MONK'S NEWS

Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return

2012-02-19T13:56:00.000-06:00

Lent is here once again. This coming Wednesday on February 22, we begin the Lenten season with the blessing and imposition of ashes. During this season it is always good to keep in mind that we are "looking forward to the joy of Easter." That is the major feast we are preparing for during the Lenten season. We monks at Conception write down the good works we plan to do during Lent and give them to the Abbot. We go in to see him and receive a blessing that we can and will be faithful to what we set out to do at the beginning of the Lenten season.

This past week I had the misfortune to break off another tooth (the second one in the last six months) and so had to make another trip to the dentist who is in Maryville. It was part of a partial plate that I have and since it was the only good tooth on my upper jaw on the right side, he had to pull it and then it will be placed in the partial plate I have. Dentists can do a lot now days but it does cost.

I have been keeping busy especially in the Oblate Office. About this time every year I send a letter out to the oblates along with a renewal of oblation card. I ask them to return the card so we know that they still want to be an oblate of Conception Abbey. This year I also sent out a questionnaire with the letter so I am try to record all those things when they are returned.

A couple weeks ago I got to spend a couple days with my brother Harold and his wife Dee. They live in Kansas City and are both 85 years old. It's always good to be able to spend a little time with them. There were five boys in our family (no girls) but now there are only two of us still living.

I also got to spend some time with my good friends Benjamin and Alicia Darnell and their little son, Isaac. Benjamin works as youth minister in a parish at Wea, Kansas, just south of Kansas City on the Kansas side.

Alicia and Ben with Isaac

Work is progressing well on the new St. Gabriel Guest House. I am posting a couple pictures so you can see how things are going.

Most of the copper roof is now on.

Update of Conception Abbey News

2012-02-03T15:41:00.001-06:00

First of all we are happy to welcome a new postulant into the monastery.

Postulant Stephen Watson now joins Postulants

Jonathan and Benigno in taking a closer look

at monastic life at Conception Abbey.

Stephen is from Lincoln, NE

Last weekend the Conception Seminary College basketball team played in the basketball tournament for seminaries held at Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago. They won first place and came home proud of their trophy

Trophies won at basketball tournament

at Mundelein on display in St.

Maur Hall after their return.

Congratulations to all of the players.

I have talked a number of times about the damage done during the hail storm last August. The Hausman roofing company from St. Joseph has been working here on roofs for three or four months already and still have a lot of roofs to repair or replace.

The north and west side roof of St. Raphael Hospitality

Center has to be replaced. They are working on that right now.

Most of the copper roofs on the west and north side of

the various buildings have to be replaced.

Abbot Gregory announced the name of the new guest house, presently being built. After consulting with the community, he has announced that it will be called St. Gabriel Guest House. So we will now have a building named after each of the Archangels. St. Michael Hall, St. Raphael Welcome Center and St. Gabriel Guest House. Since we were founded by Engelberg Abbey (Mount Angel Abbey) in Switzerland, it is fitting we keep the angels as major patrons.

Front view of St. Gabriel Guest House. Note

the new copper roof being put on.

The north or back side of St. Gabriel Guest House.

Work is ahead of time on completion of the building.

We still have not had much winter weather this year. We did get a good rain this morning but the last three or four days it has been up around 60 degrees each day. Fortunately it was well above freezing during the rain today.

Let us continue to pray for respect for life in our world and especially in our country -- from conception until natural death. And pray that we will always have the right to live according to our consciences.

Last weekend, after helping at the parishes at Easton and Plattsburg, MO, I spent Sunday evening until Monday evening visiting my good friends Benjamin and Alicia Darnell and their little son, two and a half years old, Isaac. Had a great time. Then I spent Monday evening and overnight with my brother and his wife, Harold and Dee, and a sister-in-law, Vera. Had a great time there too.

New Postulants, Unusual January weather etc.

2012-01-16T14:07:00.000-06:00

About two weeks ago two new postulants arrived at the monastery. A third one is expected in the next couple of weeks. The two presently here and living in the monastery with the community are: Postulant Jonathan Pund, from New Florence, MO and a recent graduate of Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, MO and Postulant Benigno DeLoera, orginally from Mexico, but his family now resides in Wichita.

Postulant Jonathan on the left and

Postulant Benigno on the right

Also, among our young monks, Brother Maximilian Burkhart, has been taking classes since last fall at Maryville and is now finishing his clinicals for his CNA -- Certified Nursing Assistant. He will then be available to help with our work in the St. Stephen Health Care Center. Brother Maximilian is now on his third year of temporary vows.

Brother Maximilian in scrubs as he prepares

to go to work at Pineview Nursing Home in

Stanberry as part of his clinical training.

We are grateful to God for all the young men He has sent to us in recent years. It gives those of us who are older a lot of encouragement as well as a lot of responsibility to give good example. Continue to pray for vocations both to the monastic life and to the diocesan priesthood.

The weather this winter has really been unusual. We have had practically no snow and very little cold weather. Last week on Wednesday it was very windy and the temperature did not go above about ten degrees but then in a day or two it was again like spring. It is expected to turn colder again tonight but then warmer again in just a couple of days.

The students are now all back from Christmas break. We had a few drop out at the end of the first semester but we also picked up five or six new students at the semester so the enrollment holds about the same.

I have personally been going out to help in parishes many weekends. This past weekend I celebrated the Masses at St. Mary Parish, St. Joseph and also one Mass at Hirlingen, a parish located out in the country east of St. Joseph. The next two weekends I am scheduled to go to Plattsburg, MO and Easton, MO for two Masses at each place.

God bless you and all the good work all of you are doing.

THE CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS CONTINUES

2012-01-01T13:55:00.003-06:00

Today, Sunday, January 1, is the Octave Day of Christmas and the feast of Mary, the Mother of God. One week ago today was Christmas day and I'm sure if you went into stores on Monday or Tuesday of last week many, if not all, the Christmas decorations were taken down as well as the Christmas music put back into storage. But, that is not how the Catholic Church or Conception Abbey celebrates Christmas. The feast does not really begin until Christmas eve. All of our Christmas decorations here are put up the last two or three days before Christmas. Now they will remain up until the Christmas season is over which, this year, will be on January 9, the feast of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river. So we continue to hear Christmas music and enjoy our Christmas decorations for almost two more weeks.

As many of you know I was sent out to a parish to help for Christmas. I celebrated all three Christmas Masses at Immaculate Conception Church at Brookfield, MO. Those Masses were celebrated at 5:30 PM and the church was packed for that Mass and many, many children were present. Then we celebrated another Mass at 10:00 PM and the church was again full for that but not as packed as for the 5:30 Mass. Finally we celebrated a Mass on Christmas morning at 9:15 AM and for that there were only about 45-50 people present.

Here at the monastery we had first vespers of Christmas at 5:00 PM, a special Christmas meal at 6:00 PM, Vigils at 7:45 PM and midnight Mass. While I was not here I am told that the church was full for the midnight Mass. We have another Mass on Christmas morning at 11:00 AM.

I wanted to show you some pictures of our decorations so I am including some in this blog.

Top photo the Basilica sanctuary

Bottom photo the crib scene in Basilica

The Health Care Center

Monastery coffee and mail room

This week a couple young men will be entering the monastery as postulants. One more should be arriving in a couple of weeks. Keep these young men in your prayers as they take a serious look at the monastic life.

Yesterday, on New Year's eve, we had a day of recollection and silence for the monastic community. Abbot Gregory gave a conference and we spent the day then in silence and prayer. There was a community Holy Hour from 3:30-4:30 PM. The day of recollection ended with vespers at 5:00 PM

So to all of you who read this I wish you a very blessed and happy New Year. May God continue to bless you and us as we begin the year 2012.

Finally one recent picture of the new guest house so you can see how things are progressing.

Taken December 28, 2011. Note that the windows

are now installed.

THE LORD JESUS IS COMING:

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

We are already now into the third week of Advent as we continue to look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas. Advent is a season of anticipation, and also a season of waiting. We spend a lot of time in our lives waiting for various things. Perhaps one of the more joyful times of waiting is when parents are waiting for the birth of a child. Mary too must have looked forward to that with great anticipation. But, hopefully all of you are looking forward to the coming of our Saviour again on Christmas, 2011. Obviously Jesus was born over 2000 years ago but he continues to come again and again into our hearts and into our lives. Every time we turn away from sin we unite ourselves more closely to Jesus Christ. In a way he is born again into our hearts and into our lives.

Here at Conception we have so far not put up any Christmas decorations, even though they have been up in some stores since Halloween. We will decorate sometime next week, just days before the feast. Advent is seen as a time to prepare, not to celebrate Christmas. Come Christmas eve the monastery and basilica will be fully decorated.

Although last week was a very cold week, this week seems to be much warmer but it has been cloudy and rainy on most days. Many jobs continue to be done around here. As you remember I talked about the bad hail storm we had in August. Well, we are still busy repairing and replacing roofs. In this whole area, including Maryville, most people had to replace their roofs. Since the roofing companies have been so busy a company out of St. Joseph is still working trying to replace some of ours that were damaged. Right now they are working to replace the copper on the roof of the Health Care Center.

Health Care Center roof being replaced.

They are also presently replacing the roof on the ambulatory -- the enclosed walkway that connects the monastery to St. Joseph Hall and the library.

Ambulatory roof being replaced with hot tar.

They have already repaired roofs on St. Raphael Guest Center, and St. Joseph Hall. Next spring or summer roofs still have to be replaced on Marian Hall, St. Benedict Hall and the garages. So you can see that the hail storm was very bad and did a lot of damage.

Work on the guest house is progressing. Last week no brick work could be done due to the cold weather, but this week they are working and are coming close to finishing the brick work.

December 12, 2011, the front side and main
entrance of the new guest house. The last
part of the building needing bricks.

Our monks who are away for school -- Brothers Guerric, Victor and Macario at St. Meinrad Archabbey came home last Wednesday, December 7, and Brother Paul who is at St. Vincent Archabbey arrives this evening. Our own students leave this Friday for three weeks off for Christmas.

God bless you all.

Thanksgiving, Advent and other things

2011-11-27T13:45:00.001-06:00

Last week most of the monks who are assigned to parishes or as chaplains were home for the week. We had our usual community meetings. On Thanksgiving day itself we honor all those who celebrate jubilees during the year. This year we honored and celebrated with: Fr. Richard Cleary and Fr. Hugh Tasch: 60 years professed, Archbishop Jerome Hanus, 50 years professed, Fr. Francis Stuart and Fr. Rene Guesnier, 50 years ordained, Br. Jude Person, 25 years professed. It was a delightful week and good to see our confreres. Those who are away at school were not able to come back but they will be home for Christmas.

Today, Sunday, November 27, and the first Sunday of Advent, we began using the New Roman Missal. I had the Mass for the residents in the Health Care Center and all went well there. Abbot Gregory was the principal celebrant for the Community Mass and I understand all went well there also. You do have to keep your eyes on the book but in time we will learn the words more from memory.

