By now most of you will have surmised that the annual Oblate Retreat in October will have to be cancelled once more. While the Monastery is slowly opening and some guests have already been welcomed, the logistics and safety for our group have yet to be worked out. Meals and gathering for twenty or more Oblates would not yet be safe. Planning for this year’s gathering is not yet complete because of illness and recuperation for some of the planners. We know that we as Oblates have come to value these gatherings and the hope is that next October will be a time for a very happy reunion for all of us.
Photo of August moon after Compline
The Oblates of Mount Saviour Monastery 
Thank you Eve. i hope and pray those who are sick will have a speedy recovery. Sheila DeCosse
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Sorry to hear that people have been ill. In my prayers… Jeffrey
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Blessings Eve and to our Oblate sisters and brothers,
Thanks for the notification. Bittersweet news. Good that Mount Saviour is opening cautiously; troubling that some planners were ill, and lamentable that we will not be able to gather again this year…but prudence prevails.
While reading your note, some lines from Thomas Merton came to mind that I’d like to share, followed by a wish for us all:
“When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children, when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho, we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash – at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the ‘newness,’ the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, all these provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.”
― My wish, is that in the coming year, when we are gifted with the Cosmic Dance, we keep in mind, we do not dance with God alone. And, our Oblation “renewal” might include the awareness that we dance with “other partners” too: sister and brother Oblates, and professed members and friends of the Mount Saviour community…and beyond.
“Through belief in the Threeness; And confessing the Oneness” (a Celtic doxology on the Trinity),
+ Pax +
Brother Nicholas, Obl.S.B
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