The theme this year is “Fasting & Feasting”.

For further details and booking please visit glenstalecumenical.eventbrite.ie

This special series, taught by Nóirín Ní Riain celebrates Feasts and Saints in song, liturgy and story.

June 8^th – Divine Heart: The Feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.

July 26 – The Feast of Anna and Joachim

December 9^th – The Season of Advent: Recapturing the Spirit of Christmas

For details please contact Noirin Ni Riain at noirinchant@gmail.com

…of interest to organists, keyboard players, composers, dancers, listeners…

Following his highly successful workshops on organ improvisation here in the last four years, we are delighted to welcome Ansgar Wallenhorst to Glenstal a fifth time.  He has studied improvisation with Professor Günther Kaunzinger, Thierry Escaich, Olivier Latry and Jean Guillou.  A winner in the 3ème Concours d’orgue de la ville de Paris and laureate of the Grand Prix of the 43rd international improvisation competition in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2000, he has toured extensively in Europe, the United States and Australia.  For more details, see www.ansgar-wallenhorst.de

The Workshop will be held over three days:  Tuesday 13th August to Thursday 15^th August, with group sessions in the mornings (9.00 to 12.00) and individual lessons in the afternoons.

This year the focus of the workshop will be on Dance, and should be of interest not only to organists but to those interested in dance and composition.

Input from an Expert Choreographer

This year we are delighted to be able to enlist the expertise of Mary Nunan, who will work with the musicians from the point of view of the dancer in a session on Tuesday evening 13^th.    Mary Nunan trained in Hawkins and Limon techniques in New York and has also studied Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, Release techniques, Yoga and mind-body training through meditation.  She has been a member of the Dublin Contemporary Dance Theatre, and founded Daghdha Dance Company.  In 1986 she was Dancer-in-Residence at Thomond College of Education.  She has also worked on many high-profile choreographic commissions both in Ireland and abroad.

Organists of all standards are welcome to apply, either as active participants or as auditors.  Auditors who are beginners at improvisation may request individual tuition from Columba McCann (time and cost to be agreed according to individual needs).

Concert of Improvisations

The workshop will also include a concert of improvisations on the evening of Wednesday 14^th.

Cost

Participation in the workshop costs €225.  Non-participant observers €50 per day.  For further information please contact Fr Columba McCann at columba@glenstal.org

The Douglas Hollick Course: August 1st to 4th.

These three days will be devoted to individual lessons in a group context, with private lessons for an extra tuition. Organists of all standards are welcome to apply. Participants can expect to receive valuable advice on both technique and style and the atmosphere of the workshop, held as a group around the organ is extremely friendly.

An organist with an international reputation, Douglas Hollick studied with Peter Hurford, Marie-Claire Alain and Gustav Leonhardt. He teaches at the Birmingham Conservatoire and Clare College, Cambridge. In recent years his main area of interest has been North German 17th century organ music. His CD, recorded in Buxtehude’s church of Sct Mariae at Helsingor in Denmark Buxtehude, Master and Pupil (2003) enjoyed great critical acclaim. He has published articles on performance practice, especially in Choir and Organ. See <http://www.rvrcd.co.uk>www.rvrcd.co.uk for his recordings. He returns to Glenstal for a fourth time after three highly successful previous workshops which are attracting an enthusiastic following.

Cost: (150) plus accommodations and meals.   (Non -participant observer 50 Euro)

For information and to register, please contact Br Cyprian Love at Cyprian@glenstal.org  

For accommodations contact the guest house at Guestmaster@glenstal.org or call 061 621005

This three-day writers retreat is for aspiring and seasoned writers alike. This is not nuts and bolts writing course, but rather a writer’s retreat; an opportunity to come and draw inspiration from the spiritual environment and rhythm of Glenstal Abbey, from the facilitators, lecturers, and from the other participants

These three days will be about encouragement rather than critique, about building confidence and learning through the positive feedback of one’s own work and that of others.

With Eva O’Callaghan, certified writing facilitator, writer and teacher, Michael Joyce, writer, poet, and psychotherapist, and Marsha Eger, writer and teacher of chanting and  meditation and with special lectures on writing practice and style by authors and members of the Glenstal monastic community and special guest, poet Richard Halperin.

Cost: 450 residential and 225 non-residential. Registration and guesthouse reservations can be made by calling 061 621005 or emailing, guestmaster@glenstal.org

Monastic Vocation Weekend

Friday Evening June 14^th

to

Sunday Morning June 16^th

An opportunity for men of ages 22 to 45 to find out more about monastic life and to listen to God’s call by sharing the rhythm of the monastic day in prayer, silence, reading, work and community life.  There will be some reflection together on the monastic vocation, some input from the monks and an opportunity to speak one-to-one with a monk.

WHO IS IT FOR?

This might be for you:

• If you feel attracted to monastic life and wonder whether it might be for you;
• If you have thought sometimes that God might be calling you to religious life, but have hesitated to take the first step;
• If you would like the support of a small group as you enquire about monastic vocation.