The students left for Thanksgiving vacation last Tuesday. Today they will be returning and in just a few weeks will be leaving again for a longer Christmas break.

JOSEPH GLAUS: Some of you who are older alumni should remember this name. Just a few days ago someone asked me about him. I found the article written about him in the Tower Topics issue of December, 1955. He had died in October of that year. He left his home in Switzerland in 1913 and came to Conception. He worked here then as a layman for 42 years. In 1935 he was assigned as janitor in St. Maur Hall and continued in that work until his death. As a janitor he endeared himself in the hearts of those for whom he toiled. He was a very charitable person. It seems his whole life was spent in serving others. Just thought some alumni who were in school here in those year and remember "Joe" would like to hear a little about him. Below is a picture of Joe Glaus, smoking a cigar. Picture was taken from the 1955 Tower Topics.

Work on the new guest house continues at a good pace. It is now all enclosed so work can continue even in cold or wet weather. They still have to lay brick on a big part of the front (south) side but they hope to get that done soon. The roof is all covered but the final roof will not be put on until next spring.

West end of the building.

North or back side of the building

As we conclude this Thanksgiving week, I hope we all remembered to thank God for his love and goodness. We all have much to be grateful for in our lives.

God bless you.
Fr. Kenneth

What's Happening?

2011-11-15T10:14:00.001-06:00

Looking back since my last entry in this blog which was dated November 1, I should first of all note that we were not able to have our usual procession to the cemetery on November 2. The weather was rainy and cold.

The weekend of November 5-6, I was at Cameron, MO where I celebrated all the Masses at St. Munchin Church and also at St. Aloysius Church at Maysville, MO.

This past weekend November 12-13, I was not assigned to a parish assignment but on Sunday I went to Omaha, Nebraska, for a wake service. A cousin of our family died there Thursday night, November 10. So some of our family decided to drive up for the wake service on Sunday evening. My sister in law, Vera, my nephew, Kenny, and my niece, Janet, and myself went up for this. We returned on Sunday evening. Kind of a tiring trip but I'm glad we went. It was good to see many of the relatives again.

Beatrice (Bea) Clavin in the chair with

my sister in law when they visited her in

September, 2011

This picture dates back to the late 1960's. I had taken my Dad

and Mother and my Uncle Tony and Aunt Marguerite to Omaha

to see their nephews and niece. Above in the picture are in the back

row: my mother, Aunt Marguerite, Uncle Tony, Geraldine (a niece)

and my Dad. In the front row are: Richard, Fr. Kenneth, John, Herbert and Bill.

The boys in the front row are all nephews of my Dad (except for me) and

Aunt Marguerite. Their sister Rose lived in Omaha and died of cancer

in 1947.

The weekend of November 19-21 was also the fall Encounter With God's Call. Two of these are held each year -- one in the fall and one in the spring -- to allow young men in high school or college to experience seminary life for a few days. About sixty attended this weekend.

This weekend we also had our annual drama production. This year they did the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. It was a delightful production and well done by the students here in the seminary. Brother Cyprian was the director.

A picture of the guest house taken just this morning,

Tuesday, November 15, 2011.

SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS AND COMMEMORATION OF FAITHFUL DEPARTED

2011-11-01T13:41:00.004-06:00

Today as I write this blog it is the Solemnity of all Saints. Since it is a holyday of obligation, we do not have classes and our lay workers are given the day off as a holiday. We follow the Sunday schedule with Mass at 10:30 AM. I myself was out in a parish, St. Munchin Parish at Cameron, MO from Saturday afternoon until today late morning. I had three Masses on Saturday evening and Sunday and then two for the feast of All Saints. I like to remember that today we are celebrating not only the feast of those saints who are officially canonized, but all of those who are now with God in the Kingdom of Heaven. We pray and hope that includes many who we have known in this life -- parents, family members, confreres etc.

Tomorrow, November 2, is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed. So while today we celebrated those in heaven, tomorrow we will remember those still on the way to the fullness of the Heavenly Kingdom. I think both days are important for those of us still here in this life as we remember those who have gone before us.

The weather has continued to be lovely for this time of the year. Tomorrow (Wednesday) they are predicting some rain and even the possibility of a little snow. We need the rain but most of us agree, the snow can hold off a while yet.

Brick work on the north side of the new guest house is about done.

Work on the roof continues making progress.

On the left alumnus Fr. Ron Hart and a friend Fr. Damian
Visited here October 28-30, 2011. Both are from
diocese of Joliet, IL Fr. Hart was here in school
1962-65

Alumni Fr. Jim Baird and Fr. Chris Renner, both alumni from
the Archdiocese of Denver. Fr. Renner 1984-86 and Fr. Baird 1983-87.
Both were here on retreat.

God bless each and everyone of you.

NEW PARKING LOT, SOCCER & VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT AND OTHER NEWS

2011-10-15T12:55:00.000-06:00

The weather outside is getting cooler and the days are getting shorter while the nights get longer. We are definitely well into fall and we can all look forward to winter. Last weekend, October 7-9, we had a good oblate retreat. About forty five oblates were present for the retreat. We covered the last six degrees (or steps) of humility from St. Benedict's Rule. I gave the conferences and then on Sunday the last conference was given by Paul Tarro. He and his wife made their final oblation on Saturday. He spoke on the book: BAREFOOT DISCIPLE, Walking the Way of Passionate Humility, by Stephen Cherry. The oblates appreciated his comments on the book and the approach to humility. I hope all of you who are oblates and who have the use of a computer and e-mail were able to see the photos I sent to you from the weekend retreat.

This weekend the Seminary Board of Regents were here for one of their twice a year meetings. Yesterday, Friday, we had our commmunity Mass at 5:00 PM with Archbishop George Lucas, from Omaha, as celebrant. Today Mass was at 7:30 AM with Bishop James Johnston, bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau as celebrant.

This weekend is also the annual soccer and volleyball tournament for the seminary. Seminarians from other seminaries in this part of the country come to take part in the day. It is a tournament affair and the winner receives a trophy.

This fall we had a new parking lot built just to the south of the Health Care Center. It is primarily for staff members who work in that building as well as guests who come to visit residents in the building. Brother Placid and his helpers have been landscaping and it is looking very nice. Most of the flowers we had in that area continue to bloom as you can see from the photo below.

Meanwhile work continues on the new guest house. I was over this morning to take some more pictures. I will only post one of those pictures here today. If you are an oblate you can probably see all of the pictures since I have put them all on a Picassa album. They have already begun laying bricks on the north (back) side of the building.

In the past week we had a couple of deaths of people who some of you might remember. Mr. Raymond Schuster died over a week ago. He was the brother of our Father Philip Schuster and was over 90 years old. He worked most of his life in education and lived most of his adult life in the Conception and Maryville area.

Last Monday some of us attended the funeral of Mrs. Mary Lou Schieber. For about fifteen years she was our nurse (RN) in our infirmary. She had been ill for some time.

Blessings on all of you readers of this blog.

Alumni Reunion, Family Weekend etc.

2011-10-05T07:43:00.000-06:00

Bottom floor rooms begin to take shape

Taken on back side (northeast) of new guest house.

A couple of updated pictures of the new guest house. We have had lovely weather so they are moving ahead at a good pace.

A week ago on September 23-24 we had our alumni reunion,. About 70 alumni were here for the occasion. Abbot Gregory gave them a talk on the new revised Grail psalter. Abbot Gregory was also celebrant for the Mass on Friday evening. That was followed by a social hour and a banquet and more visiting and socializing that evening. Two classes had were honored in a special way, the college class of 1966 and the college class of 1971. On Saturday evening the class of 1971 had a cook out. Since i had been their prefect I was invited to attend this reunion. It was good to see so many old faces but it also serves to make me realize how old I am getting. I remember well when they were here and now, those who did not go on for ordination, are talking about their grand children. So time flies by.

This past weekend, October 1 and 2, we had our annual family weekend for the seminarians. I was out in a parish for the weekend in St. Joseph, but I understand there was an overflow crowd here for the occasion.

During the last year the old lake (Maria Laach) down the hill from the
the ball fields, was drained and then cleaned out. It
is now refilling.

The grotto that is on the island at Maria Laach

COOLER WEATHER -- PROGRESS ON NEW GUEST HOUSE

2011-09-16T13:09:00.004-06:00

Work continues on the new guest house. I am putting some pictures on this blog to bring you up to date on how it is progressing. They are still hoping to get it enclosed before the winter weather sets in. The last week or so it has been much cooler. In fact most days recently it has not gotten above the 50's and 60's. Good sleeping weather for sure, but difficult to get out of bed in the mornings.

Last weekend I helped at St. Andrew Parish in Gladstone, MO, a suburb of Kansas City north of the Missouri river. It was a busy weekend with one Mass Saturday evening and three on Sunday. The last Mass on Sunday was not until 6:30 PM so on Sunday afternoon my friends Benjamin and Alicia Darnell and their little son Isaac came out to see me. They just recently moved back to the Kansas City area from Dayton, Ohio and Ben is now working as youth minister at Queen of the Holy Rosary parish at Bucyrus, KS. It was good to see them again and it is good to know they are now much closer than they were.

On Monday Ben's parents Rick and Sandy Darnell came to see me here at Conception, spending Monday night. They live in Phoenix, Arizona but had been in Missouri for some days on vacation.

Tomorrow on Saturday I go to Trenton, MO. Tomorrow afternoon I will preside at the wedding of a cousin of mine, Marie Gladbach. Her Dad and my mother were brother and sister. Her Dad is now deceased but her mother is still living and is 96 years old. She plans to be at the wedding.

They have also poured the concrete for the Health Care Center parking lot. Parking in this lot will be only for staff members and guests of the residents in the Health Care Center. We are not able to park on the area yet but will be soon, as the concrete cures more.

Oblates of Conception Abbey: Don't forget to register for the oblate retreat October 7-9, 2011. Register by contacting the guest department: e-mail = guests@conception.edu or phone 660-944-2809.

God bless all of you. Let us pray for one another.

Novices, Hail & Wind storm, Birthday

2011-08-24T08:38:00.006-06:00

On Sunday, August 14, two men entered the novitiate for Conception Abbey. Novice Daniel is originally for Alton, Illinois. Novice James is originally from Clarence, MO.

Novice Daniel Friedel receives a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict
from Abbot Gregory

Novice James Chinn recives his copy of the Rule from
Abbot Gregory

Birthday cake for Father Anthony's 90th birthday
August 21, 2011

Father Anthony at his birthday party

Damage to windows, roofs and trees from a very intense
wind and hail storm on the evening of August 18

More damage

Window damage at the Printery House

On the evening of August 18, toward the end of Compline we began to get a tremendous storm. The electricity went out. As we left compline it was starting to rain and soon the hail came with it. The winds reached up to 90-100 mph and the hail lasted for a good twenty minutes or so. We received quite a bit of damage, the Sisters at Clyde received even more damage. All the crops in this area were ruined -- especially the corn and soybeans. We were without electricity until Saturday morning, August 20.

