Thoughts on my Pilgrimage
Well, as most of you know, I have spent the last few days at St. Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers Michigan. We sort of had a week off from school, so I planned to take advantage of it. Its about a 3 hour drive from Chicago, so I got my little road trip excursion.
The Abbey (Episcopal) was founded in the 1940s and currently has 8 or 9 monks (I counted 8 but one was away on business). Its a beautiful place on about 100 acres in downstate Michigan. If you need some time away in quiet, I would recommend it.
I do have to say that the most absurb thing I have ever witnessed occurred, however. I have to relate this because its a great story. One evening after Vespers, we had all gone into the refectory for dinner. As is Benedictine custom, everyone eats in silence while a brother reads from a book. The meal was an odd linguine pasta. Apparently, the monks give up any form of meat during the entirety of Lent, so to bolster protein, they apparently use a lot of peanut butter. So, to answer your question, yes, it was linguine a la peanut butter. Meanwhile, one of the older monks sitting at this huge Reformation looking wooden lecturn was reading. He had a long white beard and was wearing the pointy black benedictine hood . I believe he was reading the memoirs of the guy on whom the movie Hotel Rwanda was based. So here we sit, eating this less that delictible peanut butter linguine listening to a monk who oddly resembles a gnome reading about Rwandan genocide. I expected Rod Serling to come out with a cigarette and say, "You are here, in the twilight zone..."
Last quarter was the Great American Honkie Incident; this quarter, the The Peanut Butter Linguine Gnome Genocide caper.
The Abbey (Episcopal) was founded in the 1940s and currently has 8 or 9 monks (I counted 8 but one was away on business). Its a beautiful place on about 100 acres in downstate Michigan. If you need some time away in quiet, I would recommend it.
I do have to say that the most absurb thing I have ever witnessed occurred, however. I have to relate this because its a great story. One evening after Vespers, we had all gone into the refectory for dinner. As is Benedictine custom, everyone eats in silence while a brother reads from a book. The meal was an odd linguine pasta. Apparently, the monks give up any form of meat during the entirety of Lent, so to bolster protein, they apparently use a lot of peanut butter. So, to answer your question, yes, it was linguine a la peanut butter. Meanwhile, one of the older monks sitting at this huge Reformation looking wooden lecturn was reading. He had a long white beard and was wearing the pointy black benedictine hood . I believe he was reading the memoirs of the guy on whom the movie Hotel Rwanda was based. So here we sit, eating this less that delictible peanut butter linguine listening to a monk who oddly resembles a gnome reading about Rwandan genocide. I expected Rod Serling to come out with a cigarette and say, "You are here, in the twilight zone..."
Last quarter was the Great American Honkie Incident; this quarter, the The Peanut Butter Linguine Gnome Genocide caper.
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