Slide Show

This year’s SAR Christmas party for the West Orange chapter fell on the twelfth day of  Christmas—the Solemnity of the Epiphany. Fr. Provincial, Charles Huse, and local community members Br. Anthony Torretti and Fr. Michael Rafferty were on hand to greet some 50 guests, including several friars from Tagaste Monastery, who attended the celebration. There was a great deal of finger food including sandwiches, cakes, and cookies, expertly prepared by the AR Sisters of Irvington, to satisfy the hunger of the guests. The main event of the afternoon was the singing of Christmas carols. Led by Elaine Jacobs at the piano, the SAR “choir” fittingly ended the Christmas season with an array of songs in English, Polish, and Latin. The only sour note was—ironically—a disastrous attempt at “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with the different groups assigned to sing each “day” struggling to coordinate with each other, prompting one person to suggest, in the midst of much laughter, that perhaps for 2009 the carolers should try singing about the 10 plagues of Egypt! As usual, the get-together was marked by a wonderful camaraderie and the mingling of new and old members that reflected the spirit of the West Orange chapter, now 30 years old.

Fr. John Gruben, OAR