Photos of storm damage courtesy of Brother Maximilian, OSB

LEISURE AND VACATION

2011-08-07T12:32:00.003-06:00

Last Tuesday, August 2, I returned from about 9-10 days of vacation and time for visiting relatives and friends. I really enjoyed these days even though the temperature was up to about 100 degrees each day. I got to see many of my relatives who live in the Brunswick, MO area, as well as my brother Harold and his wife Dee in Kansas City. Also, I got to see many old friends who I had known or worked with years ago.

I did not do anything unusual except eat more than I usually do. So many want you to come to eat a meal or they want to take you out to a meal. But, I got lots of rest, went down to the parish church and celebrated Mass either concelebrating with the new pastor, Father Rob Fields, or celebrating the Mass myself when Father Rob was gone.

I came back relaxed and felt like I had a number of leisurely days. My roots certainly go back to this little river town in North Central Missouri. I was born in a farm house there, went to church regularly at the Catholic church there, was baptized there, confirmed there, served many Masses in that church etc., as well as celebrated my first Mass there in 1959.

It seems to me that when we are younger we like to be on the go a lot -- taking trips, going to see things etc. As a result we frequently come back more tired than we were when we left. It seems only as I have gotten older have I learned to relax and to enjoy leisure. Sometimes I just enjoy being alone.

At any rate I am back at work again now. As usual when you are gone for a few days, there is work waiting for you when you return. But, I have gradually gotten caught up.

One of the things I enjoyed when in Brunswick was the "friendship wheel" lunch at the St. Boniface Church Hall. This is a once a month activity. The five churches in Brunswick take turns hosting it on the fourth Wednesday of each month -- skipping December and January. In July it was hosted by the Catholic church. Anyone comes who wishes, each person is asked to leave a $3.00 donation for the meal, although most seem to leave more than that. The Baptist minister and Lutheran pastor were there for this dinner and of course the Catholic pastor. It brings the people together from the different religions. The churches that take part in this are the St. Boniface Catholic church, the Methodists, the Lutherans, the Christians and the Baptists. I enjoyed it very much.

Here at Conception work is proceeding on the new guest house. With the weather so hot the workers have been coming to work as early as 6:00 or 6:30 AM and quitting then about 2:30 PM. That makes sense to me in hot weather.

Our new students start arriving on August 17 so that is not far off.

Some photos: Many of you remember the quaruplets that were born to
one of my grandnephews and his wife in 2009. One
of the boys died a couple days after birth. The other
three are pictured about and seem to be doing well.
They were two years old on July 7

Work proceeds on the new guest house.

While work progresses on the new guest house, windows
are being replaced on the north side of the library

HOT, HOT, HOT AND YES, ALSO HUMID

2011-07-18T08:06:00.004-06:00

As I am sure many of you have read or heard the mid-section of the country is in an extreme heat wave. Of course you have probably also heard, or seen news, about the flooding Missouri river. A number of the roads along the Missouri river, including Interstate 29, which goes from Kansas City to Omaha and beyond, is closed due to the flooding. Evidently they had an unusual amount of snow up north in Montana this winter and then some heavy rains in the spring. So they are having to let a lot of water out of the dams up north. That is what is causing the river to flood.

And then for the past week or more we have had day after day of very hot and humid weather. With all the water around that only makes it more humid. So they are telling people to take it easy, take a lot of breaks if you work outdoors and drink a lot of water.

They have now started to work on the new guest house. As you can see from the above picture they have been grading and preparing the area for building. It is expected to take a full year to complete the building. J.E. Dunn is the construction manager but of course there are many sub-contractors. (click on picture above to enlarge it)

During the month of July we are having our LCCIP program for International Priests who are working or preparing to work in the United States. The letters stand for: Language, Culture, Church for International Priests. It is a three week program held every summer here at Conception to help these priests acclimate to the culture and language in this country. With the shortage of priests in this country many dioceses are going outside the United States to try to find priests who are willing to come to this country for priestly ministry.

Click on picture to enlarge it.

The picture above is of an alumnus and good friend of mine who just recently graduated from the Wichita Police Academy. Pictured is Randy Gorges, along with his wife Vera, and his son Isaac. I have come to really appreciate and admire the police. They render a real service to our communities and in so many ways risk their life to help us. After the shooting we had here in 2002, I realized they are really our friends and not out to try to catch us doing something wrong.

Toward the end of this week I will be going to my little home town of Brunswick, Missouri to spend about ten days relaxing and visiting family and friends.

My prayers are with all of you everyday.

God bless you.

GROUND BREAKING FOR NEW GUEST HOUSE

2011-06-23T07:55:00.003-06:00

The J.E. Dunn construction trailer was moved
in this week.

Breaking ground for the new guest facility.

The blessing began in the St. Raphael Hospitality Center.
Pictured are Abbot Gregory, Mr. Bill Dunn and Father Benedict.
Brother Paul is just behind the Abbot.

Monday, June 20, we had the blessing and the ground breaking for the new guest house to be built just to the north of St. Joseph Hall. Most of the monks, many employees and construction people and architects were on hand for the ground breaking. This week they began to relocate some of the underground structure such as the water line, gas line etc. Soon then they will begin digging preparing the area for the new building.

Pictured above are Steve and Christy Arnold and their family who visited me last week. I had presided at the wedding of Steve and Christy in August, 1999. They now have five beautiful children and it was good to visit with them again.

Tomorrow I am going to Brookfield, MO to celebrate a funeral Mass. Evidently the priests of the diocese are all on retreat and they could not find a priest to have the funeral. So they called the Prior and I am going down to do this on Friday. I just helped at this parish this past Holy Week so I know a number of the parishioners.

Most of you have read of all the flooding on the Missouri river. Fortunately we are far away from that but we all assure these people of our thoughts and prayers at what they are going through. Unfortunately it sounds as though it will last through most of the summer because of the heavy snow up north last winter and the heavy rains this spring.

To read the new oblate blog click here. and then click on "oblates" on the left side of your screen.

Summer seems to have arrived

2011-06-11T07:52:00.005-06:00

St. Raphael Church at Indian Grove, MO is today
celebrating it's 125th anniversary. This is the
church where my Dad and Mother were married
in 1921. It is still open today--a country church
at the little village of Indian Grove. Bishop Gaydos
will be there for Mass today.

Summer seems to have arrived. In the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of hot and humid weather. The weekend of May 28-29 and again on the weekend of June 4-5, I went to Kansas City to celebrate the Masses at St. Andrew Parish in the north part of Kansas City. The first weekend it was chilly when I left Conception so I wore a sweater. By the time I got to Kansas City it was hot so I did not even have to take the sweater out of the car. Both weekends I celebrated four Masses, one on Saturday evening and three on Sunday. I spent the nights with my brother and his wife, Harold and Dee Reichert who live very close to this church.

We have had enough rain so that everything is green and the flowers are blooming. It's a beautiful time of the year except for the heat and humidity. We do not have air-conditioning in the monastery except for a few rooms but most of us do have fans. We hope to eventually renovate the monastery and we will probably air condition then, but I don't know whether I will still be around by that time. Who knows? This summer we are planning to begin work on our new guest house. It will be toward the north part of the campus and will have 32 rooms as well as some meeting rooms. At the present time they are moving some gas lines in order to get ready to start building. I believe the ground breaking is scheduled for June 20.

I have been working on a little project, trying to write some of my memories down and make them available to my nephews and nieces, and other family members. It is kind of fun to do this and I enjoy such projects. I have, in the process, put together a number of older family pictures. A lot has changed in my life time for sure. We did not even have electricity on the farm until I was in the fifth grade.

Many of the monks are coming and going during the summer. Each final professed monk is allowed two weeks for a home visit or vacation each year. The latter part of July I plan to go to Brunswick and spend some time on the farm, just relaxing and visiting relatives. Sometimes during the summer we really get low on numbers, especially on weekends when many priests have to go out to parishes to help out.

Monsignor Louis McCorkle, a priest of the diocese
of Jefferson City and an alumnus of Conception, who
is in residence in our Health Care Center celebrated
his 90th birthday on May 28

Father Anthony Shidler, O.S.B. and Monsignor
McCorkle shake hands. Father Anthony will
celebrate his 90th birthday in August, 2011

Community retreat -- Ordination to diaconate

2011-05-22T08:11:00.003-06:00

Conception Seminary College
The graduating class of 2011

The school year ended on the weekend of May 14-15 with graduation on Saturday afternoon, May 14 and a solemn Mass of thanksgiving on Sunday morning, May 15. The students were then free to leave for the summer. The graduating class was one of our larger classes for many years so hopefully that is a good sign for the Church in general.

The day after graduation on May 16, the monastic community began it's annual retreat. It began Monday evening and concluded on Friday morning, May 20. The retreat director was Bishop Joseph Charron, C.PP.S., bishop emeritus of the diocese of Des Moines. He was very good and gave us some excellent conferences. He is a very pastoral person and kind and charitable.

On the last evening of the retreat Brother Guerric Letter, O.S.B., was ordained to the diaconate. Bishop Charron was the ordaining bishop since he was already here.

For the summer Brother Guerric will serve as deacon in the parish at Maryville. Father Martin, one of our monks, is pastor there and will be his mentor. In August he will return to St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana to complete his last year of theology in preparation for ordination to the priesthood.

After the retreat a number of monks had to leave already for other assignments, including some leaving for home visits and vacations. Most of the monks on mission were here for the retreat and it is always good to see them.

Last weekend; that is, graduation weekend, I had to go to St. James Parish in St. Joseph for the weekend Masses. On Sunday afternoon I returned and then left for Des Moines to meet with the oblates there on Sunday evening. After spending the night in Des Moines at the St. John Basilica rectory where our friend, Father Aquinas is pastor, I returned to Conception by noon on Monday.

Our summer will be a little quieter around here but there will still be many activities to keep us busy. I don't plan to go for my home visit and vacation until the latter part of July.

I pray you all have a wonderful and blessed summer.

Easter continues

2011-05-07T13:03:00.004-06:00

I hope you had a blessed Easter and that you continue to know the joy and peace of this blessed Easter season. We spent forty days in Lent preparing for the Easter feast, and now we spend fifty days celebrating. The Easter season will not end until Pentecost which this year is June 12.

The Triduum for me was a real blessing. As you know from my last blog entry I was sent to the parish at Brookfield, MO. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate each of these days as the celebrant. I have not had that chance very often. Since I was master of ceremonies here at Conception for so many years and then Prior for fourteen year, I had to be here most of the time because of my jobs. Of course I always enjoyed being here. Conception knows how to celebrate these days for sure. But, I also enjoyed the chance to be celebrant.

Sister Donna, a Franciscan Sister, is the pastoral administrator of the parish and usually the priest at Marceline, MO comes as the sacramental minister. However, since he is not able to be both places at the same time it is difficult to work out a schedule to celebrate these days two places. On Holy Thursday at 7:30 PM I celebrated the Mass of the Lord's Supper. I washed six people's feet and Sister washed six. We had a nice procession after Mass to the altar of repose.

