It's Been a While

Sorry folks -- I realize it's been a few weeks since I last wrote anything new on this blog. Seems like time goes so fast and I don't always keep up to date on things.

This weekend is a very busy weekend here at Conception. It is "Family Weekend" for the students and many, many guests are coming. The last I heard it was up to 260 or more guests for dinner this evening. The enrollment goes up and that means there are more families coming for this annual family weekend. Fall in general is a busy time for our guest department as many want to come for retreats and many larger groups come at this time of the year.

Last weekend I was in Kansas City and St. Joseph. On Friday afternoon I left for Kansas City to celebrate the Mass and funeral of a good friend, Eleanor Harshner. Her daughter Sandy Darnell wanted me to celebrate the Mass and so I went down on Friday, attended the wake service, spent the night with my brother and his wife and then had the funeral Mass and burial at 10:00 AM at St. Andrew Church. I got acquainted with the family through their son (Eleanor's grandson) Benjamin Darnell, a former student here. He left the seminary and is now married and has a little boy. It was good to see them all again.

Weather is gradually turning cooler. Tonight they are predicting some light and scattered frost as the temperature drops into the 30's. We had a very hot summer but soon we will be wishing we had some of the warm weather back.

The sister of our Subprior, Brother Bernard, died this past week of cancer. She lived in Lincoln, Illinois. Brother Bernard attended the funeral and returned yesterday evening.

This week I wanted to include a picture of the five residents presently living in our Health Care Center. In the front row left to right: Fr. Joachim Schieber (91 years old), Fr. Anthony Shidler (89 years old), Bro. George Strohmeyer (88 years old). All three of these use electric wheel chairs. In the back are Fr. Paschal Thomas (76 years old) and Monsignor Louis McCorkle (90 years old). Monsignor McCorkle is a priest of the Jefferson City diocese and an alumnus of Conception Seminary.

Next weekend (October 8-10) we will be having an oblate retreat. We have two of these a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and during the summer we have what we call a "Pray and Work" weekend. Brother Thomas Sullivan, OSB, will be conducting this retreat and it is entitled:
"A School of the Lord's Service."

May God continue to bless each of you.

Please don't forget to go to the Conception Abbey website. Click at the top of this blog.