Where has the time gone,..

...maybe it's buried under the snow. Though we seem to be getting less than Boston!

We had a wonderful advent season at the center; lots of family, friends, mild weather, construction work, animal chores, retreats and so on.

Little did we know that was just a warm up for the months to come!

First came the snow,

This made it necessary to shovel our way into the house and especially the chapel!

Shortly after the new year the Board of the Mary Theotokos Monastic Center had it's annual meeting.

Bishop Paul Chomnycky and Bishop Emeritus Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church came up from Connecticut. We had a board meeting where the our progress report was gone over and afterward a lovely dinner at nearby Juniper's restaurant attended by family, friends and several local priests in hopes of developing a relationship with local parishes through which the center may be used as a resource for parish events, youth gathering, adult retreats, etc.

If that wasn't exciting enough the very next day we traveled to Burlington to attend the installation Mass of the new Bishop of the Diocese. 

Bishop Christopher Coyne!

It was a powerful and resonating spiritual event. Bishop Coyne's homily was captivating and hearing the words of Cardinal O'Malley from Boston was simply inspirational. Seeing the whole event, with the procession of Clergy, Deacons, Religious Sisters, etc topped off with our new Bishop stopping by his mother in the first pew to hug her as she wiped a tear from her cheek was so moving to behold we all watched in reverence and awe. It was a wonderful experience for my family to be in attendance as school and parish representatives; we talked about how amazing it was all the way home and recounted the message the new Bishop had for the church in Vermont. A message of renewal, work and faith. Family members watching on TV for the live broadcast on EWTN even said they saw my wife on TV!

What A BLESSING  to be a part of that celebration. 

But there wasn't too much time to catch our breath because that night, Fr. Sean, and Brothers Eduardo and Manuel from the Franciscans of the Primitive Order in Boston arrived for a silent retreat of prayer and vocational discernment.

It was a wonderful time having them here. Daily Mass, Daily Adoration, Confession and even St. Blaise blessing of the throats.

When the silent retreat was over it was time to break bread together with a huge celebratory dinner and even meet the new pet, Snowflake the bunny.

The next day before I drove these Holy men back to their priory  Boston, they decided to do some snowboarding on the mountain behind the center.

It wasn't a first time for Fr. Sean who was shreddin' the gnar in deep pow and tearing up the walls!

But it was Brother Eduardo's first time ever hittin' it and he held on tough through many tricks and some substantial wipe outs!

As a vocational director Fr. Sean sure knows how to use extreme sports to help his novitiates hear God's voice!

Just before we left town, they wanted to visit the ice fishing shantys on Wiloughby Lake, just so they could say they walked on water. Man was it cold out there on the ice in the wind!

What a blessing to have them here for that week.

Next up it was time for me to stop over in Chelmsford, MA. to work on the Mens ACTS retreat coming up in Waltham next month,

and then it was time to see the wife, the two teenagers,some other parish kids and chaperones and our Priest off to Emmitsburg MD, Mount Saint Mary's Seminary for Mount 2000!!!

If you've never been it is hard to explain, but with over 2000 teens in one huge room experiencing Adoration, Mass and all sort of speakers and events together, everyone at one point or another feels God's heart speak to theirs.

And that is what it seems like it has been for us this past few months at the Mary Theotokos Monastic Center, experiencing God through these events and visitors. 

Next we push through winter, await the birth of many goats and begin our work towards establishing a Catholic Art Center here to celebrate, teach and invest in the apologetics of beauty with young people as Pope John Paul the II called the use of the arts in his "letter to artists"

We'll keep you posted!

To Christ through Mary!

"shreddin the gnar!"

A blessed time of fellowship, just before Thanksgiving as we head to Advent!

Since the last blog post it has been a busy but blessed time at the Mary Theotokos Monastic Center.

As this time started we first had a visit from a retreatant who has been here three times before.

As soon as she got out of her car the goats came to make new friends.

Little did she know that her quiet tranquil and prayerful weekend would involve carrying buckets of water to her apartment above the chapel and blowing fuses as well as crazy weather that would go from spring to winter and back to spring again.

It was wonderful to sit with her from time to time as well as to receive the gift of her two recent books which are an inspiration to any reader.

  Just about the time she packed up to leave our next retreatant came up from Connecticut.

He's been here so many times before it was like having family arrive. He put in some hours of work, many hours of conversation and before we knew it he was on his way back into the world, hopefully recharged, refreshed and reconnected.

Shortly after his departure Barrett Adams was back with his assistant Melissa to finish some of the construction work. The first phase was to move the ramp and deck out of the path of the snow roof slide.

After that came the snow guards...

and then continuation of foam insulating the church and chapel, some replacement windows will be next.

During this time we had one birthday,

And one first communion party.

In the midst of these two large parties full of friends and families arrived our next retreatants, a family from North Carolina for a working retreat. And with me still recovering from surgery it was an tremendous help to have them here.

In very short order they poured themselves into jobs that included rerouting water run off in one of the barns, plumbing repairs and much much more. Not to mention taking over all the animal chores on the farm, all this when they weren't in the adoration chapel.

Even their little dog Jose got into the act, whether riding along on the tractor to fetch sand and gravel;

or chasing turkeys & hens back to the barns. He took to the farm life right away and not only did he bond with his hero, the buck named Aaron but he also formed a romance or sorts with the main farm dog Girly and those two ran all over this farm

 having fun all day, blizzard or spring.

But when the goats needed rounding up our herding dog Girly could take it easy while Jose took matters into his own hands, er paws.

As if having one skilled contractor on retreat here wasn't enough, his friend came up next for the weekend.

They put their backs into all sorts of projects and even were able to build a much needed horse barn extension.

The horses were very grateful, as if they knew what the weather was bringing.

Then it was processing time for the turkeys and that work got under way quickly, on a really warm day that melted all our snow and gave us a little taste of mud season.

And then it started snowing again.

The time we shared with this family and their friend was wonderful. We enjoyed large family dinners and had very spiritual conversations way into the night. The fellowship that came with their visit was rewarding and enriching for all of us. What a blessing to have had them here for that week.

Once everyone had gone, we woke up on Thanksgiving to a fresh foot or more of snow.

I guess that means we're in winter now.

Oh, and we had one more visitor, but this one will be staying for a while.

Snowflake, is enjoying exploring the house and has made fast friends with Girly too, who treats her as her own puppy. But we all know she belongs to Emily in whose arms Snowflake spends most of her time.

So it has been a busy but truly blessed time where so many have come to us and brought with them their love and fellowship, truly enriching as well as incredibly helpful in a time when we REALLY needed help,..God provides. Just like He provided us with a used all wheel drive vehicle with brand new studded snow tires just when our own car bit the dust a day before the snow began falling.

"Jesus I trust in you"

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from

The Mary Theotokos Monastic Center.