On Good Friday we had the liturgy of Good Friday also at 7:30 PM. It is a more sober celebration but went very well with the reading of the Passion and adoration of the Cross and Communion.

The Easter Vigil we celebrated at 8:30 PM on Saturday evening to make sure it was truly dark when we started. It was such a wonderful experience to celebrate this. I baptized five people, and had two make their profession of faith and confirmed three on this night. Sister had set up a rather large container for the water and we baptized by immersion. It was the first time I had done that. She is going to send me some pictures so I will post them when they arrive.

It looks like now that summer is almost here. The temperature is supposed to be up in the 80's today and we haven't had any rain now for a week or more so the farmers are very busy in the fields.

Two or three years ago I was able to visit Pella, Iowa,
about this time of year and the tulips were
beautiful. A nice place to visit in early May or so.

Our students returned last Sunday and now this week are finishing up the school year. The last day of classes will be Thursday, May 12, with graduation on Saturday, May 14, and then they will leave after a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, May 15. Then it will quiet around here although we do have a lot of things going on during the summer and continue to have a lot of retreatants on weekends.

On Easter Sunday I got to go to Brunswick (where I was born and raised) to have Easter dinner with my sister in law, Vera, and her family. This is a picture taken as we were preparing to eat. As you can see it is quite a large group and one of her sons and his family were not able to be there. Her husband, my brother Jim, died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 73. It was great to be able to see them all again and of course we had a delicious meal.

For any of the oblates who read this please note that I will be in Des Moines on Sunday, May 15, for an oblate meeting at St. John Basilica. Hope to see you there.

HOLY WEEK AND SACRED TRIDUUM

2011-04-17T12:39:00.003-06:00

About 38-40 oblates attended the oblate
retreat the weekend of April 8-10, 2011

It was directed by Brother Cyptian Langlois, O.S.B.
Click on picture to enlarge it.

Today is Palm Sunday. At 10:15 AM the monks, seminarians and guests assembled on the plaza area in front of St. Michael hall for the blessing of palms, the reading of the Gospel and then the procession to the Basilica for Mass. We also had many guests present, m0stly members of RCIA classes from a number of parishes in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa.

To give you an idea of the monastic schedule during the Triduum, on Holy Thursday we have a communal penance service at 11:00 AM for the monks, students and guests. Then on Thursday evening we have the Evening Mass of the Lord's supper, during which the Abbot washes the feet of twelve people. After Mass the Blessed Sacrament is placed at the altar of repose and adoration continues until midnight. However, at 7:00 PM we have a special meal something like a Seder meal for everyone who attends the Mass.

From Holy Thursday afternoon until after the Easter Vigil on Sunday we try to observe silence and encourage our guests to also keep silence, especially on Good Friday.

On Good Friday we have prayer at 7:50 AM which lasts about an hour. The seminarians and the guests join the monastic community for this. At 11:45 AM we have daytime prayer, at 3:00 PM we gather for solemn liturgical service with the reading of the passion, solemn prayers, adoration of the cross, and communion. At 7:15 PM we have compline.

On Holy Saturday we again have morning prayer at 7:50 AM, Daytime prayer at 11:45 AM and vespers or evening prayer at 5:35 PM.

On Easter Sunday we rise early for the Easter Vigil to begin at 4:30 AM. It is usually after 7:00 AM when it concludes. Daytime prayer is at 11:45 AM and Vespers at 5:00 PM.

The seminarians leave soon after the Easter Vigil and are gone for one week, returning on Sunday, May 1. This year with Easter so late in April they only two weeks of school after they return before the end of the school year.

God bless you and I wish each of you a very Blessed Triduum and Easter.

Some Great Days

2011-04-03T15:15:00.004-06:00

Written on Sunday, April 3, Laetare Sunday.

So what has been going on here at Conception? First of all, after most of the week went by with chilly days and nights, the last two days have been great. Today the temperature is up in the mid 80's but storms are forecast for tonight as a cold front moves in and the temperature drops again.

This weekend has been an off-campus weekend for the students so most of the students are gone. They will return Sunday evening.

Toward the end of March the Seminary Board of Regents met here so we had a number of bishops, vocation directors and others here for that. Among the bishops here for this meeting were: Bishop Robert Finn, from our own diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop James Johnston, Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Kansas City, Kansas, Bishop Michael Jackels, Wichita, Kansas, Archbishop Paul Coakley, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Bishop Will Dendinger, Grand Island, Nebraska, Archbishop George Lucas, Omaha, Nebraska, Bishop Richard Pates, Des Moines, Iowa, Bishop Walker Nickless, Sioux City, Iowa.

In March also we had Pastors Day for the seminary. For this event the pastors of the seminarians are invited to come to the seminary for a visit. They were here for the Feast of St. Benedict, on March 21.

During Lent the monastic community has been having conferences and discussions on the Post Synod document Verbum Domini, the Word of the Lord, by Pope Benedict XVI, which has been quite interesting. We are also reading the entire document at meals during this season of Lent.

This week I am at Clyde all week to celebrate Mass for the Sisters. I am assigned to celebrate the early morning Mass at 7:30 AM for the community. However, on Tuesday and Thursday I will celebrate the 11:00 AM for the retired Sisters living at Our Lady of Rickenbach.

I am including some pictures of the campus in this blog just to show you that spring really is here and flowers are starting to bloom.

Between the Health Care Center and the monastery

Trees in front of St. Maur Hall

SPRING IS ABOUT HERE

2011-03-17T13:22:00.005-06:00

The temperature is up in the mid-seventies today. Yesterday was also a warm day. So some people are out putting in some garden etc. When I was a youngster out on our farm we used to plant potatoes sometime around St. Patrick's day so I think some are out today planting potatoes. After this winter it is just good to have some nicer weather. During the winter months Todd Coffman, one of our lay workers, and Brother Placid were building new picnic tables. They built twelve of them just like the ones pictured above. They should wonderful for picnics as they are long enough to hold four or five people on each side. Before long we will be using them.

Yesterday I attended a funeral of one of our long time oblates, Mary Gallagher. She lived in the Ravenwood area but belonged to the parish at Maryville. About three years ago she made it known that she wanted me as well as Father Regis to concelebrate at her funeral and Brother Justin to be cantor. Father Regis of course is already deceased, but Brother Justin and I did go over for the funeral. Mary's husband John died in 1991 and since then she and one of her sons had continued to live on their farm. As long as she was able she always came to our oblate retreats here at Conception.

This Friday and Saturday the Seminary Board of Regents meet here. That means a number of bishops, vocation directors and others will be here from tomorrow until Saturday noon or so. In fact some are arriving today so they can visit with their seminarians.

For those who do not read my oblate blog which is on the Conception Abbey web site, the oblates have just completed purchasing bibles for each of our guest rooms in the guest houses. It is a nice addition and we hope they will be used much. To go to the oblate blog, click on the "Conception Abbey" link at the top of this page, then click on oblates on left side of the page and finally click on "oblate blog."

Lent at Conception Abbey

2011-03-04T09:31:00.003-06:00

If you take a walk around Lake Placid at Conception Abbey you will see, on the far side of the lake, facing the monastery, this cross. Perhaps it is a good reminder to all of us that Lent is almost upon us. Lent will begin on Ash Wednesday, March 9, this year of 2011. This about the latest that Lent can begin because Easter is about as late as it can be this year.

How do the monks at Conception observe the Lenten season. I suppose we observe it, for the most part, like others. But, on the other hand we probably have some special practices that are unique to Conception Abbey. Ash Wednesday itself is always observed as a Day of Recollection. There will be a conference given by the Abbot and we observe silence during the entire day with no recreation, watching t.v. etc.

Then on all the Fridays of Lent we observe silence, except for necessary talking, teaching etc. But, again we have no public recreation or watching of t.v. etc. Likewise we do not eat dessert during Lent, except on Sundays and a few of the major feastdays.

St. Benedict, as many of you know, spends an entire chapter in his Rule on the observance of Lent. Among the things that he strongly recommends is that each monk present to the Abbot the special things that he proposes to do during Lent. We go in and visit with the Abbot for about twenty minutes and he gives us a blessing for our Lenten good works asking God to bless us this Lenten season. If you would care to read what St. Benedict says in his Rule go to chapter 49 of the Rule of St. Benedict if you have a copy handy.

We also during Lent will have a series of conferences and discussions on Pope Benedict XVI document on the synod document: Verbum Domini (the Word of God).

This weekend the students are on a long off-campus weekend. They were able to leave on Thursday and will return Sunday evening. Then the first three days of Lent -- Ash Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week they are on retreat. Silence is observed on these days, they have conferences that are given by a retreat director and they spend time in prayer and reflection.

Last weekend I spent at Macon, Missouri (with one Mass at Bevier, MO) celebrating the weekend Masses since the pastor was gone. I enjoyed it and was well taken care of during my time there.

Lastly I want to wish each of you who read this blog, a Blessed Lenten season, and may you all come to the joy and peace of Easter.

Fr. Kenneth

Is spring here already???

2011-02-17T14:52:00.006-06:00

Suddenly the last few days we have had very spring like weather. Even at this moment the temperature is right up around 70 degrees. It feels wonderful and the snow is almost all gone but we know that winter weather will be back.

This picture was taken on Wednesday afternoon,
February 16, 2011.

This afternoon, Thursday, February 17, practically all the snow is gone. Now the rivers and streams are rising with some flooding and of course there is lots of mud.

Some of the Bibles being prepared to be put in guest house rooms.

A project the oblates of Conception Abbey have recently taken on is to put a bible in each room of our guest houses. So far we have been able to put a hard bound bible in each room of Marian Hall. We are now working to put one in each room of St. Benedict Hall. We are very grateful to our oblates for taking on this project and, as always, appreciate their prayers and generosity.

Last week on the feast of St. Scholastica, February 10, we enjoying having the Sisters from Clyde Monastery here with us for vespers and dinner. For some pictures of this event, go to the top of this blog and click on the link to "Conception Abbey" web site, and then on the top of that page click on "photo gallery." New photos are added to this site rather frequently.

Ice and Snow bless the Lord

2011-02-04T13:50:00.008-06:00

Snow on February 1, 2011

This picture was taken during the snow and the wind on Tuesday. Winds were from about 25 to 45 mph.

The Liturgy of the Hours for ordinary time on Sunday of Week I, has us pray the Canticle from the book of Daniel, chapter 3. It's a song of praise as all people and all creation sing to God in praise. Here is just a part of it:

Dew and rain, bless the Lord. Frost and chill, bless the Lord. Ice and snow, bless the Lord. Nights and days, bless the Lord. Light and darkness, bless the Lord.
Lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord.

This winter since Christmas has just about had all of these. This present week we had ice on Monday morning and off and on throughout the day, and continuing through the night. Then on Tuesday the snow came and the winds came and the winds blew hard throughout the day and most of the night. And so many people were snowed in for a day or two. Even yet the highway department is working to open all the roads. A number of places they had managed to open one lane but now are opening the other lane or lanes. Even Interstate 70 was closed Tuesday evening and throughout the night from Kansas City to St. Louis.

Let us continue to praise the Lord with what he sends us.

