A Busy Week of Hospitality

This has been a busy week for us at the Mustard Seed House but no matter how busy we are we always enjoy doing hospitality. Friday evening we hosted Brian McLaren, Karen Ward and 10 others who were here for a learning party. Tom made his famous Teriyaki Salmon. I always leave the salmon cooking to him and concentrate on the stir fry – our first garden stir fry for the year. Nothing like bok choy, tatsoi and kitsuna straight out of the garden. It was great to see Brian & Karen again. We just wished that we had longer together to discuss the world’s problems.

A Quiet Break

Today the house is very quiet. Eliacin, Ricci, Gabriel and Catie are all in Puerto Rico so the basement is deserted and there is only one person in the apartment above Tom & I. It seems strange to have so few people around and I think that both of us will be counting the days until the Rosarios return and the Geels move in.

However quiet does not mean inactive. Over the weekend I managed to plant out a number of seedlings in the garden and have almost finished weeding the last of the flower beds – it goes so much slower when I am on my own. Friday we have Karen Ward, Brian McLaren and some others coming for dinner. I will make our first garden stir fry of the season and Tom plans to make his famous teriarki salmon, rice and a tropical fruit plate – not all local or organic but it is a wonderful feeling to be able to serve guests at least some of our garden produce. Wish you could join us!

I have learned many lessons from the garden. One of them is about sharing. When the harvest comes in there is usually far more than we can possibly consume on our own. Unless we share it goes bad. Seems like a good spiritual principle there.

A Little Child Will Lead Them

From Christine

Yesterday we had a wonderful Easter celebration at the Mustard Seed House. My favourite part was led by 4 year old Catie who had us all cut out crosses, decorate them and then hang them on the doorposts.

Read more…

MSH Celtic Easter Celebration

Opening Sentences

Let all creation,

give thanks to the Risen Lord.

All: Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Filled with His praises,

give thanks to the Risen Lord.

All: Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
He is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep.

Give thanks to the Risen Lord.

All: Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Stepping out boldly, we claim resurrection.

Give thanks to the Risen Lord.

All: Give thanks to the Risen Lord!

Download here our Celtic Easter Celebration Readings and Prayers.

MSH Easter Celebration 2007

Christ is massacred in His members

Quote of the week.

In the whole world, throughout the whole of history, even among religious men and among saints, Christ suffers dismemberment.

His physical Body was crucified by Pilate and the Pharisees; his body is drawn and quartered from age to age by the devils in the agony of that dis-union which bred and vegetates in our soul, prone to selfishness and to sin.

All over the face of the earth the avarice and lust of men breed unceasing divisions among them, and the wounds that tear men from union with one another widen and open out into huge wars. Murder, massacres, revolution, hatred, the slaughter and torture of the bodies and souls of men, the destruction of cities by fire, the starvation of millions, the annihilation of populations and finally the cosmic inhumanity of the atomic war: Christ is massacred in His members, torn limb from limb; God is murdered in men.

• Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation