Today brought a lovely fog (along with a month’s worth of rain). I like fog. It silhouettes the bare trees gorgeously. It lies caressingly on the skin. It envelopes one as one walks, offering an hospitably protective privacy and a stillness that is unaffected by motion. Fog absorbs sound as much as cold and snow make it crackle. Fog is a gift of spring that is usually out-heralded by warmth and flowers. It is an essential consequence of the acquaintance of warming air and a lingering coldness in the ground. Continue Reading

A Reflection by Prioress Sr. Phyllis McMurray

Spring has paid us a delicious couple of visits over the past month. We all know that it’s not the real thing; neither do we care. We all seem to share a collective willingness to accept the gift and get out in it, most of us with some physical activity. I have taken Spring’s visits as opportunities to take to the road on my bike. Continue Reading

Ric has written of the Benedictine qualities of his canine companion, and the Psalms often depict animals gamboling about and rejoicing before God.  And of all the many events of this past week in my own life, the one that stands out the most just now concerns another interspecies encounter. Continue Reading

Though I sense I am a minority among Oblates on this score, statistically there are a great number of women and men over 30 who are not settled in a marriage, yet not called to a vocation of celibacy, and not always easily classifiable as “single.” Continue Reading

My paternal grandmother, “Mom,” was the most stable person I’ve ever known, both in the Benedictine sense and otherwise. Continue Reading