November 2025

Rejoice always,

pray constantly,

give thanks

in all circumstances…

I Thessalonians 5:16

Dear Friends,

As Thanksgiving approaches, I go to scriptures that I love and I find this one and pray:

Really, God? With all that has been going on in the world of late?Really, God? Give thanks in ALL circumstances? Then I wonder, Is this a faithful prayer?

I believe it is—as a first pass at a conversation with God about thanksgiving in difficult times. I imagine God being fine with the very human exasperation. It is an authentic response to the world’s pain, and the violence of so many kinds that we visit on each other. It is a lament—similar to the Psalmist’s How long, O Lord? It is human to cry out, to protest, to question. I think God is absolutely fine with Really God? S/He isn’t interested in a cleaned-up version of prayer, or posturing.

Really, God, is just a beginning though. Listening for God’s word back comes next. I hear Yes, Really. This is what is right now. O my people!!!  God laments with us. And then says There is so much more. See with my eyes! See the beauty, too. See the caring. See the love between people in the face of the cruelty and injustice. Remember that I am with you. Remember Resurrection.

As one of my friends says, more than one thing can be true.

Autumn has been fabulous in New York. The colors and the weather have made being outside a great joy. 

Tens of thousands are responding to the food need that has been spurred by infighting in Congress and the interruption of SNAP funding for so many people. Hungry people are being fed with love and care by new pantries, donations and service. Yes, really. This is true, too.

Brave, caring people are rising up to challenge government agents who are taking immigrants to detention centers—whether with or without legal standing. Advocates are attempting to get them released, visiting and showing support for those who have been detained. Yes, Really! This is true, too.

There are court cases and rulings to combat hard-hearted policies.

Climate activists persevere in trying to make a difference for the planet.

Every day parents care lovingly for children, teachers offer their gifts and kindnesses great and small are being done, lawyers and medical professionals offer pro bono services. 

Much more is going on to be grateful for. And that is without considering the daily gratitude lists that all of us—regardless of our circumstances—could write. There is breath, there is life, there is God!!!

As the long holiday season begins, practicing gratitude is a great place to start. I don’t think the apostle Paul is calling us to gratitude as an obligation or chastising us for the opposite. I think he is calling us to a path of greater life than we would have without it. It helps to keep me sane and grounds me in a sense of God’s graciousness when it seems the world is falling apart. God’s reign is showing up all over the place—in all these kindnesses, acts of love and gifts of life. Placing our attention there and rejoicing, praying and giving thanks are ways that we can do more than simply get through hard times. We are lifted up and reminded that God is present, that love is real, and trust in the promise of new life as it shoots up in tiny ways in our midst.

Let’s Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances…

Really.

I wish you a blessed time in the midst of all that is. Pray for those who are suffering and give great thanks for all God’s gifts. I do—and I give thanks for you!

With love and gratitude

E for the Companions.

 If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

 Meister Eckhart

Welcoming the New Year

Retreat for people in Recovery in 12 Step Programs

Holy Cross Monastery

West Park, NY

December 30, 2025 to January 1, 2026

Join Sisters Shane Phelan and E, and step into the New Year on good footing with a retreat for people who are members of any 12 Step Program of Recovery. See the Holy Cross website for more information

Please pray with us

In thanksgiving for the beauty of creation, for community--and all communities of good will--and for all God's gifts

and

For the people of Gaza and Israel, for just peace there and the across the globe. For an end to wars everywhere.

For the United States, for a spirit of compassion and responsibility to all the people and the planet to move our President, Congress and the Courts.

For an end to ICE raids, mass detention and deportations of immigrants.

For sharing of the earth's gifts and an end to poverty and the accompanying hunger, houselessness, lack of good water and medical care.

For love to flourish throughout humanity--for God, one another and the planet.

For comfort, companionship and healing for all who suffer in body, mind, heart or spirit.

For all who are dying, and those who love and care for them.

For those we love who have asked our prayers, and for those who have no one to pray for them.

For each of us to have the courage to ask "What is mine to do?" and to do it.

What we have to start sensing is that in the spiritual life, joy is embracing sorrow and happiness, pain and pleasure. It is deeper, fuller. It is more. It is something that remains with us. It is something of God that is very profound. It is something we can experience even when we are in touch with very painful things in our lives. If there is anything the church wants to teach us it is that the joy of God can be with us always – in moments of sickness, in moments of health, in moments of success, in moments of failure, in moments of birth, in moments of death. The joy of God is never going to leave us.

Henri Nouwen



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The Companionary's Japanese Maple, letting her leaves go, creates a carpet!

Annie, Oblate/CMA

continues in her hospice chaplaincy work and in helping to support her mother’s desire to age in place. At 93, her mom is quite remarkable! Annie rejuvenates by praying matins four days a week with Shane and E, and with silence, naps, books, walks, Pilates, and keeping the windows open whenever possible

Dario, Oblate/CMA

In October, Dario spent a week in Dallas, where he co-organized a symposium on macrovascular infiltration in cancer — a collaborative effort with his colleague at UT Southwestern that brought together several international speakers. While the week was busy with scientific discussions and planning for next steps in the project, he managed to balance it out over the weekend by joining the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, as he does every year, reconnecting with fellow musicians and friends and soaking in the tunes.

Shane, CMA

In late September we welcomed our Coffee Table Community for a potluck in honor of Chris Gerbi, one of our members, whose beautiful stained glass windows were blessed at Grace Church in Millbrook NY. Chris and her husband have lived in Virginia for years, so this was our first chance to meet in person! 

We had several days of retreat in early October. They ended early for me, as I visited my family in Illinois. That was a wonderful, relaxing time of hiking, kayaking, and baseball (watching, not playing!).

Now I'm back, heading into the fall and winter. I'm getting ready to begin offering healing prayer at a local church during Advent, with hopes of planting a seed. I'm diving deeper into the Enneagram as a path to my own growth as well as greater service to those I companion. And I'm watching the leaves fall, and putting up the bird feeders.

E, CMA

Yes, it was a wonderful gathering of the Coffee Table Community, here at the Companionary. Our Zoom Bible Conversations have been rich and deep—and there is something special about some of us gathering in the flesh. What a gift.

Retreat in October feels like it is a long time past, but I have memories of rich and deep time in prayer and reflection at Holy Cross Monastery. I’m doing some work with emotional sobriety and receiving regular downloads from the Spirit on how to proceed with that. It is not for the fainthearted!

Finally, we are on the cusp of Advent at the Companionary. A few years ago we began keeping St. Martin’s Lent, an old tradition of Advent being the same length as Lent and having a penitential feel. We don’t keep it so penitently but do relish a longer period of reflecting and preparing for Christ’s coming anew at Christmas.

Join the Companions'

Coffee Table Community:

Communing with the Scriptures and Each Other

Come for rousing conversation about the coming Sunday's Readings, and for prayers

Fridays at 9:00 a.m. online

Write us for the link at

companionsma@gmail.com

Inquiring minds want to know: Why Coffee Table? Before the pandemic we gathered for Eucharist, with Bible Conversation, around a coffee table at the Companionary,

the home base of the vowed members of the Companions. We still gather in person on occasion, but using Zoom lets us to welcome people at a distance. It's easier to hear!

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