However frightening the advent of global warming may be, today it is bringing unusually late and sustained autumnal beauty to the Hudson River Valley. The colorful peak of leaf color is usually gone by October 2oth. Today is the 6th of November and the peak is still with us and hanging in spite of the early morning rains. I find the phenomenon both awesome to behold and scary in the prospect it may foretell.
Here in the monastery of Mother of Perpetual Help, we have finally recuperated from the great expenditure of energy necessary in hosting our Regional Meeting of Redemptoristine Contemplatives. It was an occasion of tremendous joy in sharing our life, our mutual concerns, our deep and long-held friendships and our life of prayer. Although the sisters who came represented five monasteries in only three countries, the group was even more multi-cultural in that sisters originally came from not only the U.S. , Canada and South Africa but also from the Philippines and Thailand.
I recently added to the recommended reading list in the side bar a novel which I enjoyed very much. (On Kingdom Mountain by Henry Frank Mosher)I would like to close this post with the words of the personal credo of the novel's main character, Jane Kinneson.
"Jane Hubbell Kinneson
The Duchess of Kingdom Mountain
That which I have learned I leave as my legacy:
Close all gates behind yourself.
Every generation should have its own Bible.
The walls we erect to protect ourselves from early pain
often shut us off from later joy.
To immerse oneself in the natural world is to share a
universal thread with every living thing.
Always declare yourself to the person you love.
Live each day not as though it is your last, but as though
it is the last day of the lives of the people you meet.
All the best stories are about love."
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