From the Cave..... our Newsletter

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Fall, 2023

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  It is Fall at last. The weather is beginning to cool and there are some leaves here and there that are beginning to color. We had a mostly hot summer with highs in the 90’s which is not usual for us here in the North Carolina Piedmont.

Our garden was better this year with both our tomatoes and peppers doing well. The groundhogs managed to enjoy the zucchini plants which caused us to lose part of our normal crop.  The fig tree is showing a lot of fruit which is beginning to ripe.

Life continues on here at the Hermitage. Our routine of Morning and Evening Prayer each day with Mass on Sundays, Wednesdays and major Holy Days rolls on giving each week a sense of continuity.

The world news is disturbing again. The horrible attack by Hamas terrorists on the south of Israel with the resulting carnage of innocent men women and children can never and should never be forgotten.  The war in the Ukraine continues on with evermore civilian casualties. 

Hate begats hate.  There is the hatred by the Palestinians against Israel going back decades to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of their families during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. There is the hatred by the Israelis against the Palestinians due from the terrorist attacks by the PLO and from other such groups. Until there is some equitable resolution of the question of the millions of displaced Palestinians there never will be peace in the Middle East.

We need to keep praying for the millions of Palestinians who through no fault of their own have been caught up in this conflict, many of whom are Christian and many of them are Anglican. 

We need to also pray for those of the Islamic faith that have been innocently drawn into this mess.

There is a prayer that we here at the Hermitage have added to our daily offices. 

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead us all, we pray thee, from prejudice to truth; deliver us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in thy good time enable each of us to stand reconciled before thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

All of us, as Christians and especially those of us Religious Brothers and Sisters, should continue with every ounce of our beings to try to bring peace to this violent world.  We should avoid petty politics and the polarization that is gripping our nation, ethnically, politically and economically.

Won’t you join with us and pray for peace.

 +Peter COS