When I first heard sisters refer to the Mount as "the house" (which was before I became a postulant), it threw me off a bit. What? The house? It sounded so weird. It's a monastery.
But...
Now the Mount is my house, and I get it. We have a kitchen. We have a dining room. We have a living room. We have bedrooms. We have guest rooms. We have family rooms. We have a basement where we store things. We have friends over. We have chores.
We just have it all on a big scale. Because we have a big family living here.
I am slowly learning how slow the process of gaining a "wide view" can be. But, as you witness more and more diversity, it happens. Living in a different home makes it happen. And yes, helping with the process of setting up, welcoming, hosting, and cleaning up when we had our friends over for the weekend made that widening happen again for me. I spent some extra time in the kitchen. I showed some people where to find things. I helped to rearrange the furniture and clean the tables after dinner. I did all these things at my house, along with the rest of my family who lives here.
Experiencing change also causes that widening to occur. And as Elizabeth Dreyer, our presenter last weekend told us: "Think about no change in life; it's hell." I am grateful for everything that this change is teaching me.
Let us walk in the holy presence.
P.S. Speaking of change - the view from my window in late August and late October.
