This weekend we hosted five undergrads from Saint John’s University for a 24 hour “plunge” experience in the monastery. The fellows joined us for Eucharist on Friday and then were taken into the monastery and shown to their rooms on the formation floor. (The formation floor is where the monastic associates, candidates, novices and junior monks reside.)
They then joined us for dinner with the community followed by a short tour of the “house” and then Evening Prayer. I then showed Br. Simon hoa’ Phan’s video of Saint John’s at 150. A great discussion and question and answer followed. The men were given the remainder of the evening to spend on their own.
On Saturday they joined us for Morning Prayer, group Lectio in the Formation floor lounge and then enjoyed fresh scones made by Br. Aelred.
Br. John Hanson needed help with the apple harvest so the following pictures are of the men sorting apples for cider, pie making and the best for eating.
The press took a bit of “elbow grease” as you can see!
“With the help of many brothers!”
After the apple project…and you can see that the weather was excellent for being outside…we went to Eucharist and then lunch. I then closed the student’s visit with climbing the spiral stairway through the organ pipes up into the ceiling of the abbey church. this provides a new and “exhilarating” view for the students who have always looked up at the ceiling but never down. This is always a very popular excursion for the men!