To apply for a place or to find out more, email Vocations@glenstal.org or write to Fr Columba McCann OSB, Glenstal Abbey, Murroe, Co Limerick.  If you wish to apply for a place, please do so at least a week in advance, that is, by Friday 7^th June

For further information and tickets please visit  http://stringsandpipes.eventbrite.ie

7.00pm Solemn Mass of the Lord’s Supper

9.30pm Compline

Good Friday March 29th

7.00am Morning Office (Readings)

9.30am Morning Prayer (Lauds)

12.30pm Midday Prayer

3.00pm Solemn Liturgy of the Passion

8.35pm Compline

Holy Saturday March 30th

7.00am Morning Office (Readings)

9.30am Lauds

12.30pm Midday Prayer

6.00pm Vespers (Evening Prayer)

10.00pm EASTER VIGIL

Easter Sunday March 31st

8.30am Lauds

10.00 Mass (no music)

12.00 noon Sung Conventual Mass

6.00pm Vespers (Evening Prayer)

8.10 Compline

“This will be a tranquil day for everyone, as through the eyes of the psalmist, we will bless and give thanks for the earth and our being. You will carry away in the pocket of your heart a rich treasury of prayers that will walk with you forever.” Noirin Ni Riain

This course will explore the psalms, these age-old songs of praise which are at the core of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. It is appropriate that such an exploration should take place in the shadow of the Benedictine monastery where the psalms are the heart and soul of the liturgies here. The workshop will conclude with Vespers in the Abbey Church, where the psalms that Noirin will introduce you to, will be sung by the community.

June 7th

At a time when the Solstice sun spreads its delight around, Noirin celebrates the litugical feast of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the writer James Joyce. Don’t miss this opportunity to kindle creativity and spirituality in your heart and mind.

December 7th

Are you looking for meaning and new beginings this season of Advent & Christmas?

Has you inner life become dull and meaningless?

Then this is the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one this Advent.

Awaken to the sound of the Divine calling out to you in the presence and wisdom of Noirin Ni Riain. Feel the healing and truth of your own inner heart as we step aside from the cares and forces in our souls that leave us lonely and uneasy and emerge renewed and refreshed and ready to become fully alive again.

Cost: €85 per course day. (Price includes lunch, morning and afternoon coffee/tea breaks).

Each day begins at 10.00am and concludes with Vespers at 6.00pm

Contact: for further information or to make a booking, please contact Noirin Ni Riain directly at noirinchant@gmail.com

As we head into a new beekeeping season it is good to remind ourselves of the huge importance of bees to our world and its future. We know that approximately 70% of all the food we eat is dependent on pollination by bees and other insects. It was Einstein who calculated that without bees, human beings would only survive for four years. While largely confined to commercial beekeepers the sudden disappearance of  bees (CCD) is a cause of concern. We beekeepers must do what we can to ensure, not only the survival of the honeybee but of human life itself! That should provide all the motivation we need to get ready for the new season.

I came across an interesting snippet somewhere on improving the temperament of a colony by reducing drone brood to a minimum. It is generally thought that temperament is largely the result of  male influence, so if you have a bad tempered hive, removing the drones could help to calm them!

But then I read about reducing Varroa using drone comb as a Varroa sink. The idea is that since varroa prefer drone brood, we encourage the building of drone brood and remove it when it is full of varroa! But some people suggest that this also has its problems! We are expecting a queen to lay thousands of extra drone eggs. In a bad year, asking a poorly mated queen to lay extra drones maybe detrimental to the colony.

I have done very little in the apiary in the last month. The one big thing is that I now have a solar wax extractor in place. It is an experimental design and may need refinement as they year goes on. It does mean that all those bits of wax will now find a useful end instead of being stored and ending up as a meal for the wax moth.
It is time to get working on preparing frames and cleaning brood boxes for the new season and  maybe more important deciding on ones beekeeping strategy for the coming year.

Hints

Up to this point in the year ventilation has been the priority in the hive, but now that brood rearing is starting the priority switches to heat conservation. We can help conserve heat by closing feed holes, reducing entrances and adding inserts under Varroa floors.

At this time of the year it may be an idea to refresh our knowledge about the hive inmates. Over the next months I will deal with the queen, workers and drones.

Queen

The life of the colony revolves round the queen. She has a regal title but she doesn’t actually rule the hive for she has no real power. But without her the colony dies as she is the only fertile female, (the egg laying machine), in the hive.

She mates during the first month of life with several drones and spends practically all of her life in darkness deep in the hive, only emerging on two occasions:  to mate and later to swarm. She lives for four or five years but two or three is the norm.

In addition to laying eggs the queen provides cohesion in the hive through the secretion of  pheromones. This queen substance keeps the workers happy and secure. Once her fertility drops the chemical composition of her pheromones changes and workers pick this up and can become aimless, listless and even agitated.

The attendant worker bees noting the change in the queen’s health, feed an egg with royal jelly to build an emergency queen cell.  Sixteen days later a queen emerges in a process called supersede. She kills her own mother and takes control of the colony. A queenless colony will normally produce a number of replacement cells but the first out will destroy any potential usurpers.

The queen is laid in queen cells and fed continuously on royal jelly, a glandular secretion that is full of hormones and honey that makes the queen grow rapidly.  Three days after hatching she is ready to mate and leaves the hive if the temperature outside is 16 centigrade or higher and flies about thirty feet  into the air followed by a number of drones.

Once mated she is ready to lay and does so by backing her into one of the cells and attaching an egg to the rear wall of a cell with bee glue. She then moves to the next cell laying up to 2000 eggs a day. Each egg looks like a small grain of rice and is laid so that it stands upright. As it develops over the next few days it falls over onto its side. It takes three days to hatch from the egg and when it does it requires feeding.

If not destined to become a queen the diet changes to a diet of pollen and honey.  The larva then moults several times and takes on a crescent shape. Six days later the larva straightens out and stops eating. At this point the cell is capped by workers using a mixture of wax and proposes. During the next 12 days the larva pupates spins a cocoon and transforms from a grub to an insect .