A joyous Pentecost to you all! Summer is here ahead of schedule in the Upper Squamish Valley, and we’re looking forward to seeing even more of our vegetables sprouting in the garden. At last count, we have appearances of potatoes, gladiolas, spinach and asparagus, with squash and zucchini still incubating indoors. Up on the mountain behind our monastery, the shrubs and kinnikinnick are growing and full of flowers. We’re also pleased to report that a sister spotted our first bear of the year about a month ago, at the end of April.

Every year, between Ascension and Pentecost, we join Mary and the Apostles for a beautiful silent retreat. During this time we pray for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our hearts, the Church and the world. Whereas Christmas and Easter have Octaves prolonging the feast (eight days of celebrating the same Office as the feast itself), this third big solemnity of the year is prolonged by the liturgical season of Ordinary time (which is really anything but ordinary). The first Pentecost launched the first community of the Church, described in a reading that is very dear to Dominicans:

Having celebrated intensely the mysteries of our salvation in the liturgy of the past several months, Pentecost now sets us loose to live out the consequences of Jesus’s Incarnation, death and Resurrection in our daily lives. Most of all: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). And so, we try to do!

Before our retreat began, though, we have a few beautiful daily things to catch up on. The first is that one of our sisters finished a project of building a planter box for our back cloister. The trellis is for sweet peas and perhaps, one day, a climbing rose.

The second was a novitiate hike further up our valley. “Up” may be the operative word, as the trail was a pretty steep climb in some sections (not pictured, because it took the camera sister both hands to climb!). It was worth it, though, with an incredible waterfall at the top and viewpoints along the way. As monastic father St. Anthony the Great said (paraphrasing): Monks need play occasionally in order to be strong to serve God. Nuns too!

Finally, we are so grateful for the first customers who ordered our soap. We’re working away at crafting more and, in the meantime, are now offering free shipping on all Canadian orders of $100 or more. If you haven’t checked out our soap yet, you can find it here. God bless!