It was difficult to staff our Health Care Center those first three days of the week but due to the cooperation and good spirit of our staff we managed to have someone here all the time. Our head nurse, Ronda Noble, R.N., stayed here from Sunday evening until Wednesday noon. Tuesday night we had three nurses spending the night and one on duty. Thanks to them for their sacrifices and willingness to fill in as needed.

I have mentioned before how I have bird feeders outside the sun porch in the Health Center.
Among birds coming to eat are cardinals. They are indeed beautful birds. You can see one in this picture in the tree patiently waiting to get to one of the feeders.

More birds, especially finches, trying to eat on the day of the snow storm.

Brother Cyprian has been home most of this week as his mother died last week at the age of 91. His father is still living and he indicated they had been married almost 69 years.

I couldn't help but include this picture taken at my grandparents home. My Dad and Mother (both now deceased) are seated in the buggy. My oldest brother Raymond (now deceased) is seated on the floor of the buggy and my mother is holding my second oldest brother, Harold (still living and 84 years old). They evidently had gone to my grandparents for the day which was about ten miles from where we lived. Due to muddy roads they went by horse and buggy. I remember the buggy but never remembering traveling that far in it.

To enlarge any of the pictures just click on them.

God bless all of you and keep warm.

Fr. Kenneth, O.S.B.

Good News and Sad News

2011-01-18T17:03:00.005-06:00

Two new postulants arrive: on the left Manuel Santarriaga,
from the El Paso, Texas area, and on the right Daniel
Friedel from East Alton, Illinois

The above two candidates are now here to begin a period of postulancy. Oblates are encouraged to pray for vocations everyday, both for the dioceses and the monastic life.

Visiting here at Conception for a couple days is Abbot Richard Yeo, O.S.B., the Abbot-President of the English Congregation of Benedictines. He has just completed a visitation at St. Louis Abbey and is now spending a few days here at Conception. He is a monk of Downside Abbey in England.

A cousin of mine died rather suddenly last week in Omaha, Nebraska. One of my Dad's sisters, Aunt Rose and her husband lived in Omaha. They had five children, all of whom are now deceased. The grandson of my aunt and uncle, died rather suddenly at the age of 50 toward the end of last week. As a young boy I always remember how we looked forward to my aunt and uncle and their family coming to the farm to visit all the Reicherts. They would spend a week or so and usually we had a big family reunion while they were there.

Just outside the sun room in the renovated St. Stephen Health Care Center I have put some bird feeders. It is interesting to watch them as they come everyday for food. We have a number of different kind of finches, two or three different kind of woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays and I'm not sure what else. The most beautiful I think are the male cardinals in their bright red feathers.

Last weekend and again this weekend I will be in Plattsburg and Easton, Missouri for the weekend Masses. On Saturday there is a Mass at Easton at 4:00 PM, then drive on to Plattsburg for a Mass at 6:00 PM. Sunday morning there is a Mass at Easton at 8:00 AM and then the final Mass at Plattsburg at 10:00 AM. By that time I am usually pretty well worn out.

More snow is predicted for us on Wednesday. So far we have gotten through this winter in good shape.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site, click on the link at the top of this blog and then to read the oblate blog, click on "oblates" on the left of your screen.

God bless you.

CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS WEEK

2010-12-30T11:18:00.005-06:00

Monks in choir

First vespers of Christmas on December 24, 2010

The sanctuary in the basilica for midnight Mass

Preparing for midnight Mass on Christmas

This year was quite different from last year at Christmas. Last year we had a blizzard on Christmas eve and most of Christmas day. Only a few people were able to come to midnight Mass. This year the church was fairly well filled for the midnight Mass. We had first vespers of Christmas at 4:45 PM on Christmas eve. The monastic community then enjoyed a nice Christmas meal at 6:00 PM. At 7:45 PM we prayed vigils and then at midnight celebrated Mass.

On Christmas day we rise and have breakfast anytime before 9:00 AM. At nine we pray Lauds and then all gather in the St. Stephen Health Center as the residents there open their gifts. Then at 11:00 AM we celebrate the third Mass of Christmas.

This year I had to go to the doctor on the morning of December 24. My right foot was swollen and was very sore, for no apparent reason. The first thing the doctor did was check to make sure I did not have a blood clot. Thank God I did not. They told me I would have to be admitted to the hospital if they found a blood clot. So the doctor concluded it was gout, which I have had before, but never like this. He gave me medicine and I was able to concelebrate at the midnight Mass and then on Christmas afternoon to travel to Kansas City. I was assigned to celebrate two Masses at St. Patrick's Parish in Kansas City, North on Sunday morning.

I spent Christmas evening with my brother and his wife and their entire family which was gathered at my nephew and his wife's house -- Steve and Mary Reichert. It was so enjoyable to be able to see the entire family of this brother. Those grandnephews and nieces just grow up so fast. Those who were just kids, are now young ladies and young men.

It has been a custom to have a New Year's retreat here at the Abbey for people who want to get away at this time of year. The retreat this year will be on "Mary, Woman of Faith." Conferences are being given by Brother Placid, Karen Ceckowski and myself. My conference will be based upon the wedding feast at Cana and especially on Mary's words: "Do whatever he tells you." The retreat begins Thursday evening and will conclude Saturday morning on New Year's day.

I want to wish each of you a very Happy and Blessed New Year. May God continue to bless you and your family.

Fr. Kenneth

All the pictures used in this blog were taken by Brother Paul, O.S.B. To see more pictures from Christmas time go to the Conception Abbey web site. Simply click on it up above this blog and then click on "picture gallery" posted at the top of the web page.

A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL

2010-12-17T08:32:00.003-06:00

May God's presence shine upon you this Christmas and bless you throughout the New Year

"All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph
also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to
Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because
he was descended from the house and family of David.
He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was
engaged and who was expecting a child. While they
were there the time came for her to deliver her child.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped
him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the inn.
(Luke 2:3-7)

To all of you faithful readers of this blog and others, I wish you a blessed and holy Christmas. I will definitely be remembering you in prayer and also in my Christmas Masses. I encourage you especially to take time to go to Mass on this special holy day and try to spend some little time at least in reflecting on that great mystery of God becoming man. St. John tells us: "that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son..."

Without Jesus Christ there is no salvation.

And thank you to each of you who read this blog and who are such good friends. May God bless you and grant you many blessings on this feast and throughout the New Year, 2011,

In the love of Christ,
Fr. Kenneth Reichert, O.S.B.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: VISIT OF ARCHBISHOP CARLSON

2010-12-07T14:19:00.003-06:00

Archbishop Robert Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis

Tomorrow, December 8, is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, our patronal feast. We actually honor the Angels as well as the Immaculate Conception as our patrons. When the abbey was first founded in 1873, they began to call it New Engelberg Abbey or New Mount Angel. We were of course founded from Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. However, gradually we came to be called Conception Abbey. The town was already here and was called Conception. At any rate this feast is our patronal feast so a big day for all of us here.

This year Archbishop Robert Carlson, archbishop of St. Louis and so our metropolitan archbishop will be here for the Mass and the main celebrant of the Mass. This is Archbishop's Carlson's first visit here since he came to St. Louis a year or so ago. He was here some years ago to give our community retreat but at that time was an auxiliary bishop in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

This past weekend I was at Brunswick MO to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the parish. It was a wonderful celebration with Bishop Gaydos, the bishop of Jefferson City as the main celebrant. A nice dinner was served at the Knights of Columbus Hall after the Mass.

A week from this Friday the students finish the semester and will be heading for home and a Christmas break. They all look forward to that of course.

I pray you all continue to have a Blessed Advent season and are preparing for Christ's coming on Christmas.

Many blessings.
Fr. Kenneth

THANKSGIVING AND JUBILARIANS 2010

2010-11-23T09:57:00.010-06:00

Upper photo: Father Anthony Shidler, 70 yeears professed, middle: Brother Blaise Bonderer and Father Allan Stetz, 50 years professed. Lower: Father Quentin Kathol, Father Issaac True, 50 years professed and Father Timothy Schoen, 25 years professed.

While these monks have celebrated their jubilees at various times of the year, the community celebrates them on Thanksgiving day. A good day to give thanks for their many years of service to God, the community and the world. Most of the monks who have assignments in parishes or missions are home this week.

Today the seminarians are leaving for home for the Thanksgiving holidays and will return on Sunday, November 28.

We are having our regular four year visitation this week and it will conclude tomorrow. Abbot Justin DuVall from St. Meinrad Archabbey, Father Charles Reichenbacher from Marmion Abbey and Father Matthew Clark from St. Joseph Abbey were our visitators. According to the Constitutions of the Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictines, we are to have such a visitation every four years.

Let us all give thanks this week and especially on Thanksgiving day for all the gifts we have received from God, as well as for our families, friends and others with whom we live and work.

My prayers and best wishes to you. Have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

Fr. Kenneth

What's Going on at Conception

2010-11-09T09:18:00.005-06:00

The weather is changing. Fall is here and winter is coming. Nothing new about that, is there? On my last blog I wrote on this site I included some pictures of the trees and flowers on campus. Well the leaves are pretty well gone now and the flowers have frozen a couple times. We have had a lot of windy weather in this area and so the beautiful leaves are mostly on the ground by now. We are well into November. I went into Walmart in Maryville yesterday and you would have thought it was already Christmas. Christmas decorations and Christmas music. The business world has certainly taken over the Christmas feast.

Speaking of the weather, however, the last few days have not felt at all like Christmas. We have had some days when the temperature got down into the 20's at night, but the last few days it has been getting up into the 70's. Great weather for being outside. The harvesting is pretty well all done in this area. We had a lot of nice weather for the fall and so the farmers were able to harvest all their crops in good time. Some years they are barely finishing by Christmas.

This coming weekend will be the first vocation weekend of the present school year. Called "Encounter With God's Call" two of these are held each year, one in fall and another in the spring. It is a good way for young men in high school or college to visit and get acquainted with the seminary as well as those who are presently seminarians. Talks are presented by seminarians here.

This next weekend too will feature the drama production for this fall. Cotton Patch Gospel will be presented in the gym and auditorium on Friday evening, November 12, on Saturday evening, November 13 and on Sunday afternoon, November 14.

Last week we had a farewell luncheon for two of our employees in the Development Office. Jarrod Thome, an alumnus of the seminary, and his wife, Emily, are moving back to Wichita, the home town of both of them. They have four girls, two sets of twins. Olivia and Sophia were three years old last August, and this fall another set of twin girls were born, Nora and Grace.
So I think they are looking forward to some help from family and friends when they get back to Wichita. Jarrod began work here in March 2007, as Director of Communications. Later his wife Emily also began working here on investigating available grants. They will be missed by all of us here at the Abbey and Seminary and we appreciate their friendship and all they have done for Conception. We wish them many blessings in their life.

Jarrod, Emily, and family

I myself have been seeing doctors recently. For years I have had high blood pressure, but suddenly it went up very high. Finally it is coming back down after the changing of medicine and adding more medicine. I had to cancel an oblate trip to both Des Moines and Wichita because of this. Sorry about that.

