1. The Fall colors. Mid-November being the most pristine time to visit. Just imagine looking out your 3rd floor guest room window at hills covered in Fall colors with a gentle breeze.
2. The Tridentine Mass. Every priest monk says daily the Mass of the Saints. And it is uniquely edifying to attend 7 am Low Mass in the crypt while many priests offer simultaneously the Mass at side altars. Before later enjoying a silent breakfast of homemade bread, homemade peanut butter, and coffee.
3. The pond. The trick to catching fish at the main pond across from the monastery parking lot is, I discovered, to fish the far south side of the shore next to a very old deck that reaches out from the shore. Which if I had stepped out on, it would surely have collapsed. My friend was able to sit on it, being half my size. I caught two fish, but I think he preferred I throw them back in, which I did.
4. The guests. Young men, men with their sons, visiting priests, all sitting with local laity in the nave participating in the Divine Office, and communing later in the Refectory. You will always meet interesting people there from around the world.
5. Every lunch and dinner starts with soup and salad, and typically ends with coffee and homemade cheese, French style. These guys could make a killing if they hypothetically turned their daily culinary experience into a restaurant.
6. The livestock are open and curious. I stopped for several minutes making eye contact with several cows chewing their curd curious at my gaze.
7. Across the road from them is the farm garden, I guesstimated to be 20,000 square feet, feeding nearly 60 monks. On a smaller scale, those proportions would support a family with say 4 twenty-by-twenty foot gardens. Something to consider.
8. The ride in from T-town, the southern route being my preference, through Wagoner and across Ft. Gibson lake. More scenic, and less hazardous to your tires, in my opinion.
9. Immersion in Catholic Tradition. The liturgy, architecture, traditional adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict, spiritual retreat, knowing this place is established to connect deeply with two millennia of Church history, visiting this oasis is a realist, hands-on immersion in Catholic Tradition.
10. Their homemade cheese. Goodness gracious it was good, when served as dessert. Some kind of pepper jack with licorice tasting seeds. Bought a large chunk of their Asiago and Gouda cheese before heading home, as I usually do. The Gouda is very Good.
Deo gratias.