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Before summer begins we spend our time getting ready for the influx of guests both to the town and to the monastery. During the summer months Norcia plays host to many tourists and inside the monastery you can hear everything that happens, especially when you live in the center of town and try to sleep at 21:00. The monastery plays host during summer when we will have 10 young men (2 Canadians, 1 German and 7 Americans) staying with us for our annual Summer Vocation program held in July. This year’s group is the largest to date and we have been working hard to get things ready for the first arrivals next week, especially important has been the clearing out of the old diocesan archive room in order to turn it into a dormitory and the installation of new bathrooms and showers. Every monk has lent a hand in either carrying boxes of books, moving shelves or making sure the workers get something to eat to keep them going.
We also welcomed into the community 2 new postulants on Trinity Sunday, (a Texan and an Italian). This means that the new space came at the right time, a real gift of Providence, as was our ability to give God due honor and glory for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi last Thursday when we celebrated a Solemn High Mass, Solemn Vespers and Adoration with Benediction, which we were only able to do thanks to the growth in numbers and through the prayers of our friends and benefactors.