "Aqua Velva" and "Magnavox" wasn't going to help me here).



These were actually easier from my point of view because they involve dancing in place and you don't have to think so much about how to move around.  We learned some "icing" to put on top of our cake foundation (such as spinning, etc.).  It was a really fun session and both Vicky and I had the giggles during it and afterwards...





... we finished the session just moments before Dirunum.

Now regular readers - both of you - might recall that Diurnum is the service that involves a lot of silence.  Giggles and silence don't mix well.  We arrived with a few moments to spare and sat in the back by the entrance to the chapel.  The chapel floor was replaced a few years ago and there is this small... bump... where the old and new floors don't quite match.  The first person who stumbled through the opening shook their head and said "that happens every time".  Followed by several other people who stumbled... and said the same thing.  Vicky found that humorous and was crying trying to keep from laughing out loud knowing the service was about to start.

I always enjoy the silent prayer, though today I suddenly had a weird "falling sensation" during the silence.  It passed quickly and I didn't think any more about it until the drive home when Vicky asked me about it.  She claims I started snoring - I swear I was praying.  She also claims she didn't push me, though now I'm wondering.  My apologies to the brothers... I hope our exuberance (and my snoring) didn't interrupt your service.


After the service was over, we waited briefly in Pilgrim Hall, then had Sunday Dinner with our new friends before packing up, sending our luggage down what has to be the oldest elevator in this area, and heading back south to NJ.