Let us all continue to pray with and for one another.

Fr. Kenneth

FALL COLORS

2010-10-15T07:55:00.006-06:00

Some of the beautiful fall colors seen around the Abbey and on campus at this time of the year.

We have had some beautiful fall weather in recent weeks. Last week it actually got quite warm for a couple days again -- up in the mid eighties, but a cold front soon moved in and so it is again cool but pleasant.

Last weekend we had our fall oblate retreat. About forty oblates attended the retreat given by Brother Thomas Sullivan, O.S.B. All seemed to enjoy the weekend very much and the weather was cooperative.

It seems I have spent a lot of this past week seeing doctors. On Monday I had to see the dermatologist in St. Joseph, on Monday night I did a sleep study at the hospital in Maryville and yesterday I saw my primary care doctor in Maryville. Such is life as you get older it seems.

How about the story of the miners in Chile being rescued from deep in the earth? That was something to watch and certainly it was good to see good news rather the usual bad news on television. We all, I'm sure, join in giving thanks to God for their safety after so days underground.

This weekend the Seminary Board of Regents will be meeting here at Conception. They usually meet on Friday afternoon and evening and again on Saturday morning.

So that's it for this time. Have a wonderful day and don't forget to give some time to God. We have much to be grateful for and we all know we need God's help in living our Christian life. Let us pray for one another.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site, click on the marker at the top of this blog.

It's Been a While

2010-10-02T07:25:00.003-06:00

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.

HOW THE YEARS GO BY...............

2010-09-13T08:07:00.008-06:00

I'm sure all of us look back on the years of our life and wonder "Where have all the years gone?" It seems to me that people born around my time and earlier have seen so many changes in our society and certainly in the area of technology. I was born in 1933, still during the great depression. In so many ways all of us were poor in those days, at least poor as far as not having much money. But, perhaps we had many other things that people today do not have. They were happy years until the 2nd World War came along.

There were five boys in our family (no girls) This is one of the earliest pictures I remember of my younger brother and I. He was two years younger than me and the youngest of the family. He died of cancer in 1955

In the early part of September, 2010, it came to my mind that it was 62 years ago that I came to Conception as a sophomore in high school A very home sick boy for sure but here I am still here today. There have been a lot of changes in those years.

This was our sophomore high school class in 1948-49. I am in the 2nd row, far right.

I made my first vows in 1954 and was ordained a priest in 1959. So I have been professed for 56 years and ordained for 51 years. They have been happy years but of course many crosses too along the way.

Three friends and classmates in the early years of college:
from left, Bill Dunphy, Ralph Steffensmeier and myself .

I have worked many years in the seminary since my ordination but have also served in the Indian Missions in South Dakota and had many other jobs and positions in the monastery.

Below are a couple pictures from my days of working in the seminary.

Paul Vowell and Richard DeMeulenaere (now Fr. Martin OSB)

Dennis (Cassian) Heath and Ronald Montgomery (now Brother Bernard OSB)

Well, I think that's enough reminiscing for this time. We older people like to do that, don't we?

Be sure to check out the Abbey web page -- CLICK HERE

God bless you all.

THE FALL SEASON IS ABOUT HERE

2010-09-01T08:02:00.005-06:00

On Sunday, August 22, some of the Reichert first cousins who grew up together on farms north of Brunswick, MO had a reunion. Six of us were able to be there (refer to bottom picture above) and the upper pictures is of all those who were able to come (including in-laws). We had a delightful time talking about the "good old days."

As we enter into the month of September we realize that the fall season is soon to be with us. Already we have had some cooler days and nights. As usual this time of year it goes back and forth for a while. It's hot for a day or two and then a cold front moves in and the temperatures drop. Last evening and last night we had about 1 1/2 inches of rain which we can use.

School is now back in full swing. While I have worked for many years in the seminary as a prefect, chaplain, spiritual director, manager of the book and supply store, etc., I am relieved of all that. I miss being around the students but have to admit I don't have the energy I used to have.

Yesterday I took Father Anthony to a doctor appointment in Maryville with Dr. Tom Di Stefano, an orthopedic surgeon. He was one of the surgeons who worked on me at the time of the shooting incident here in 2002. He thought I looked really good and came out of that in good shape. I agree with him. Father Anthony is in quite a bit of pain much of the time. Some years ago he had hip replacement surgery and gradually that has gotten worse. Now they are not able to do anything other than try to make him more comfortable with pain pills. He just turned 89 years old a couple weeks ago.

Father Joachim is also not able to walk much anymore. We are hoping to obtain an electric chair for him soon. Father Anthony already has such a chair. Brother George also uses an electric chair so soon we may have to put up signal lights in the Health Care Center. The other two residents are Father Paschal and Monsignor McCorkle who both can still walk.

The monks who study away from here have all returned to school. Father Frowin of course is still in Rome. He did not come home for the summer. Brothers Guerric and Victor are at St. Meinrad Archabbey for theological studies and Brother Paul is at St. Vincent Archabbey for theological studies.

I have a grand niece who is studying at Notre Dame University.
This semester she is studying in London on some type of special
program. She sent me the above picture of Big Ben on top of the
parliament building in London. I hope she will continue to send
me pictures now and then as I have never been to England.

And so for now that is it. I do encourage, especially our oblates, to also check out the oblate blog. CLICK HERE and then click on "oblates" on the left side of the screen.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Fr. Joachim Schieber, OSB Grateful for Prayers

2010-08-19T08:29:00.002-06:00

After having back surgery in Kansas City on July 27th and then spending a couple weeks in a rehab center, Father Joachim Schieber is now back in St. Stephen Health Care Center at the Abbey. He wants to express his appreciation to all of you who remembered him in prayer, sent cards, phoned him or stopped by to see him. He appreciates that very much. Father Joachim is our oldest member in the community, going on 92 years old.

Two Novices Profess Temporary Vows

2010-08-17T13:53:00.006-06:00

Left to right in above picture: Abbot Gregory, Brother Basil,
Brother Etienne and Brother Bernard (novice master)

On Sunday, August 15, our two novices professed the vows of obedience, conversion of life and stability for three years. Abbot Gregory was celebrant of the Mass and accepted the vows with the community present. As is our custom each of them received a new name. Novice John Bosco will now be known as Brother Basil and Novice Eric Huard will be known as Brother Etienne. (the French form of Stephen)

Many new signs have been placed on campus to help direct guests and others to the proper area or building.

Another one of the new signs.

Some of the signs also have a message on the back of the sign.

As I write this blog on Tuesday afternoon we are getting a nice shower of rain. It is also much cooler and that is great. The new students arrive tomorrow, Wednesday, August 18 and then the returning students on Saturday.

SUMMER ACTIVITIES WIND DOWN

2010-08-13T09:56:00.006-06:00

As the summer comes toward an end and the students will soon be returning, it is a good time to pass along some of the news of what has been going on here at the Abbey this summer. A lot of work has been done. Early in the summer some new sidewalks were poured to replace broken and cracked sidewalks.

Also, with the increase of students in the seminary we have had to refurbish and increase the number of washers and dryers for the students to use. I believe nine new ones were installed in St. Michael Hall alone.

Just in the last few days the sign company has been putting up new signage for the various buildings. The sign above is one example. Of course for some time we have been working on these signs, deciding where to put them and what kind of a design to use.

As students who were here last year will remember the last two years we had put in a lift for handicapped persons to use to go from the library floor of the ambulatory or walkway to the ground level. Now we have a concrete ramp to be used for this purpose. The picture above shows part of this.

As many will recall we were having a lot of trouble with the asphalt breaking up on some parts of the road system. This summer we had the entire road system re-sealed and from the parking lot in front of the church and monastery to the garage we have put a concrete road. We hope this will last much longer than the asphalt.

At the end of July an alumnus, and his wife and little boy visited here at Conception. The photo above shows alumnus Randy Gorges, his wife Vera and their little boy, Isaac. Isaac will be a year old in October. Randy left Conception in the year 2000.

Another alumnus and his wife visited here earlier in July and I also got to visit them in their home in Dayton, Ohio. Pictured above are Benjamin Darnell and his wife Alicia and their little boy, also named Isaac. Isaac was one year old on August 12.

This Sunday, August 15, two of our novices will make their first vows and receive new monastic names. John Bosco, from Omaha, Nebraska and Eric Huard, from Wichita Kansas. This is always a happy occasion for the monastic community.

For more photos go to my Smugmug albums and photos (click here)

Or see some my other photos go on my Picassa site (click here)

A Relaxing and Enjoyable Few Days on the Farm

2010-07-26T12:56:00.003-06:00

St. Joseph Church at Hurricane Branch.
Actually just out in the country alone. (No town)
My mother was baptized here.

St. Raphael Church at Indian Grove.
My parents were married here in 1921

The Reichert triplets. The little boy is Brody

The Reichert triplets -- the two girls Emery
and Gracie

The three of them: Left to right: Emery,
Gracie and Brody (the other little boy, Jaxon, died a couple
days after birth.

I returned last Friday from an enjoyable few days on the farm at Brunswick, MO. That is where I was born and raised until I came to Conception. I still have a number of relatives who live around there. My only living brother, who lives in Kansas City, owns a farm there and keeps a mobile home on it so he lets me use that every time I go there. I also have one nephew who lives on a farm nearby and a sister in law who lives on a nearby farm. It's always a good place for me to relax and get caught up on sleep, while at the same time going to visit relatives and friends.

On the weekend I was there I was assigned to go to two nearby parishes to celebrate Masses. Celebrated one Mass on Saturday evening and then three on Sunday morning. Two at each parish, Brookfield, MO and Marceline, MO.

Many monks seem to be gone right now as they are trying to get in some days of vacation before school begins. As this is the last week of July that is not far off.

While at home I got to visit one evening with my triplet great grand nephew and nieces, and also with many other nephews and nieces and relatives. We had rain many days and it was usually very hot and humid because of the rain.

Until the next time, God bless you all.

GOOD WEEK OF VACATION

2010-07-06T07:53:00.013-06:00

As I mentioned earlier on the blog I spent a week visiting friends in Buffalo, NY and in Dayton, OH. It was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with so many friends. In Buffalo I got to see probably about 16-17 of the 22 people who were on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2006. I stayed with the lady who led the pilgrimage, Barbara Shanahan. Barbara is an oblate of Conception Abbey and usually comes here for Christmas and the Triduum each year. She is the director of the Biblical Program in Buffalo and also teaches many of the classes. I enjoyed so many good meals and, while I had seen Niagara Falls before, this was the first time I had gone on a ride on the boat that takes you practically right under the falls. They give you a plastic rain coat to wear and it is needed. It was an exciting and beautiful boat ride.

After spending three nights in Buffalo I went on to Dayton, OH. A former seminarian and good friend, Ben Darnell, lives there. He and his wife Alicia have a little boy, Isaac Joseph, who will be one year old in August. What a delight it was to spend three days with them and to get acquainted with little Isaac. I presided at Ben and Alicia's wedding in 2008 at Springfield, MO. Alicia has just finished her Master's Degree in Theology at Dayton University. Ben is Youth Director at Precious Blood Parish in Dayton. We also visited the U.S. Airforce Museum which is located in Dayton.

