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MAY 2015

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Résidence Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur
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Friday 1st. Father Adrien left the Miramichi Hospital for Foyer Assomption in Rogersville. A step forward. With his longer beard, not everyone recognised him there, nurses from the clinic for example.
Saturday 2nd. We didn't rake the numerous leaves last fall, and even after the snow and the melt they don't look half bad.
Yesterday there was a little sunlight reflecting off part of the lake for the first time this year.
Sunday 3rd. Father Graham's mother advises caution on the highways on account of deer. This alert was passed along to Father Clovis, who sets out for the far reaches of Québec tomorrow.

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Brother Henry
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Father Maurice

Monday 4th. Father Innocent, aided by Brother Glicerio, bored holes in the ground next to our vegetable garden to put in new, metal posts for the raspberry canes. Father Clovis, chaplain to our sisters, got away in his Ford Focus just before lunch. He is headed to Havre Saint-Pierre Québec, a place none of us have been to, to fill in for a fellow Eudist priest for a few weeks.
Tuesday 5th. Brother Michael was looking over the monks' cemetery with Maurice Gallant: the crosses, wood painted white, are not holding up the best. It may be time to consider something new. This cemetery is just outside the back door, across from the dairy barn.
Wednesday 6th. A pipe burst in the annex laundry room, flooding a bit of the corridor. Good thing we have an aqua-vac. A friend was by the guest house and left us extra copies of a recent New Freeman vocations issue, where our Father Innocent talks about his life and life's calling. He and Brother Henry share the experience of reading a textbook description of monastic life as young people, and the description striking them in what was eventually a definitive way.
Thursday 7th. Robert Stone's Earth Days film this evening recounted the birth in 1969 of the Whole Earth Catalogue, which any hippy should remember. As Clovis' absence takes one of us the sisters to say Mass each day, we are four monks and two priest-monks for Mass each day. For some reason, when we ‘slimmed down' this week, Mass attendance increased.
Friday 8th. Brother Glicerio was clearing away the cut branches from the apple orchard this morning. There was quite a bundle. He used the Yamaha Mule, which was originally bought to allow Brother Henry to make it back and forth from his hermitage every day.
Mindy the cow, who will have her first calf in the upcoming weeks, was taken from the milking herd, where she was getting a feel for life there, to the calving pen: a more elegant setting but one to which she did not take right away, preferring to chase two senior cows around for a bit.
Saturday 9th. When we went downstairs for lunch, a woman we do not know was walking around, asking where the honey was. She explained that she'd heard the honey we sold was better than any other. Seeing that the store was closed, she'd decided to drive around to the monastery side, head on in and get some answers. Up we went to open the front door office for her. She bought five bottles.
Sunday 10th. At Foyer Assomption in Rogersville, Arthur Doucet is also a resident. Arthur was for many years the monastery's handyman, carpenter, and a close friend to the monks. He's been able to catch up with Father Adrien, who says he likes the Foyer.

Monday 11th. Each Monday, one of the two principal cook starts work again. Our cooks improvise new recipes for us. Today to top off a fine meal we had a delicious salad with lemon in the home-made dressing. Father Adrien made his way to the Miramichi today to re-visit the surgeon who'd operated on his foot in March. This surgeon is a man of few words! Adrien's foot seems to be on track.
The geo-thermal installation remains on pause: last week some encouraging clangs were heard inside, but this was Lucien fixing the door to the music room once again, not the re-commencement on new heaters.
Tuesday 12th. Brother Michael made a Viking chair from two pieces of wood, and set it on the side of the lake. It looks good, and is comfortable. Word has it the lakeside hermitage has had to be renovated as regards the floor. This hermitage is perched at the bottom of a hill, directly on the water, and formerly served Dom Alphonse during his time as hermit.
Wednesday 13th. The fields are wet with rain and melted snow. It being May, the farm begins the important planting cycle: turning fields over, working them, fertilising, and hoping that conditions dry enough for planting will arrive sooner rather than later.
Someone gave us each a prayer shawl, hand-knit.
Thursday 14th. This morning before dawn we could hear the lake frogs singing for the first time this year. They've got strong voices!
We received a free CD sampler of music from a new "Cistercian Voices" 3 CD set. It is the 900th anniversary of the founding of Clairvaux and the record company wishes us a happy anniversary year. The monks and nuns recorded during offices are from French, German and Spanish-speaking houses, plus a foray into Italy (Valserena).
The fields are being fertilised with chicken manure, giving a fresh, country ambience to the neighbourhood.
Friday 15th. For Father Roger's birthday, he (and we) had a chocolate cake. Dom Clément the Superior of Mistassini arrived late afternoon. He is our Father Immediate and dropped by to see how we are doing, and to encourage us. Next week he'll visit Dom Bede, Father Maurice and Brother Henry in Dieppe.
Saturday 16th. Dom Clément spoke to us in chapter. It feels good to have him with us once again. Today, he'll meet with each of us one on one.
Father Innocent has been working the soil and planting his vegetable garden. Recently, he is obliged to go out to make a fire in the greenhouse wood stove less often.
Brother Stephan continues welding the recreated septic tank truck, all the while overseeing the extensive preparations of our fields for planting, and everything else. Some fields are literally next door to the monastery. Others, and others still are a short drive away. We saw familiar faces behind the wheel of various farm equipment, and some new ones, too.
Sunday 17th. We've had unseasonably warm weather the last few days: hopefully this went a ways to drying the ground. Today, rain. Dom Clément presided Sunday Mass. Monk visitors being fairly rare, it was striking to hear this different voice.

