Tag: monastery

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Compline

I am ending the day listening to the compline prayer of the monks of Mt. Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York. I stopped by the monastery yesterday and spent sometime sitting quietly in the crypt that holds a statue of Our Lady. I love it there. It is so peaceful and quiet and that is what I was looking for yesterday.  The first plaque I saw in the bookstore really spoke to me. On it were inscribed the words of St. Benedict.

Listen with the ear of your heart

That’s exactly the word or words I needed yesterday and so I am listening with the ear of my heart. I hope that you will join me and maybe our two hearts will be knit together in prayer and listening. Peace and all good to you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQKy5QL-yt4]

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In the desert

Today I drove with my Mom from Tempe, AZ with my Mom down Route 60 south toward Florence, AZ. There was a monastery to see, a Greek Orthodox monastery at that. It is called St. Anthony’s Monastery. It is like no other monastery I’ve ever visited. I’ve never visited a Greek Orthodox church either. I can no longer make that claim. I was very impressed by this monastery which is literally in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. It is about nine miles south of Florence, AZ. Florence is home to a state prison and about 17,000 other souls. It is smack dab in the middle of the desert. It’s about 70 miles south and east of Phoenix.

St. Anthony’s is an impressive monastery. Five or six monks from Mount Athos came to the Sonoran Desert in 1995 and since then they have constructed this spiritual oasis in the desert. True to form I purchased a couple of loaves of bread in their store.  The temperature here today is in the lower 70s. That’s quite a change from -5 F last week at home. I’ve been enjoying the change.  I will write more.