On his way down to the Catholic Marketing Network gathering in Birmingham, MIchael stopped at the Trappist monastery in Gethsemane for Evening Prayer. At the bookstore he met an old friend whom he didn’t know had joined up with the Trappists. Small world, but actually not – the Catholic world is pretty small. Anyway, he was going to eat dinner there before heading on down the road, but then saw that they were, in his words, serving "green beans and cottage cheese or something" so he decided to move on.

I sympathize. I generally don’t mind monastery food at all, particularly since I hardly eat any meat, but the one such meal that stands out in my mind was at the Holy Spirit monastery in Conyers where I was served (blech) creamed onions for dinner.

It is a beautiful thing, that these monasteries continue to preserve authentic religious life in the modern world….

But I got me this nice new panini grill from my dad and Hilary for Christmas, so I guess we’ll stick with that, here. Don’t know what Michael did…he’s on his own tonight!