Monday 18th. Father Roger is at the sisters this week; it will be the last week for us replacing their chaplain Father Clovis. At Mass here, two more priests are present: Father Alphonse Richard and Father Léopold Leblanc, who are on retreat.
As in previous years, we received grant money from the federal government to give a student a summer job. This year a grade 10 student has begun his tenure by cleaning up fallen branches from the lawn.
The property is greening up. The dandelions are looking bigger and bouncier than ever.
Tuesday 19th. We received a few hundred Mass intentions from a nearby parish. Times are changing: we used to get so many Mass intentions that we were the ones who had to pass them along. Brother Michael has drawn sketches of ways to frame the Calvary Abbey road sign, and each version looks good. The sign will show well against the fairly austere landscape here.
Father Adrien is doing less and less well. Father Graham gave him the sacrament of anointing this morning. Nurses wondered today if he may not be alive much longer, but no one knows. The foyer he is in is remarkably like home itself. Relatives of Adrien's who are older than he walk the same corridors. Old friends drop by his room regularly.
On the farm, a Normande-sired bull calf was born. This is the second Normande, but we have yet to produce a female.
Wednesday 20th. After Vigils a thunder storm lit up the chapel windows as we sat in silent prayer. When it was finished the lake frogs began singing with more vigor than ever: maybe they like these storms? Father Innocent drove to Saint John to hear confessions. During a walk just in front of the guest-house, Father Alphonse Richard noticed some fiddleheads growing on our property, harvested them and offered them to us for lunch.
At 2:00, Father Adrien died peacefully at Foyer Assomption. His family was present. Brother Michael was about to visit him. Few have been or will be present for as many moments of Calvaire as Adrien was. An honest searcher, a gentle heart, a lot of fun.
Thursday 21st. We are praying Offices and Masses for Adrien. This is our first death in nine years. In Moncton, Brother Henry had his once-a-year visit to a doctor whom he had to see a lot more often years ago, when he was less well. Nurses remember him and were happy to be able to say hello. In our own corridors, the geo-thermal workers have begun stirring again.
Friday 22nd. The reception of Father Adrien's body was held at 2:00. Within a few minutes family and friends began arriving. As we walked into chapel for Compline, his family were talking happily.
Saturday 23rd. Our Archbishop Valéry Vienneau presided the funeral Mass. Archbishop emeritus André Richard was at his side. The Church was full. Dom Bede performed the final blessing. Visitors who hadn't met Adrien's family before were struck by how joyful they are.
Sunday 24th. Father Roger took a walk in the afternoon. East of the monastery is Brother Henry's former hermitage. Roger says the snow has pushed the porch away from the building.

Monday 25th. Yesterday we learned that not long after we saw Dom Bede Saturday, Bede was admitted to hospital in Moncton for his gall bladder. He is to be operated on today. Also yesterday, our annual retreat began, in the evening. This year's retreat is by Father Jean-Marc Laporte. He's a Jesuit from Edmunston, currently serving in Halifax. Our conferences are at 9 AM and 4:30 PM. Brother Stephan suggested we work a little less, read, pray and rest a little more during the retreat.
Tuesday 26th. The latest phase of geo-thermal work has meant strange or loud gurgling sounds, along with sounds of banging, sounds of drilling. As they might say on the Miramichi: let ‘er rip, fellas! In Moncton, it turned out that Dom Bede's surgery did not happen yesterday, but was re-scheduled for today. We are praying for him. Father Jean-Marc is off to a good start. He is giving us a Jesuit's-eye view of Pope Francis, himself a Jesuit.
Wednesday 27th. This morning we received the happy news that Bede's surgery, though long, went well. Those who would see him this week were encouraged to find him doing well considering the surgery he had to undergo. Geo-thermally, the installation of the new transformer got underway here: Father Innocent had to go to Moncton to get some material for this. This afternoon the supply truck arrived at the dairy barn just as milking finished. A small, local company offers us a plethora of material for cleaning and milking, all lined up along the inside of their truck. Today we scored a special brush for scrubbing the walls of the milking parlour. With temperatures outside rising to 86° Fahrenheit, the supply people were regretting that the air-conditioning in their truck was not working.
Thursday 28th. Father Serge Comeau was here for Mass. Like a lot of our friends, he does not seem to age. The new transformer is now in our small electrical room. Just the right size, it is suspended a bit from the floor. Father Laporte says he has never had to give conferences in two half-hour doses a day as he is doing presently, but seems used to it. Today while speaking of Francis' vision of evangelisation in Evangelii Gaudium he pointed out that it is a picture of life in the city: places like Rogersville don't seem to be anywhere on Evangelii Gaudium's ‘map'. He said Pope Francis' forthcoming environmental encyclical will be the venue where the Pope will likely speak of and to rural communities.
Friday 29th. Dom Bede made his way from the hospital back to Dieppe, happily. Father Clovis cut some lilacs and brought them inside. Brother Léo's brother and his wife dropped by for lunch. The milk tank in the milk house overflowed because the milk had not been picked up on time. Three consecutive milkings meant six cows' worth too much milk for us to hold.
Saturday 30th. As the retreat reached its end, Father Aaron Knox joined us for prayers and Father Jean-Marc presided Mass, blending his own style of presiding with ours. At the elevation of the Blessed Sacrament just before the Our Father he sang "Through Him, With Him and In Him" using a melody many of us have not heard in a long time: sung music for Mass that seems to fit well, and is catchy.
Sunday 31st. This evening the barn cats relaxed in front of the big barn doors through which hay goes in and out, while further to the east cows from the heifer barn were grazing on their large field. How many cats do we actually have? That is one of monastic life's more difficult questions.

Our Lady of Calvary Abbey
11505 Route 126, Rogersville NB, E4Y 2N9
Tel : 506 775 2331
E-mail : CalvaryAbbey@aol.com