Angelus

A little break in the garden reporting. I have been attending the General Chapter (meeting) of my monastic congregation at St. Anselm Abbey in Manchester, NH.

It’s just 6:45 in the morning and we are gathered in the dimness of the abbey church waiting for Matins and Lauds to begin. The monastic choir is quite full; yet, one senses a stillness that is almost tangible. It’s not totally quiet, though – there are coughs, the rustling of papers and the shuffling feet of the late arrivals. The stillness is something different. It’s like a scale that has just come into balance. This stillness is equipoise. At the same time, however, it is packed with energy, like runners waiting for the starter’s gun to fire. The monks await in readiness the start of Morning Prayer.

 All at once, the stillness is broken. A bell begins to ring. It tolls three times – the Angelus. The kneelers fall into place and the monks drop themselves onto them, some effortlessly, some with the weariness of age. “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary . . .” Why are we doing this, anyway? This is not meant for us. The Angelus came into existence for the layfolk to pray, while the monks and nuns were praying in church. It was intended to be substitute for lay people to take the place of the Liturgy of the Hours that the professionals were reciting. Three times a day – morning, noon, and evening – the bell summoned the faithful to this prayer. They would stop where they were and bow their heads.  The familiar image of a young girl at silent prayer comes into the mind’s eye. “and she conceived of the Holy Spirit. . . Hail, Mary, full of grace”

The bell tolls again, three times. I sneak a quick look around me at all the heads bowed in prayer. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” We are beginning this day recalling the very beginning of the story, the greatest story ever told, as it is known. The Almighty is asking this young girl, the chosen of the Chosen, to become the unwed mother of her people’s messiah. “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She accepts and say ‘yes’. Does she know? How can she? But she trusts. This day has barely begun. Do I know? How can I know what will happen today. I mutter the words, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” I want to believe and put my trust in God alone. In reality, I’m thinking about all the things I have to do today.

A third time the bell rings three times. “And the Word became Flesh”. In the silence of love, the Creator of all things visible and invisible fills the womb of this young virgin. In the iconography of the event, the full of grace bows her head in acceptance. Along with my brothers, I bow my head in wonder and adoration of this ineffable mystery. “and dwelt among us.” The God of heaven and earth has become one of us and dwells among us now, this day, here with these monks from across the country. This is my prayer as we finish, “Help me to see You in these fellow human beings, these incarnations of God’s love. Hail Mary, full of grace.

The bell begins its final peal. Nine times. “Pour forth we beseech Thee, O Lord, thy grace into our hearts. Yes, Lord, pour your grace into my heart. I need your grace to love these creatures, all creatures, as you love them. Oh, I can be nice to them well enough. But, can I see You in them? Love You I them? Worship You in them? “that we, to whom the mystery of the incarnation was made known by the message of an angel. . . “

All goes still again.  We continue to kneel in silent prayer as the first rays of the morning sun pierce the stained glass. Poised. Ready to begin our sacrifice of praise. Somewhere in the distance, the abbot knocks. Obediently we rise to our feet. From the other end of the room, a young monk intones: “O Lord, open my lips.” The silence of the night is broken and; once more, this band of black-robes takes up the fragile chorus, “and my mouth shall show forth your praise.”

Crunch Time - Part 1

In my work career, I often had occasion to say, “Every job has crunch time and this is ours.” Well, for a gardener in the Northeast, mid-May to mid-June is crunch time. During this period, it finally warms up enough to get the more sensitive plants into the ground. The last few weeks have definitely been crunch time for me, which is why there have been no new posts. I have spent most of the daylight hours for the last three weeks getting both seeds and transplants into the garden’s soil. Today is the first rainy day in weeks, so I will try to catch up.

Potting up the seedlings

Crunch time for me has three distinct areas: seeding, hardening-off, and transplanting. While the activities are distinct, they are all happen simultaneously. There is a very small window in which these key gardening elements need to be carried out in order to insure success.  This is what makes the work so intense. For me, late spring has always been a juggling act at best, given the demands of work and the weather. I am so blessed that this year I have all the time I need; and, the weather has been extremely cooperative. Even so, I have struggled to get it all done. Fortunately, almost all of it is finished now.

New Jersey's cool,wet spring

While early spring was relatively wet and cool, late spring has been pretty close to ‘normal’ for our area. By mid-May, the weather settled down and temperatures began to rise. The soil was now warm enough to direct seed most vegetables. I sowed some bush beans, zucchini, cucumbers and sunflowers. I planted my favorite Italian beans earlier than I probably should have; but I decided to take a chance. The worst thing was that I would lose some seed. So, I was pleasantly surprised when they all seemed to germinate. Encouraged by my success, I planted another row a week later and a different variety a week after that. We should be eating fresh beans much earlier this year!  Zucchini was a little more hesitant, but eventually they popped up too. Cucumbers went into the ground right before two days of torrential rain. They are also in the wettest part of the garden, so I was not surprised that germination was spotty at best. The good news is that I had started some seeds indoors in pots, so I can use these now to fill in the gaps. Sunflowers at the top of the garden obliged readily and are already about 6” tall. I love the sight of them, especially in late afternoon when they catch the last rays of the setting sun. The practically glow!

Seedlings in the greenhouse

Hardening-off is probably the trickiest of the gardening tasks that need to be done at this time. If you don’t know, hardening-off is the process of gradually exposing seedlings that have been started indoors to the outside world. In my case, this means beginning to move all my eggplant, pepper, and tomato seedlings from their climate-controlled comfortable indoor environments, to the harsh reality of direct sunlight, wind and wide swings in temperature. The first to take the plunge were the eggplants and some of the chile peppers. These vegetables have the longest lead-time, so they get started first. They were also the ones who had spent some time in the school’s greenhouse. With them, I needed to be extremely carefully. If I proceeded too quickly, they might go into shock and that would delay production.

Plants hardening-off

Once again, I was fortunate. We had a series of warm but relatively cloudy days. These are ideal conditions for hardening-off, because it is the least stressful for the plants. I have several wheeled carts with shelving that I use for this purpose. The plants initially spend two or three hours outside the first day and then are wheeled back inside. The next day, they might stay for four or five hours (this really does depend on the weather) before heading back indoors. This process continues until they have been exposed to the elements for ten to twelve hours. Then, if the nights are warm enough, they stay outside all night, or, if not, they come inside. Gradually I added the remaining peppers and began with the tomatoes. By the week before Memorial Day, almost all the seedlings were spending most of the time outdoors. It was now time to begin transplanting!