About a week before I went on this trip Father David Coon and his parents stopped in to see me. It was wonderful to see him, as well as his parents. I was David's spiritual director in the seminary and I went to Charleston, MO to attend his ordination and first Mass some years ago. He is now the pastor at Popular Bluff, MO in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese.

Here at Conception work during the summer proceeds. We have put in some new sidewalks which were needed. A lot of work is scheduled to be done on the roads in the next few weeks and some new laundry rooms have been put in the seminary dorm areas since the enrollment has gone up and seems like it will go up again this year.

Monks are coming and going as they each try to get some vacation days in before the students return. We are allowed two weeks. I hope to take about a week visiting family and relatives from about July 15-22 and will take a parish assignment at Brookfield and Marceline, MO that weekend.

I am posting a number of pictures here below of my trip to Buffalo and Dayton. To see more of these go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/frkenneth/BuffaloNYAndDaytonOHJune23292010#

Pictures below taken at Buffalo

Last three pictures below taken at Dayton, OH

Summer time is here

2010-06-12T12:31:00.012-06:00

The new furniture of the St. Stephen Health Care Center came in this past week and it is now installed. It looks beautiful. The maker of the furniture is an almnus, and former monk and good friend of the Abbey, Cassian Heath. That is his photo in the bottom picture. The photo on the top is a general view of the sanctuary area of the chapel.

During the summer months it seems monks are sort of in and out. Some leave to give retreats at other places, some are on vacation, some are away at school. So the size of the community varies almost from day to day.

We have been having a lot of rain the last week or two so the weather has been muggy and hot most days. It seems that we get at least a shower of rain almost everyday. There are farmers who are still trying to get crops into the fields.

Front entrance of Health Care Center, St. Stephen, deacon and martyr.

Below brief film of chapel.

This Sunday afternoon, June 13, my nephew Mike and his wife Sheila and Jarrod and Katy were here for Mass and lunch. Then some of Sheila's family came and I gave them a tour. Had a good visit. We had a little more rain this morning and now it is again very hot and humid.

June 2010, another month has passed.

2010-05-30T12:59:00.005-06:00

Sorry I haven't had a chance to put a new blog on this site since May 10. There has been a lot going
on and I just haven't had a chance to sit down and write. That being said I will try to bring you up to date.

The weekends of May 15-16 and May 22-23, I was at my home parish at Brunswick, MO to celebrate the weekend Masses. That is quite a distance to drive and then after celebrating four Masses I am pretty tired. So I usually ask the Abbot to stay over until Monday morning before I drive back. He readily gave me permission so that helped and I got to visit with my family while by doing that. Fortunately it also gave me a chance to see my triplet great grandnephew and nieces. They have really grown. They were born on my birthday last year on July 7. Originally there were four, but one of the boys died about the second day. The three are doing well. Each of them now weighs about 18 pounds. They were two pounds or under when they were born.
The one little girl in the picture above was asleep so I didn't want to wake her.

We had our community retreat the week after school was out. It was given by Father Ronald Witherup, P.S.S. a Sulpician. Father is from the U.S.A., but is the Superior General of the Sulpicians and their headquarters are in Paris so that is where he lives now. His retreat was on the theme of Paul and Benedict: The Christ-Centered Life. It was very interesting and very helpful.

This past weekend, May 29-30, is the first weekend in May that I have not been out in a parish.
On Friday evening I attended the ordinations to the diaconate at Omaha, Nebraska. Two of our alumni were ordained deacons and will be ordained priests in another year -- Andy Syring and Kevin Vogel. I spend the night in Omaha and came home Saturday. Today on Sunday I had the Mass at Clyde for the Sisters at 11:00 AM. Next weekend I have Mass at Clyde on Saturday and then at Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Joseph on Sunday morning.

We try to have a member of the community present for the ordination to the diaconate and priesthood for our alumni. This time of year that keeps us busy as many ordinations are in late May and early June.

We are working trying to landscape and get grass started around the St. Stephen Health Care Center. All through the spring it was so wet that we could not work out there. Finally we have been able to prepare the ground and sow the grass seed. We have also put some flowers outside and yesterday I added a bird feeder or two.

Publish Post

If you are an oblate don't forget to check out the latest oblate blog. Go to the Conception Abbey website -- click here. Then on the left side of the screen click on "oblates."

MAY 2010

2010-05-07T13:09:00.011-06:00

Here we are moving through the month of May. In some ways May is a busy month for so many people. It's a time for graduation and weddings and other family events. This year I have two grandnieces graduating from high school and one graduating from Missouri University with her doctorate in physical therapy. I don't think there are any weddings in our family this year.

Our own students here in the seminary graduate and close the school year on Sunday, May 16, the Solemnity of the Ascension. Things will be a little more quiet during the summer but we will still be busy, I'm sure. Weekend pastoral assignments usually increase during the summer.

I have been on the road a lot the last month or so taking people to the doctor either in Maryville or St. Joseph, and going to parishes for weekend Masses. Last weekend (May 1-2) I was at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in St. Joseph for the weekend Masses, then I returned to the Abbey very briefly Sunday afternoon, before leaving for Des Moines for an oblate meeting Sunday evening. We prayed evening prayer together at 5:30 PM and that was followed by a pot-luck dinner, visiting and a talk by myself. About 50 people attended the meeting.

This coming weekend, May 8-9, I again go to St. Joseph to the same parish for the weekend Masses. I enjoy this work very much and find the people always so appreciative and hospitable, but I have to say it wears me out more than formerly. I guess that is part of getting older. Last weekend at this parish I met a former classmate here at Conception, Louis Luke. I came to Concepti0n as a sophomore in high school in 1948, Louie was here already in 1947 but we spent three years of high school together. It was great to visit with him after so many years. People at the parish could hardly believe we came to school here so many years ago. At that time of course Conception had a high school, college and theology school.
The black & white picture is of the
sophomore class of 1948-49. In the 2nd row the 2nd person from the left is Louie Luke. The one on the far right in the same row is Fr. Kenneth.
The other picture was taken May 2, 2010 of the same two people.

The weekends of May 15-16 and May 22-23, I will be at my home parish at Brunswick, Missouri. The pastor is going to Ireland so he asked us to cover the parish. Naturally I was happy to go when the Prior asked me if I could do that. It's always good to go back there, although I find I know fewer and fewer of the people. I do still have a number of relatives who live in the area.

We had almost two inches of rain last night and it is much cooler today and very windy. For those who are alumni you might like to know that, yes, we do still have May Day, and this year it was moved up to April 29, since they were predicting rain for some days after that. It was good we moved it as we did have rain for a few days.

Hope all is well with all you readers of this blog. It's always good to hear from you so don't hesitate to add a comment or send me an e-mail at kenneth@conception.edu as posted on the side of my blog on this page.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site and then the oblate section click here. If you want to go to the oblate blog, click on "oblates" on the left side of the screen.

To go to my photo web site look at the left side of the screen of this blog and click on the photo site given there.

Some News Items

2010-04-19T13:09:00.007-06:00

Spring is such a beautiful time of the year that I find myself continuously wanting to take pictures. Yet, the pictures do not really do justice to the natural beauty that is there.

ENCOUNTER WITH GOD'S CALL: This past weekend from Saturday afternoon until today (Monday) after Mass and lunch, the seminary hosted about 125 young men who came to see what seminary life is like. This event is called "Encounter with God's Call." They come from many dioceses and from many places. Usually vocation directors from the various dioceses accompany the young men who come. Many of our new students each year are men who attended one or more of these weekends.

ABBEY TRAILS: Saturday we had our annual so called Abbey Trails. It includes both a run and a walk. Again this year we had a large group in both divisions. Many of the younger ones doing the run, and many young and old alike doing the walk. Awards are given for each age group as well as the over all winners.

FATHER ANTHONY SHIDLER, O.S.B. Father Anthony moved over into the St. Stephen Health Care Center last week. Father Anthony will be 89 years old in August but has been very active, attending all our prayer, and working as porter for half a day each day. But, due to hip replacement surgery some years ago he is finding it more and more difficult to get around. He is gradually settling in to his new way of life.

Weekend work: This past weekend I again helped in a couple of parishes. On Sunday morning about 5:30 AM I left for Leon, Iowa where I celebrated Mass at 8:00 AM and then went on to Chariton, Iowa and celebrated Mass at 10:30 AM. I always enjoy doing this pastoral work but I do come back quite tired.

THE WEATHER: The weather has been great. Most days have been sunny and relatively warm. Farmers are out in the fields planting corn. So it seems like spring is upon us.

Oblates and other readers who would like to view more photos of the oblate retreat last weekend as well as other oblate pictures, click here.

If you would like to read more about the REVISED GRAIL PSALMS, translated by Abbot Gregory and other monks of Conception Abbey, go to the Conception Abbey web site, click here. And then on the left side of the screen click "news."

God bless you.

SPRING IS HERE AND IT IS WONDERFUL AND A BLESSING

2010-04-12T13:55:00.005-06:00

After a cold and difficult winter spring has now arrived it seems -----------
and now on most days the temperature has been up into the 70's and even into the 80's a few days. That is one of blessings of living in a part of the country where we have the different seasons. You enjoy the beautiful days so much more I think. While the winter was very cold and we had a lot of snow now we can enjoy the beautiful flowers, green grass etc. all the more.

The Triduum days and Easter were a beautiful time at Conception. We had a sizable group of guests with us and even more for the Easter Vigil which we began at 4:30 AM on Sunday morning. It ended about 7:15 AM. That is such a beautiful three days and very meaningful for Christians who celebrate on those days our salvation and redemption.

I celebrated Mass at Clyde for the older and infirm Sisters at Our Lady of Rickenbach during Holy Week. This week I am the celebrant for the Clyde community Masses in their main chapel. The Sisters are preparing to renovate their monastery and so are in the process of moving into other housing, primarily their other monasteries or in their guest facilities. So this Wednesday will be the last Mass in their main chapel until after the renovation -- probably a couple of years. They will have Mass in the Rickenbach chapel during that time.

Revised Grail Psalter approved:
Word was received this past week that the Holy See has given its recognitio to the revised edition of the Grail psalter. Abbot Gregory and other monks worked on that for a long time. In the future this translation is to be used in all liturgical texts in the U.S.A. and perhaps in other English speaking countries. We are proud that it is being published under the name of Conception Abbey.

Almost forty oblates were here for the retreat this past weekend. It was given by Father Pachomius who did a great job. To see some pictures from the retreat days click here
and then go to the album "oblates 2010."

Blessings and peace to each of you.
Fr. Kenneth

HOLY WEEK AND SACRED TRIDUUM AT CONCEPTION ABBEY

2010-03-28T08:36:00.006-06:00

Today on Passion or Palm Sunday we begin that all important week that we call Holy Week. The last days of the week we call The Sacred Triduum. How do we celebrate this week at Conception?

