Our mandatory evacuation order was lifted on September 15, and the brothers came home on September 16, which happened to be the feast of Saint Cyprian. In spite of everything, the timing was perfect, because the refrigeration repairman also came on the 16th, and we are slowly getting up and running. Still to come, a repair on the broken water main to the retreat house and a pretty damaged section of a portion of the new road, for which cost the US Forest Service has committed to reimbursing us.
My list of thanks goes on and on: to Fr. Zacchaeus and Brother David who stayed behind with me and kept singing our liturgies and celebrating the Eucharist and cooking up meals; to our incredible staff, particularly Michael Richards, our genius head of maintenance, and all who stayed behind and helped in so many ways––from ember watches and guides for the fire fighters all the way to Wade calmly making coffee every morning and quietly working away in the cloister garden and feeding left-behind cats with ashes falling around his head; to the absolutely amazing firefighters from the US Forest Service, the Vandenburg Hotshots and CalFire, the teams flown in from LA, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico, who endured battling the blazes in record breaking heat and saved all our structures, not to mention our lives; and of course to all of you who have kept following us through this ordeal with your thoughts and prayers and generous donations.
All this of course in the midst of us still observing the protocols for the Coronavirus is going to make this a memorable year. But we are prisoners of hope.
Many grateful blessings from us to you, and prayers that all may be safe and sheltered, joyful and free.
In the name of Jesus,
Cyprian, OSB Cam
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