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Dear friends,
Spring is finally here in full glory; the trees are leafed-out and the lilacs are already waning, making way for summer blossoms. The ducks are finally laying again up on the farm, and the roof gardens at the new city convent are thriving. Sadly, the rapidly changing atmospheric conditions can also bring violent weather, as we've seen throughout the midwest. Let us keep the many suffering people of that area in our prayers.  Sincerely,
The Community of the Holy Spirit |
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 Religious Orders Meet
Earlier this month Sr. Faith Margaret and I attended the annual meeting of the Conference of Anglican Religious Orders of the Americas (CAROA). This year the meeting was held at the Sienna Retreat Center
in Racine, Wisconsin. The facility and the setting are both magnificent. Perhaps it is apocryphal but we have heard that this retreat house, when functioning entirely as a convent, could house up to 700 sisters!
Fifteen communities were represented at the meeting, most communities sending more than one member. We all appreciated the opportunity for shared worship, taking counsel together, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, and the camaraderie of fellowship. There are many challenges to the religious life in this day and age and it is a true blessing to hold in common, even for a short while, the griefs and joys we all experience in meeting them. Beyond that, or perhaps because of that, there was a lot of just plain fun-merriment and cheerfulness being dearly held, if not widely known, virtues of our professed way of life!
As we return to our various communities located across the US and Canada, we carry with us a refreshed sense of commitment to our own community mission and vision but also to the larger, deeper purpose of carrying and embodying the gospel message to the world. The religious life has much to offer. As individual religious we are grateful because we have experienced this fact first hand and as communities, whether actively growing or consciously dying, we are on fire with the willingness to impart it to others.
Christ is risen! Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!!!
----- Carol Bernice, CHS |
A Wealth of Birds
For many reasons, Spring at Bluestone Farm is a time of many wonders. The early plantings are in the ground, the trees are greening, our bees are active, and, a source of continuing delight for me, the migratory birds have returned. I've seen Scarlet Tanager (the black-winged redbird) flashing in the treetops; the beautiful Rose-breasted Grosbeak poking among the white apple blossoms, giving its characteristic chink; Northern Orioles (I liked the name 'Baltimore' better) whistle their flutey call. My wife Suzanne watched one tugging at some string on the grape arbor outside her window to weave into its pendulous nest. Wanting to be helpful, she hung out lengths of yarn and ribbon for the bird, which gratefully carried them away. I hope to find that colorful nest when the leaves are down in Fall. Boxes placed in our garden hold the nests of Bluebirds and House Wrens. 
And I'm somewhat personally involved with two nesting birds. A few weeks ago I noticed what birders call an LBJ (Little Brown Job) flitting from the small boxwood right outside our front door. I learned that by looking straight down into the shrub, I could see right into a tiny, perfect nest. I soon identified the Song Sparrow, which proceeded to lay one, then two, right up to six brown-mottled, jellybean-sized eggs. Now our comings and goings have to be with care, so as not to unduly frighten the little female. 
I encountered my other nest on the porch at St. Cuthbert's. A Robin was trying to build on the too-narrow ledge at the top of one of the porch columns. I watched for the better part of a week while twigs and grass and mud accumulated at the base of the column, but with precious little on the ledge itself. When it became clear this bird wouldn't give up, one morning I drove four nails into the edge of the ledge. Using this support the Robins completed the nest by the end of the day, and soon laid several sky-blue eggs. Now there's another place by which I have to tiptoe ----- a small price to pay for the delight these small bundles of feathers bring to ear and eye. ----- Bill Consiglio |
New Habits
Do you know what the CHS Sisters are wearing these days? Check out this CHS blog entry to find out not only what our new habits are, but why we've changed them!
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 Breaking News
Just before this newsletter "went to press" (love those old-timey phrases), the Song Sparrow's eggs began to hatch! The blurriness shows just how active these new little lives can be.
Easter comes again and again and again ...
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