Beads, Bees, Work and Recreation

For some reason, I didn't sleep very well last night (perhaps a bit too much nodding off during my "quiet reflection time"), and when I awoke to one of the train whistles I went to the window to see the lights of the train pass (which you can't photograph), but I saw a ton of stars in the sky so I tried a night shot.  Unfortunately, as I was doing that I realized that the floor boards were squeaking and thought better of trying to perfect the photo in light of any possible downstairs neighbors.  When the sunlight flooded my room this morning, though, I had to capture that.

We departed from the planned "School of Prayer" lesson on the Holy Eucharist for one on Praying with Beads (due to class interest).  Br. James (the white) took us through the history of prayer beads and shared with us several examples, many of which you can find in the monastery gift shop.  (I realize that sounds more commercial than intended... there were no "Three easy payments of $19.99 if you get them in the next hour" sort of pitches, he just pointed out that the gift shop carried prayer beads that Br. Julian makes.)

We then had a lesson from Br. James from the RB about The Community at Work, where he read from the Rule of St. Benedict and explained the concept of work as a means of prayer... and also to keep monks from being idle.  It lead to an interesting discussion about how our work lives and our faith intersect.  After Dinner and a brief rest time, we went to work.

 A couple of us worked in the monastic library with Br. Adam while the rest of us helped Br. Bernard with the monastery's new beekeeping project.  Bees are due to arrive on Monday and we needed to level the place for the hives, clear some grass and get ready to install an electric fence (to keep the bears away).  It was a Bee-utiful day, Bee-nard is very excited about his bees (which is very Bee-coming to him), and now that I'm suitably tired, I'm heading to the chapel to study the Bee-atitudes. 

 During the rest period, I finally got to check out the organ in the chapel.  It's a nice Rodgers instrument... the couple of times I heard it in services it sounded thin, but I realized when playing it that I was hearing people play it without the pedals.  It seems perfectly sized for the space, though has a bit too much artificial reverb which is not needed at all in this chapel.

After Vespers, I finally got an opportunity to photograph the incense burning.  The monastery makes liturgical incense (the stuff they burn on charcoal and use in processionals, etc. - not the sticks you can burn at home).  They burn incense on Saturday Vespers and also before certain feast days.  The twirling smoke is always fascinating to me, but usually the sacristy workers take it away quickly after the service.  This evening Br. Andrew was willing to stay behind for a few min so I could try and capture it. 

(If you go to Oct 2011, you can see the incense making operation with Br. Robert and the tour.)

Finally, our evening time tonight was "Recreation" an important part of community building in a Benedictine monastery.  We had craft sodas, incredible chocolate chip cookies (Thanks Laurie!) and some wide-ranging conversations between us and Brs. Bernard and James (the black).