This is part of Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors link-up. Visit his site, click on the blue link-up button, and hop around to the other participants. The link-up is open until Saturday, so join us, yourself, if you blog!
My church had a field trip to the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Benedictine monastery in Kentucky. Gethsemani is where Thomas Merton was centered. If you don’t know who Thomas Merton was, you can read about him on the Gethsemani web site, monks.org (which cracks me up). If you’d rather read about the fudge, go to the Gethsemani Farms site. Jane gave me some of their Bourbon fudge and I’m telling you what — that’s some good fudge, right there!
So we went. It looked very pretty, peeking through the trees.
The door was maybe not so welcoming. I think it said, “No gurlz alowd,” or something.
They had other doors that females could enter, so we went in them.
Here’s the interior of one of the chapels.
Benedictines make Shakers look Dionysian.
Across from the guest house door was this gate to a beautiful garden.
This was outside the guest house door.
This is made of ceramic. The big rectangle says, Let All Guests That Come Be Received Like Christ — Rule of St. Benedict.
Unless you’re a woman, of course.
Hey, I’m just sayin’.
It was, nevertheless, a lovely visit, and a fine time was had by all.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character goes where their gender is less than totally welcome.
MA
Alana
January 16, 2016 at 4:11pmOh, my gosh. “Not Han Solo” You made my week. I am going to include you in my Bloggers Roundup tomorrow.
Marian Allen
January 16, 2016 at 4:14pmWell, thanks, Alana! Proud to be included!
Prathamesh Deshmukh
January 9, 2016 at 9:54amImagine rodents and the like breaking into the ‘Gods Alone’ section. I can almost hear their cackles.
Not-Han Solo, though!
”The Buddhist flags The Dalai Lama puts there when he visits”. That breaks my heart. Dalai Lama coming to meet his dead homie.
Marian Allen
January 9, 2016 at 10:08amThanks for visiting and commenting. Yeah, GIRL rodents and the like! ha!
Thomas Merton died on the way to visit The Dalai Lama, which is even sadder.
jan
January 7, 2016 at 7:59pmBourbon fudge sounds yummy! I’ll have to check it out.
Marian Allen
January 8, 2016 at 8:49amOh, Jan, the bourbon fudge is AMAZING! Not cheap, though.
Holly Jahangiri
January 7, 2016 at 9:03amOK, I’m glad you captioned it first, because I was all like “WHAT IS HAN SOLO DOING HANGING ON THE MONASTERY WALL?” (Hey, I thought maybe they just had an awesome sense of humor, not that they really were in league with the Bounty Hunters.)
As for “No Gurlz,” you wouldn’t want a bunch of guys ogling you while you toiled – possibly without your robes – in the garden. Ugh. Gurlz. We all know God only put us on this earth to tempt and torment men. Because…why not, right? Wasn’t God into messing with men’s heads like ALL the TIME? Poor, long-suffering boyz.
Except they can’t do without us. There is no way into the world but through a mother. Muahahahaha. Must be really annoying to have to admit that.
All kidding aside, it does look like a lovely, peaceful place. (And that one door probably just led to the locker rooms.)
Marian Allen
January 7, 2016 at 10:59amIt was beautiful, and the liaison was very funny and kind. We saw Thomas Merton’s grave, and all the Buddhist flags The Dalai Lama puts there when he visits. They were homies, you know.
Jane
January 7, 2016 at 8:54amHoly Moly!
Nice tour. Definitely appropriate for Thursday Doors, since that’s all you were allowed to see of A LOT of the place. You know what that old gasbag said about walls: walls make good neighbors. Yeck. (With me, it took cash to make a good neighbor, but I feel like it was cheap for the price; they smile at me and wave now.)
I like NCIS’ treatment of women’s and men’s rooms: They just use’em as another conference area. 😉
Marian Allen
January 7, 2016 at 10:57amFrost. He didn’t mean it, though; he was being sarcastic or ironic or one o’ them things. And, yeah, cash’ll do it every time. 😉
NCIS — ha! yep, they do. lol Speaking of NCIS, I just heard that Michael Weatherly is leaving at the end of this season! What will I do? How will I survive without my weekly fix of Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo? 🙁
Jane
January 8, 2016 at 8:26amYes. Poor DiNozzo. I think he’s looked uncomfortable on the show since a teenager replaced Ziva. Tony needs his own team, and since Gibbs won’t give his up, he’s gonna have to go elsewhere.
Marian Allen
January 8, 2016 at 8:52amYou think he might get his own city? NCIS: HOLLYWOOD!
Norm 2.0
January 7, 2016 at 8:50amNice doors Marian, glad you enjoyed the visit there.
Dan
January 7, 2016 at 7:15amAt some point, I want to get pictures of the doors at a local convent. Shoe on the other foot as it were. The chapel is a stark place, I love your comment about the Shakers.
Marian Allen
January 7, 2016 at 7:58amYeah! We’ll start our own movement! “If you peeps are so holy, how come you can’t … er … cohabit, as it were? If college kids can have coed dorms, why can’t holy peeps? Eh? Eh?” hee hee hee