Solar Eclipse!
We’re only a little more than a week into April and it has already been quite the month. Last week we were startled by the 4.8 magnitude earthquake only about 20 miles away from us in New Jersey, which rumbled through and shook the monastery for perhaps 20 seconds. Sisters could see the walls shaking, and felt the floor under us shaking up and down. It was a bit unnerving in the moment, but we had no damage so it wound up being an exciting event.
Then on Monday we were able to watch the solar eclipse. We went out after we prayed the 3pm hour of None in time to see the sun eclipsed a little more than 90%. We had intermittent cloud cover which made viewing more exciting, since we had periodic “total eclipse” from the clouds! At the maximum, only the smallest sliver of the sun was visible behind the moon.
After our eclipse-watching party outside, we went to the parlor to visit with the novice Sisters who are part of the Dominican Collaborative Novitiate in Chicago. We had a delightful visit getting to know them. The Dominican Collaborative Novitiate is a joint effort of a number of congregations of Dominican sisters who send their sisters in formation to a common novitiate for their canonical novitiate year. This year’s class has five sisters from three congregations - the Dominican Sisters of Peace, the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, and the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose.
Now we wonder, what more could this month possibly have in store for us?