Celebrating the Independence Day - Monastery Style

Today many people are still celebrating the Fourth of July with a long holiday weekend. We are back to work here in the monastery but we had a nice celebration on Saturday. We fired up the grill and cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, grilled garlic and roasted marshmallows for S'mores. We broiled lots of fresh veggies but had to do those indoors.  Some of the Sisters went mushroom picking. They came back with great excitement over their harvest! 

Since we changed our horarium a couple years ago and now rise at 4:30 a.m. for the Office of Readings we no longer stay up to set off Fireworks in the evening. But here in the monastery there are plenty of other ways to celebrate our Independence. Most importantly, our celebration is rooted in a special Liturgy of the Hours Votive Office and Mass for Independence Day.

Enjoy the photos! Click on one to enlarge and scroll through.