Most of the vacationers and tourists in the area have also returned home, so the shops are quieter. They have changed to fall hours, opening only three afternoons a week. The gardeners, meanwhile, are "putting the gardens to bed."

The carpentry department is busy trying to get their outdoor projects finished before the temperatures really drop and the snow comes. Such projects include insulating the roof of St. Martha’s office, stabilizing tiny St. Paul’s dormitory, which is on a dock jutting over the river, and rebuilding what we call "the tea dock," which, after several major repair jobs over the years, is finally beyond such help.

The farmers, of course, with the help of men guests, are bringing in the harvest.

Though the farm is 10 kilometers away and most of us do not work on it regularly, there are ways in which the rest of us participate. The summer’s weekly evening farm bees only ended recently. The last few were harvesting bees, and mostly we picked the wonderfully abundant green beans.

During the day, while the men, led by Chris Hanlon, harvest one crop after the other—broccoli, tomatoes, corn, squash, carrots, etc.—the women do the food processing, led this year by Maryana Erzinger. This includes everything needed to preserve food for the winter—washing, chopping, blanching, canning, freezing, as well as making sauerkraut, pickles, soup stock, etc.

Autumn is the season when the most help is required on the farm.

Some of the work is done in all-house work bees, involving everyone who is physically able and not essential elsewhere.

The chicken bee is quite an experience for the new guests, many of whom have never seen chicken before it was plucked, gutted, cut, and neatly wrapped in cellophane packages.

But the working together is satisfying, and the pizza lunch did a lot to cheer up the troops.

At the end of the day, 227 chickens were "sitting" in the freezer. We raise them primarily for eggs, and most of those put up this month will end up as soup for the sick.

Another bee, the potato harvesting bee, is good outdoor physical work. There is something wonderful about gathering such essential food, knowing that it will feed us all winter.

After the close of our six-week family vacation-retreats at Cana colony, there was a bee to clean the cabins, cook shacks, and grounds and put things away for the winter.

Since we live on donations and pass them on to others in need, we regularly have sorting bees for clothing, books, fabric, and "miscellaneous," that is, everything else.

Yesterday evening, we had a bee to mail out our begging letter, which many of you will receive. And, if this copy of Restoration came to you by mail, it was sent out in this month’s Restoration mail-out bee.

As you can see, we work together quite a bit.

Harvesting honey, however, requires fewer workers. This year beekeeper Patti Birdsong, with several helpers, harvested 750 pounds, approximately three times the usual amount. The increase is due to the fact that our bees spent the summer at the farm of friends whose land is much more fertile than ours, and who consequently have many more blossoms than we do.

Though we didn’t have any big celebrations during the past month, one major event in early autumn, celebrated very simply and bringing us much joy, was the reception of new applicants on September 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady.

What we call "applicancy" is the equivalent of a novitiate in religious communities, and this formation period lasts one year and nine months. This year, three applicants, two men and one woman, were officially accepted at supper. They are: Nick Agirovski, Derek Pinto, and Trina Stitak.

One traditional symbol marking this event is a chocolate cake with white icing, on top of which stands a plain black cross. This cake symbolizes the sweetness of the cross.

"The cake carries the symbol both of salvation and our vocation," Susanne Stubbs, the director general of women, explained. "But our vocation is not to be feared, because it comes with a promise that whoever lays down his life will find it. As you find this life, you will have joy."

The other symbol, given to each new applicant, is the brown folder, which contains some of the essential writings of Catherine Doherty explaining her spirituality.

These were blessed by Fr. David May, director general of priests, after which Mark Schlingerman, director general of laymen, explained their significance.

The lives of our applicants are the same yet different from when they were guests. They continue to live our Madonna House daily life with both staff and guests, but they now live in applicant dormitories and have special classes and their own directors of training.

Visitors continue to come, and two priests gave us beautiful letters when they left.

Fr. Roger Labbe came from Quebec City to improve his English in preparation for the upcoming Eucharistic Congress. He said that, although he certainly wasn’t bilingual yet, he had learned a lot besides English, including help in acquiring the heart of a child.

Fr. Francis Azah, an associate priest from Ghana, said that he saw incarnated here everything he had read about in Catherine’s writings. Amazingly, he said that he was very touched by our poverty!

Another international visitor is Galya Knol. A catechist, a friend of the former MH Magadan, and the godchild of Miriam Stulberg, she has come from Magadan for a two-month visit.

On September 15th, the National Post, a daily newspaper for all of Canada, had an entire section about women. One of the articles, which took a look at young women entering religious life featured one Catholic nun, one Anglican nun, and two Madonna House staff, Joanne Kuntz and Aliz Trombitas. It also included quotes about vocations by Victoria Fausto, director of training for the women applicants, and Susanne Stubbs.

Let’s conclude with some news in brief. Fr. Bob Pelton is teaching a course at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, a local Catholic liberal arts college. Tom White, Doug Guss, and Sherman Everson attended a furnaces trade show in Kingston. Ellie Pettersen and Hugo Isaza, both of whom work at the residence for our elderly, took a short first aid course.

We continue to celebrate Sunday Byzantine liturgies once a month, and this month it was their beautiful liturgy for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

This last item of news hasn’t occurred yet, but it is very close to happening, and it is too important to wait until next month.

The new bishop of our diocese is about to be ordained—Bishop Michael Mulhall. Details next month.

Please pray for us as we do for you.