Snowy Mardi Gras

The days leading up to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the penitential season of Lent are traditionally held as special days of festivity, the famous Mardi Gras.  It may seem a strange way to celebrate, but being of a practical turn of mind, I had planned on a painting party for Tuesday, Ash Wednesday Eve, as it were.  New closets had recently been built, I was eager to put them to use, and I had a crew of inexperienced painters who needed free scope to practice their skills on surfaces that for the most part would never be visible.  So it looked like Tuesday would be a fun and productive day.

St. Teresa of Avila once said that if you want to make God laugh, make plans.  I guess my planning tickled the Most High enough to create a blizzard Monday night followed by a sunny Tuesday just right for sledding.  What could I do but submit to the Divine Will?  In the early morning hours a placed a note outside the novitiate common room that read:  “Dear Sisters, your assignment this morning is to go outside and praise God for His gift of snow.  Dress warmly.”  Dutiful as always, the novitiate Sisters bundled up so thoroughly that it was difficult to recognize one from the other.  Our single sled was used to great advantage on our slopes behind the monastery.  No one hit a tree this year either.  Here are some pictures of our snow adventures.

Sister Angelique sends Sister Veronica down the slope

Who needs a sled?
Sister Miriam Rose rolls down the hill

Sister Joyce (left), Sister Prabha (face down), our Sisters from India,
are honorary novitiate Sisters on snow days!
Sister Miriam Rose and Sister Angelique on the right