On August 27th, we celebrated Foundation Day, and marked 58 years since Mother Ruth founded our Community. We gathered at Melrose, and shared beautiful liturgy and a bounteous feast. (
Click here for more pictures.)
The Community is especially grateful to the Reverend Winnie Varghese for joining us and delivering an inspiring sermon. In her sermon, she related the notion of the City of God to the Indian story of
King Mahabali, whose reign was a time of perfect justice. Everyone treated each other kindly, everyone had enough to eat, no one took more than they needed, and there was respect among all people. What would it take, she asked us, to bring about the City of God, a time of perfect justice, right here--right now?
Following Mass, we gathered around a long table, and enjoyed a meal that was home-grown, home-made, and prepared with love. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, sliced heirloom tomatoes and salad, pickles, breads, and apple pie. And even home-made wine, thanks to our Community vintner, Sister Heléna Marie!
We also celebrated the 58th Profession Anniversary of Sister Élise, who joined the Community at the time of its founding.
The day was filled with music: Sister Élise and Sister Heléna Marie entertained us all with music prior to Mass, and at the end of the meal, we sang the Profession Hymn for Sister Élise--a hymn she personally picked out for the Community in those early days, and which has withstood the test of time.
It is our Community's tradition to light a candle at the beginning of the meal, at the place-setting for the Sister celebrating her Profession Anniversary, and the candle burns throughout the meal and through the singing of the hymn. It is a small, but meaningful, way to signify the light of the Holy Spirit shining within, and to honor the devotion and commitment of the professed life.
Sister Élise told us all of the first time she ever set foot on the land that was to become Melrose: she and five other Sisters had been seeking out a suitable property for a branch house, and had spent six full days driving to visit real estate listings in Westchester, Dutchess, and Putnam counties. They had looked at attics, at basements, at potential chapel sites, for days. On the last day, in the late afternoon, they pulled into a driveway in Brewster, and before they had even stepped out of the car, all six exclaimed, together, "This is it!" Sister Élise observed, "The Holy Spirit certainly brought the Community to this place." Indeed, we might each say that about our own journey to CHS. And how grateful we all are!
This summer, our tomato crops are doing just fine! You might remember the cold, rainy summer we had last year, which led to most farmers losing their tomato and potato crops to "Late Blight." This summer's weather has been about as different as it could be, with weeks of heat and drought. But our tomatoes have loved it (as long as we kept watering them!), and we are being blessed with a harvest of pounds of heirloom and paste tomatoes every day. 