A Blessed New Year 2009

The first thing I want to mention in this blog is to recommend to you a video of Christmas in the Basilica. You can see this by going to the Conception Abbey web site:

http://www.conceptionabbey.org/ and then scrolling down to the bottom of the screen on the left you will see items listed, click on the one "video of Christmas at Conception." I think you will enjoy it.

And I pray you all had a beautiful and blessed Christmas. You know the feast continues for the Church until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord on January 11, 2009. So while the business world can hardly wait to begin Christmas already in October or early November, the Church does not start celebrating until December 25 and then continues until the feast of the Baptism.

We have had an unusual winter so far this year. We get ice, snow, sleet and then it gets warm and after a few days begins all over again. For Christmas itself our parking lot in front of the basilica was a sheet of ice. We did try to treat it and made it a little more passable. The Basilica was actually pretty well filled for midnight Mass. Last Friday we had temperatures up into the lower 60's so all the ice and snow disappeared. Friday night and into Saturday morning it rained, then changed to freezing rain and finally had some sleet and snow. So everything was slick again. Today it is supposed to get up to around 50 degrees.

Brother Pachomius was finally able to make it home yesterday. He is in his 4th year of theology at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon. Portland had some big snows in the last week or so. So, while he was scheduled to fly home last Sunday, he was not able to leave until yesterday, December 26. It seems that almost all flights out of Portland were cancelled because of the snow.

In closing I just want to say: HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you.

A BLESSED AND MERRY CHRISTMAS

Once again we are approaching that holy and blessed feast of Christmas. The most important thing it seems to me is that we take time to reflect on what we are celebrating. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." That is what we are truly celebrating -- God's love for us, his creatures, who are made in his image and likeness. So with all the parties and all the gift giving let's all try to remember what the feast is all about.

With this blog I wish all the readers of this web site a blessed and Merry Christmas. May Christ truly come to each of you anew as we celebrate Christmas, 2008.

Here at Conception it looks like we will have both snow and ice on the ground for the feast. Last Thursday night we had some ice. Fortunately not as much as last year so we did not lose our electricity, heat etc. However, parking lots, sidewalks and country roads are all quite slick. Our parking lot in front of church looks like an ice rink.

Ice on trees and and on top of the snow from the recent ice storm.

Today there is a lot of decorating going on in the house. Tomorrow we will be decorating the church so it will be a busy couple of days.

So again, I want to wish all of you readers a blessed and happy Christmas. You will be in my prayers and remembered at Mass.

Fr. Kenneth

Some very cold weather.

Yes, the last few days we have experienced that winter is here. The temperature dropped down to zero or below the last two nights. And with the wind, especially on Sunday and Sunday night, the wind chill was more like 15 or so below zero. And so what happened on Sunday night! We had trouble with our propane gas line. At any rate the gas stopped coming through the feeder lines with enough pressure so all the furnaces, hot water heaters etc went off. The buildings were pretty cool by morning but fortunately the company was able to come immediately and get the gas flowing again. Of course such things usually only happen when it is very cold and usually at night.

This morning we had snow most of the morning. I took Father Anthony to Maryville for a doctor appointment and it was pretty difficult driving back. Sometimes it was difficult to see and other times there was quite a bit of snow on the ground.

Snow on Tuesday, December 16

This is an exciting week for the students as they finishing the first semester and will be leaving for home on Thursday, December 18. They will not have to return until the 11th of January.

We were happy to welcome home yesterday Brother Anselm and Brother Victor. They both attend school at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. It is good to have them home again for a few weeks.

Brother Anselm on the left and Brother Victor on the right.

With winter time here there is always concern as to whether or not our nursing staff will be able to get in for their regular hours. So far we have not had anyone calling in today but for the next few months we are sure to have some of that. When that happens for the night shift I myself sometimes have to go over and fill in as best I can.

Friday of this week at noon we have a special Christmas luncheon for our employees. It is one little way we can show our appreciation for all they do to help us in our apostolates.

Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

Today is our patronal feast, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. We usually go by just Conception Abbey but we are under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. When the first monks first came here from Switzerland in 1873 they first called the monastery, New Engelberg Abbey after our founding Abbey -- Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. The little town of Conception was already located here and the early settlers had named it Conception in honor of the Immaculate Conception. So before long they began to simply call the monastery Conception Abbey.

We are following our Sunday schedule today and there are no classes for the students. We had a solemn Mass at 10:30 AM celebrated by Abbot Gregory. That was followed by a banquet meal. We will now have solemn vespers of the feast at 5:30 PM.

Two of our young monks who are away studying theology at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana returned home Saturday evening as they completed the first semester. The other monks who are studying away from home will be returning for Christmas in the next week or ten days.

Brother Guerric and Brother Macario

The 10th of December will mark the first anniversary of the big ice storm we had here a year ago. It started freezing rain the night of December 10 and continued throughout most of the day on December 11. We hope and pray we have nothing like that again this year.

That's about it for this week. I pray you are having a blessed season of Advent and looking forward to the feast of Christmas. If you are interested you might also like to read my "Oblate blog." You can find it either on the Conception Abbey web site (http://www.conceptionabbey.org/) and click on oblates or go to http://osboblates.blogspot.com/

First snow fall

Saturday morning, November 29, when we came out of Lauds it was snowing. It snowed off and on all day and part of the night and even some on Sunday. No snow accumulated on the roads but it did accumulate on the grass and the trees. So I guess we can say that winter has begun. It's a beautiful time of the year, especially if you can stay inside and look out the window.

Snow on the ground Sunday morning, November 30

Advent also began this weekend so that means the feast of Christmas is soon approaching. Advent is a beautiful time of the year in the Church but unfortunately this whole season has been so commercialized that probably many do not even think about what we are preparing to celebrate.

About two or three weeks ago we had a man from Houston, Texas come to Conception for a visit and for some days of quiet and rest. I found out his last name was Reichert. He and his wife are from Germany but presently he is working for a German-American Company in Houston, Texas so they live there most of the year at the present time. He spoke very good English so I had a couple of good visits with him. He is from a part of Germany that is not far from where my ancestors came from. He heard about Conception on the internet and just decided to call and see if he could come up for a few days. Little did he realize he would run into another Reichert up here.


Picture of Markus Reichert (from Germany) and Father Kenneth. (He visited here shortly after I had my nose operated on for a skin cancer.)

The students returned last evening. They will be here now until December 18, when Christmas vacation begins.

I was surprised on Saturday to have some very good friends come for an overnight visit. Benjamin and Alicia Darnell who now live in Dayton, Ohio, were back in Missouri for Thanksgiving and decided to stop by here to visit on their way back to Ohio. They left Sunday afternoon to drive back. It's a long trip from here but it was sure good to see them. Some of you will remember that I presided at their wedding in Springfield, Missouri in May, 2007.

Benjamin and Alicia Darnell