Lent is almost here

This Wednesday, February 25, is Ash Wednesday and so the beginning of the Lenten season. In the monastery we have the practice of writing out our Lenten resolutions, or as we call them, our bona opera (good works) and turn them in to the Abbot for a blessing and his approval. This is following the Rule of St. Benedict where in chapter 49 of the Rule, St. Benedict says: "Everyone should, however, make known to the abbot what he intends to do, since it ought to be done with his prayer and approval." I got mine approved last Friday. The Abbot sees each monk individually for about twenty minutes to do this.


As a community we also do some special things for the Lenten season. On Ash Wednesday we will have a day of recollection which means we keep silence all day with no recreation periods, no television etc. We will also have a spiritual conference in the afternoon. On the Fridays of Lent we also observe more silence with no recreation periods and no television. Of course we do have to talk depending on our work. We also do not have dessert at meals during Lent except on Sundays and major feastdays. So all and all we do know it is Lent but none of us are hurting from these practices.

The seminarians begin the Lenten season with a three day retreat. It will begin Ash Wednesday morning and conclude on Friday evening with supper. This year their retreat is being given by Father Denis Robinson, O.S.B., Rector of St. Meinrad Seminary.

I pray that all of you who are readers of this blog have a blessed Lent and truly prepare for the Easter celebration.

I always like to include a picture on the blog.
This one is of my brother Ed and myself.
Ed is the youngest one and I was two
older than him. My brother Ed died of cancer
in 1955. He and I were very close. In this
picture I am guessing he was about two years old
and I was about four years old. That means it
was probably taken about 1937 or so.

Couple of older pictures

Just this past week someone sent me by e-mail the two photos posted below. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing them. They had to be taken during the mid 1950's. I am serving as assistant master of ceremonies and I did that from 1954 till 1959. Father Placid was the head master of ceremonies. I am on both these pictures on the far left side. I even had a little hair then.

The ordaining bishop is Bishop John Cody, later

the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago. It is a

rather large class being ordained to the priesthood.

I am not able to identify any of those being ordained since they have their back to us. Most of them seem to be Benedictines and the ordination is in our Basilica here at Conception Abbey.

This weekend is an off campus weekend for our students. We had a rather large group scheduled to come this weekend for a confirmation retreat but they canceled due to the weather. On Friday we had snow. While we only received about an inch or two, up in Iowa and Nebraska they received eight inches or more. The youth group scheduled to come was from Iowa.

Lent is fast approaching. Ash Wednesday is on February 25. We monks write down our resolutions or what we call our bona opera (good works) and present it to the Abbot for approval and a blessing. When the Abbot returns from a meeting on this Tuesday, February 17, we will begin seeing him individually for this purpose.

This afternoon Brother Blaise and I are going over to Clyde to play cards with a couple of the older Sisters who are residents at Our Lady of Rickenbach. They like to play 10 point pitch. It is usually a lot of fun. Sister Bernardine, who is 89 years old, is always the leader in inviting us over to play cards.

Polar Bear Club

Yesterday, February 5, the seminarians had their annual Polar Bear Club meeting at Lake Placid. Those who wish to be a member have to jump in the Lake and submerge themselves. Of course the lake was still frozen so they had to cut a hole in the ice and then jump into the hole and then crawl out on a ladder. A number of the students do this and even a few of the monks go down and take part in this crazy exercise. Yesterday the air temperature was pretty moderate, up in the 50's, but the water was very cold. I am including a couple of pictures from yesterday.

This past Tuesday I went to St. Joseph for an appointment with a dermatologist. They gave me my first treatment of what they call: The blue light treatment. The object is to treat the whole face at once to get rid of the pre-cancer growths that I tend to have. Just a couple months ago I had to have a growth surgically removed from my nose which had developed into a cancer growth. In this rather new treatment they put some type of cream on your face and then you sit for about 1 1/2 hours and after that you sit under a bunch of bright lights for 16 minutes. My face looks like I have a sunburn. I will have to have two more of these treatments, each of them a month apart. It was really not painful but sort of annoying.

Here at Conception it is budget time as our fiscal year begins on June 1. I have never been one who enjoys just sitting and working with numbers but I manage to get mine done. I have two budgets to work on: for the infirmary and one for the oblate office. This year is a rather difficult year to budget for with the financial condition as it is in the country. Anyway they like to have the budgets completed sometime in February so they can be checked and fine tuned in the next month or so.

Lent also is fast approaching with Ash Wednesday coming on February 25. So it's time for all of us to be thinking of what we are going to do special this Lent.

Prayers and best wishes to all of you who read this blog.

Fr. Kenneth