A Summer-y Summary
We have had one busy summer here at St. Joseph’s— so busy, in fact, that many of the monastery “happenings” haven’t ended up on the blog! This “summer-y summary” will hopefully help to fill in some of the gaps and share with you the many exciting things that have been going on here on Crisp Road …
In July, our beloved Passionist Oblate and long-time monastery employee Debbie (foreground) officially retired, and we held a little party in her honor with the other staff members. But she made it clear that this isn’t “goodbye” — she still very much considers the monastery a spiritual home and doesn’t intend to be a stranger!
We’ve also been getting used to the “new normal” of pandemic precautions … like daily sanitizing of frequently-used doors!
Then came a new wardrobe addition … thanks to the generosity of a benefactor, we were able to get reusable cloth face masks for each community member, so that we can stay safe when we have to leave the monastery grounds or interact with visitors.
One day, Sister Miriam Esther’s father, Chris, teamed up with our maintenance supervisor Ronnie to repair our ailing chapel doors — many thanks!
Is that a violinist teaching a guitarist to play cello?? Thanks to an instrument generously loaned to us by our friend and former postulant Kathryn, Sr. Cecilia Maria and Sr. Miriam Esther have teamed up to hopefully enhance our monastery music in the future!
Our beloved Mother Catherine Marie was also home for a month from Italy — it’s always so good to have her among us!
And finally, we can’t forget the epic annual FRIDGE CLEANING!
