Dave is back in Indy

Dave arrived back in Indy Saturday. After several weeks of discussion, he and Fr. Michael Mary came to the mutual decision that the monastic life was not a good fit. He returned to Indy and is seeking reinstatement to the Indianapolis Metro Police Dept. Early indications are positive and he is hopeful that he will be reinstated very soon.
This will be the final entry in this blog.
God bless - please pray for Dave as he makes the transition back.

Christmas on Papa Stronsay

This photo was posted on the Papa Stronsay site (www.papastronsay.blogspot.com) and gave us great peace during our first Christmas without Dave with us - look at his smile!
- I'll post a few of the photos from the Papa Stronsay site

We received an email just before we fled the snow to head south to Florida.
Now that we are here in Florida, we have a little time to make a post.

From Dave:

I imagine you probably saw some Christmas photos on the blog,
(Bob note: www.papastronsay.blogspot.com)

Christmas was a beautiful day!

and so you probably have a good idea of how we decorated. It was very simple, but nice. We've been celebrating Christmas for 12 days now. I've learned a whole lot of new Christmas Hymns, and discovered something called "Christmas cake." It seems to be mostly just a very heavy raisin bread, but Christmas cake does sound much more festive.

This has been an amazing month.
It was a good time for the community to do a 10 day retreat. What a blessing!
We're supposed to have a 1 day retreat every month, and a 10 day retreat every year...all in total silence. It went really well.
Since I did a month-long retreat when I visited in March/April of last year, my schedule was a little different from everyone else's: I assumed some of the duties such as cooking, making trips over to Stronsay in the boat, and other odds and ends.
I was told my cooking was very good - and very monastic.
Some said they felt those two terms are contradictory.
We all had a good laugh.
They haven't asked me to cook again since the retreat ended...ha.
They did say I was okay at making mashed potatoes...hmmmmm

We had some really good insights during the retreat. One of my favorites was an explanation of the "Glory be." Of course the first part (Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost) is pretty self-explanatory...and is believed to date back to the Apostles. They differentiated their prayers in the temple from those of the Jews by adding the doxology after their psalms.
The second part (As it was...) started around the time of Nicaea, and is a reaction to the Arian heresy. It affirms that the Glory being described here is the Glory that the Trinity has always had, does have, and always will have. Not a created or limited glory, but the Eternal and Infinite Glory which God has within Himself, and which we hope to enter into one day. I'm not doing it justice - it was pretty amazing.

The "Imitation of Christ" (by Thomas Kempis) was used quite a bit during their retreat.
One of the brothers has committed the entire work to memory!

After everyone else finished their retreat, I had a couple of days' retreat, and then it was time for Christmas!
It's been truly wonderful.
The rest of the world seems to celebrates Christmas during Advent, and then stops celebrating Christmas before Christmas is even getting started.
Not here!
Starting Christmas Eve, after the Midnight Mass, we came back and had some snacks in the refectory (which had been turned into a stable, complete with 5 bales of hay on the floor, and manger with infant Jesus in the middle of the floor).


Someone said it's good that I don't REALLY have "hay" fever...they've done the hay on the floor for 20 years now, and they're not about to stop.
The last 12 days have been one long holy-day for us, and we've been celebrating pretty much nonstop.
Only essential work is done, and every day has been a "recreation day," where we have talking at table, with none of the normal times of silence. We've also been singing Christmas Hymns during our meals...we'll stop eating every few minutes and sing a Hymn, then go back to eating. It's been wonderful.
The holy-day schedule continues until the end of what would have been the Octave of the Epiphany, January 14. Then things will settle back down to normal a little.

I've helped out a little with some of the chores lately. I've helped with the milking a few times. We have a milking machine - so it's much easier than trying to milk by hand. Anyway, there's only one milking cow right now, but she usually gives enough for our community. No skim milk here!

The other day we had to rescue one of the highland cows (they have HUGE horns) who had gotten tangled in a fish-net. She wasn't too happy about the whole thing. It was very interesting trying to help this frightened and jumpy 1000+ lb cow with 18" long horns. (Did I mention they have HUGE horns?)
Fortunately we had technology on our side: we set up a few steel gates around her, and then grabbed hold of the end of the net with the bucket of the tractor. After we had lifted her head high enough that she couldn't move it much (If cows had tip-toes, she would've been on them), we were able to grab the horns and hold her steady while someone cut the net off with a pair of scissors.

Thank you so much for your prayers, and please continue to pray for me and the community.

David <><

Our Calendars Arrived Yesterday!

When the mail came yesterday, we discovered Our Calendars from the monastery had arrived!
Great photos of the monastery!
Check it out/order some at www.papastronsay.blogspot.com
We bought enough to give away as Christmas presents.
Another package arrived from Dave with some cards for family and a few friends. I guess he packed it all in one package to save postage. We turned them around and sent them on their way.

Dave has arrived safely

The above photos were taken by David during a retreat visit he made to Papa Stronsay Island in March 2009. Papa Stronsay is one of the Orkney Islands just off the north coast of Scotland. Check it out on Google Maps.

Here is an excerpt from our first email from Dave:

Things are going quite well here. I just finished my afternoon meditation, and will shortly be going to our perpetual novena to our Mother of Perpetual Succour, something we do every Saturday. It's truly a wonderful thing: we read the various prayer intentions to be offered to our Mother, and then pray a novena of Ave's to her. Then we have exposed adoration, singing hymns to our Lord and our Lady. (In case you hadn't noticed on the blog, there was an entry about this recently...and there is also a button that you can click to submit a prayer intention to our Mother of Perpetual Succour).

(Bob Note: the blog he refers to is: http://papastronsay.blogspot.com/index.html)

I've settled into the cell assigned for my use, which is dedicated to Blessed Peter Donders. You'll also be happy to know that the Crucifix in my "Ave Maria" is a cross of San Damiano...just like the one in your Parish's Chapel, only smaller.

(Bob Note: Our Parish is Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. The San Damiano cross is the cross before which St Francis heard God's call to "repair my church, which as you can see is in disarray." The original hangs in the chapel in the Basillica of St Clare in Assisi, Italy. Our chapel has a large replica of this magnificent cross in our chapel. The Ave Maria is a small niche in the cell where the brothers may pray as when they desire.)

A couple of things I'll mention in case you're interested:
We've apparently just finished a wall calendar for next year.
I haven't seen it yet...maybe there's information on the blog if you're interested in ordering a copy/copies.

(Bob Note: The Calendar is indeed available on the PapaStronsay.blogspot.com as is subscriptions to their periodical "The Catholic")

Please give my best to everyone, and assure them of my prayers.

Love,

David <>< (Bob Note: I will post notes from time to time to relate anything we learn from David that seems to be of interest. Check back from time to time. Feel free to leave comments, which I will forward to Dave. I'm not sure if he will be able to access this blog.)