Community of the Holy Spirit
September 2011
Laymen's Club Visits the Farm
Teatime with My Demons
Book Review: Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road
A Brief History of Maple Sapping at Bluestone
Quick Links
Dear friends,

As you can see, we are a bit late with the newsletter for last month. September was admittedly a wild and woolly month, and included the now infamous Irene's visit to the Northeast. (Though I must confess the lateness of the newsletter is entirely the slippage of the editor -----   we can't blame everything on the storm!)

In spite of the horrendous damage this hurricane caused in some places, we were extremely fortunate. But during the days since Irene blew her way out of the area and back to sea, we've heard so many, many stories of how people have helped each other, face to face and hand to hand. The deep desire for life that thrives in the human spirit was visible everywhere.

And so, as autumn gets down to its serious work of burnishing the leaves, tilting Earth's axis to the north and chilling the air, we are thankful for our rich harvests this year, for our safety, and above all, for each other.

Blessings,

The Community of the Holy Spirit


Laymen's Club Visits the Farm 

Sr. Emmanuel in the main garden with members of the Layman's Club
The Laymen's Club of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City visited Melrose recently. Read more about them and view their photo album of the visit. What a delight it was to have them all here!
 
Teatime with My Demons

Demon, awaiting tea 

My friend Brother Bede likes to tell a story about the Buddhist saint Milarepa. When demons came to his cave to torment him, Milarepa said to them, "How kind of you to come. You must come again tomorrow. And from time to time we must converse." And Milarepa invited the demons in for tea.

 

The story surprised me the first time I heard it. When I think of saint-plaguing demons, I picture Anthony the Great battling in conflicts so loud that passersby think he's being attacked by a band of robbers. Like everyone, I have enemies: people who wish me ill, or who have hurt me deeply whether they meant to or not. But my worst enemies dwell in the cave of my own heart. "Love your enemies," said Jesus, "and pray for those who persecute you." In addition to loving and praying for those who hurt me, might Jesus mean these inner enemies of the heart-my personal demons?

 

.... read more  

 Suzanne Guthrie, Resident Companion

Article written for and published in The Christian Century 

Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road

Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim RoadPaul-Gordon Chandler, Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two FaithsRowan and Littlefield, 2008

This is a fascinating book, and one that I hope will find a great many readers. It introduces Mazhar Malouhi, a young Muslim in Syria who found a focus for his life in the person of Jesus Christ and yearned to share his discovery with everyone, but especially with other Mulims. He had to struggle, was alienated from his family and his country, became a refugee and a well known writer but remained always a seeker. He especially admired Gandhi and studied his way of peaceful resistance. I am only part way through the book, but couldn't wait to recommend it to friends.

Especially today, I want to know more about the faith of Islam, the lives of Muslims and the possibilities inherent in our friendship. We are followers of a man whose life reflected God's  love so clearly that we call him the Christ. And that life demonstrated how God's love includes even those whom we might despise. Christian mystics have taught that no statement about God can be wholly true. To say that God is love, or that God loves us, must be followed by the fact that God's love is not the same as my love or yours. You may have read or heard of J.B. Phillips' Your God is Too Small. It describes the way humans have thought of their deities for thousands of years, and it continues to be true for all of us, one way or another, today.

Read this book! It has already taught me a great deal about both Islam and Christianity, and I
am enjoying the experience.

 Mary Elizabeth, CHS 

Inspiration from Lily Yeh

I was recently made aware artist Lily Yeh. The Center for Transformative Action is bringing Ms. Yeh to Ithaca (NY) as their keynote speaker for their 40th anniversary, October 23-25 this year. She is the founder of Barefoot Artists and has transformed the lives of children and adults all over the world.

Ms. Yeh spoke at the 2009 Bioneers conference in San Francisco, who wrote this about her:

Fueled by a belief that art is a human right and that artists can create a foundation for profound social change, she's worked with a school for migrant children outside of Beijing, genocide survivors in Rwanda, neighborhoods in north Philadelphia, and impoverished communities all over the world. She focuses on creating public artmosaics and murals-----  with community members as a form of healing and empowerment.

Enjoy Ms. Yeh's inspiring talk to the Bioneers gathering here:
Lily Yeh - Bioneers Conference - Part 1
Lily Yeh - Bioneers Conference - Part 1
Lily Yeh - Bioneers Conference - Part 2
Lily Yeh - Bioneers Conference - Part 2

Lily Yeh - Bioneers Conference - Part 3
Lily Yeh - Bioneers Conference - Part 3

Catherine Grace, CHS
Evaporator truly boiling!
[Click on the photo
above for live action!]
A Brief History of Maple Sapping at Bluestone 

 

Books could be written about the entire sugaring process or about the negative effect of climate change on sap flow, but I'm limiting this article to just the evaporation procedure. In a good year we collect about 2000 gallons of sap. That's about 9 tons of liquid to haul from the woods to the evaporator, to be eventually reduced to 50 gallons of sweet syrup.

 

The first small scale effort involved tapping a few trees and boiling down in pots and pans on the kitchen stove. Then a neighbor gave us a square stainless steel container that fit over four burners on the stove. It worked better and a sweet fragrance filled the house, but the kitchen was like a sauna. Then a big, 50 gallon evaporator pan appeared and the operation moved to the porch.

 

First we bought two burners from our propane dealer which had two inch nozzles and ran like jet engines. They produced intense local heat which burned the inside of the pan but never got the sap boiling. We abandoned these after that season.

 

Next I tried setting up the pan so we could burn wood. This worked, but the cinder block stand let out too much smoke and gave the syrup a rank flavor. Try again.

 

Next came one, then two, camp-style burners, each producing about 45,000 BTU's. These got the sap evaporating, but it never came close to an actual boil. Our serviceman tried different regulators on the tank and switched to a wider feed line, but to no avail. We have used this setup for the past few years, but I was determined to get an actual boil going which would speed up the process dramatically.

 

This summer I saw ten inch, 100,000 BTU burners advertized in a farming catalog. I bought two. This week the serviceman came again, installed a high pressure regulator and we lit the burners. Great! But now for the real test: I set the evaporator on the burners, filled it with water, and fired up the new burners. To my great excitement and real joy, after only half an hour, a steaming, rolling boil filled the pan! Now we're ready for next maple season, and just have to hope the weather will cooperate to give us plenty of sap to boil.

 

 Bill Consiglio, Resident Companion