PALM SUNDAY: We try to have the blessing of palms some place other than in the church. This morning it was cloudy, cool and quite windy so we went into the first floor of St. Michael Hall and had the blessing in a large room there.
Usually if the weather is o.k. we have the blessing outdoors in the front of St. Michael Hall as you see in the picture to the right. We begin a little earlier than on a normal Sunday but still it is usually about 12:00 noon when we finish, Reading the account of the Passion of course takes extra time. On Palm Sunday the Abbot reads the words of Christ, the Prior reads the narrator part and the Subprior the part of other speakers.

HOLY THURSDAY: The Triduum does not begin until the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper at 5:00 PM for us at the Abbey. Our morning schedule is the same as for all days with Vigils at 6:00 AM, Morning prayer at 7:15 AM. However, on this day we have a Penance Service or Service of Reconcilation for the monks, seminarians and guests at 11:00 AM. Usually about eight confessors are assigned to be available at various places in the basilica for confessions. After the noon meal on this day we do not have any more recreation until Sunday after the Easter Vigil. We try to keep a spirit of silence during these days. At the evening Mass which begins at 5:00 PM, the Abbot washes the feet of 12 people. At the end of Mass the hosts that were consecrated for Good Friday are carried in procession to the tabernacle. Until midnight we have adoration of the sacrament. Then at about 7:00 PM we all gather in the student and guest refectories for an agape meal. Everyone is encouraged to spend some time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament after this until midnight.

GOOD FRIDAY: On this day, which is a day of fast and abstinence, our meals are very simple. We rise about 6:30 AM, eat a light breakfast in silence and then assemble in the basilica for Vigils and Morning Prayer at 7:50 AM. The students and guests join us for this. It takes a little over an hour. We pray daytime prayer at noon, and then have a light lunch. At 3:00 PM we again gather in the basilica for the Good Friday service. This includes readings, including the reading of the Passion according to St. John, a homily, prayers, adoration of the cross, and communion. After a simple supper, we pray compline at 7:15 PM.

HOLY SATURDAY AND EASTER SUNDAY: Holy Saturday is a quiet day as we await the resurrection on Easter Sunday. We pray Vigils and Morning prayer together at 7:50 AM, daytime prayer at noon, and vespers at 5:40 PM. Meals are all eaten in silence as are those on Good Friday.

And then at 4:30 AM on Easter Sunday morning
we gather outdoors in front of the basilica for the blessing of the new fire and lighting of the Easter candle for 2010. The Easter Vigil takes at least two and a half hours or more. It includes the reading of seven Old Testament readings, the blessing of water, the renewal of baptismal promises. In many parishes this is the night when new members enter the Church, are baptized or make their profession of faith. It is a beautiful ceremony. At the end all go forth with joy in their hearts and ALLELUIAS on their lips.

Many guests are usually with us for these days and the seminarians do not leave for vacation until after the Easter Vigil. They are then off all of Easter Week.

Christ is risen, ALLELUIA. A Blessed Easter to each and everyone of you.

Some News Items

2010-03-16T17:37:00.006-06:00

Sorry I haven't written on this blog for a while.

Board of Regents: The seminary board of regents met last weekend. This is an advisory board made up of some of the bishops who have students here in the seminary, vocation directors and other priests and lay people. They are an advisory board to the seminary administration but a very important part of the seminary and decisions that effect the seminary.

Open house in St. Stephen Health Care Center: Last Sunday, March 14, we had an open house in our newly renovated Health Center. It was well attended by many people from the area. There are still a few pieces of furniture to arrive yet but, for the the most part, it is completed and of course in use. For anyone who had seen it before the renovation it's hard to imagine it is still the same building.

Weekend pastoral help: It seems there has been a lot of requests for weekend help lately. On the weekend of March 6-7, I went to Montrose and Butler, MO. These two parishes are served by one priest and there are two Masses at each parish so it was a busy weekend and a long drive. Then on Saturday, March 13, I went to St. Joseph, MO where I heard confessions and celebrated the 4:00 PM Mass. On Monday evening, March 15, I went with Fathers Xavier and Peter to the parish at Savannah, MO to help hear confessions at a penance service. This coming weekend, March 20-21 I go to the parish at Cameron, MO for Masses. At this time of year, with Easter coming soon, there are many penance services and frequently the pastors ask for help for these.

Snow is about all gone: As most of you know we had a lot of snow this winter and fortunately it is now just about all gone. The weather warmed up and we have had rain which helped get rid of the snow. However, that means we also have a lot of mud. If you get off of roads and sidewalks, the mud is deep and messy.

I am including some more photos of the Health Care Center, including some from the open house this past weekend.

A good friend, Maryann Ceckowski, sewing
valances for some of the windows.

Some of the people at the open house -- This
photo by seminarian Geoff Brooke

Another busy week has gone by.....

2010-02-25T19:44:00.011-06:00

Last week another blogger from this area published on his blog a picture from the summer, green grass and all. I thought to myself that was a good idea. We have had so much cold weather and snow that sometimes it seems that we will never get to spring. So anyway the pictures above should remind us all of how beautiful God makes this land of ours. We will just appreciate it more after this winter. The snow can be beautiful also but by now we are all ready for spring.

It has been a sort of busy week or two weeks for me. Sometimes I wonder if it just seems busy or simply that as I get older I move a little slower. Last Tuesday I had an appointment with my dentist in Maryville. I go to a rather young dentist who just moved into Maryville about a year ago. He is originally from Idaho but went to dental school at Creighton University in Omaha. After practicing in Columbia, MO for a while, he and his wife decided to move to Maryville. He is a very good dentist .

Tuesday afternoon I went to St. Joseph for a visit to the dermatologist. I have been getting what is called the "blue light treatment." I have had a number of growths removed from my face and my head. First they used this treatment on my face and now on my bald head. You have three treatments about a month apart and then go back after a couple months for a follow up. So far it has worked well for me.

The talks we had by Father Paul Turner just after Ash Wednesday were very interesting and informative. When it is finally published it will take me a while to get used to the changes in the Mass. When I was ordained in 1959 we still used Latin in the Mass and other sacraments. There have been many changes since that time.

Two of our priest monks were out in parishes this week giving parish missions. Father Prior Daniel was at Hitchcock, Texas and Father Patrick was at Nixa, Missouri (close to Springfield). Both returned home on Wednesday or Thursday.

This Saturday I go to Maryville MO for the Saturday evening Mass and confessions. Our Father Martin is pastor at Maryville but he has two funerals on Saturday so needs some help that evening. Next weekend I go to Montrose and Butler, Missouri for the regular Sunday Masses. That is about 180 miles from Conception.

This weekend our guest facilities are filled with meeting groups and retreatants. The largest group is the Mid-America Medieval Association (MAMA). About a hundred or more will be here for their conference. Brother Thomas is a member of this association.

A number of students have been showing up at the St. Stephen Health Care Center not feeling well. Some have the flu and some have colds. A few of the monks have also been in bed with similar symptoms.

If you live in the area remember the OPEN HOUSE IN THE ST. STEPHEN HEALTH CARE CENTER on Sunday, March 14, 2:00-4:00 PM.

A reminder to check out the Conception Abbey web site and the oblate section of that site.

And also my photos on the web.
To view photos that have appeared on my blog click here.

LENT, 2010

2010-02-14T16:30:00.003-06:00

Yes, the season of Lent begins this Wednesday, February 17. Hopefully we are all prepared to enter into this season and looking forward to the joy of Easter. Lent is a time of conversion, of changing direction if that is what we need to do in our life. It's a time to turn away from sin and to turn to Jesus Christ more and more. So anything special we do during Lent should help us to do that.

Each of us who are monks take our Lenten good works that we propose to do to the Abbot and ask his approval and blessing. As a community we also do certain works during Lent, such as more silence, cutting back in food etc.. Lent is a time to die with Christ so we can rise with him at Easter.

This past week continued to be very much winter. We have had light snows a number of days and the days and nights are cold but we can be thankful we did not have snow like they had out east in Washington, DC, New York, Philadelphia etc.. I saw someplace yesterday that 49 states had new snow fall yesterday (Saturday). That means someplaces are having snow that usually do not get snow. I understand from a friend who is studying in Rome that last week they had their first snowfall in 26 years.

This coming week we will have three continuing education sessions with Father Paul Turner, an alumnus and pastor at Cameron, MO. He will speak to us about the new sacramentary that is being prepared and the changes that will be happening when we begin using it. We have a session Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening and Friday morning. The seminarians will be on retreat the first three days of lent --Ash Wednesday to Friday evening.

These past few days the deacon candidates from the diocese of Jefferson City and their wives have been here on retreat. They are preparing for their ordination to the diaconate in April. This weekend we also had a couple of groups of young people preparing for the sacrament of confirmation. A cousin of mine along with her husband and their son were here with the youth retreat group from Webb City, MO. It was good to visit with them.

New shipments of furniture are still arriving for the St. Stephen Health Care Center. We now have the new dining room furniture. They also began putting the railings in along the halls this week. That should be finished this week.

One of the tables in the dining room

The dining room for residents of Health Care Center

The sun porch next to the dining room

You are encouraged to also go to the Conception Abbey web site and read the Oblate blog there.

Please click here.

A Few News Items from Conception Abbey

2010-02-06T09:16:00.008-06:00

More snow (3-4 inches) on February 5, 2010

Taken inside monastery looking through window
into the courtyard.

Just want all of you to know that, while much of the snow we had in January has melted, we keep getting a little more now and then to remind us that winter is not over yet.

With regard to our renovated St. Stephen Health Care Center, we are enjoying it very much. Some furniture is still arriving. I am including a couple pictures of that below.

Fr. Kenneth in his office with new office furniture
St. Stephen Health Care Center

Part of the living room area on 2nd floor
New chairs for the chapel in St. Stephen's

South end of dining room area in St. Stephen's

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

We here at Conception are getting ready for Lent. As St. Benedict states in his Rule, each of the monks "should make known to the abbot what he intends to do, since it ought to be done with his prayer and approval." Abbot Gregory gives each monk twenty minutes to come in and talk to him and ask for his approval on what they propose to do special during Lent. I hope all of us are starting to make some plans for Lent so that it can be a time to truly prepare for the joy of Easter.

A week ago, on Friday evening, January 29, we held our annual SOS (Support Our Seminarians) dinner and auction at the Mariott Hotel in downtown Kansas City. About 730 people attended this year. Since a number of my family were attending, I also went down for this event. I believe this was the 17th year for this event.

I encourage all of you to go to the Conception Abbey web site for more information about Conception or to read my Oblate blog. Click here please
To see other photos on my photo web site --- click here.

What's Going On

2010-01-24T19:00:00.005-06:00

Over a week has gone by since I last wrote on this blog so I thought I would bring you up to date a bit. The weather continues to be one of the dominating things that people talk about. It has gotten warmer and a lot of the snow has melted and no new snow has come. However, for about the last ten days or so it has been cloudy and foggy everyday. So naturally everyone has been getting a little "cabin fever" wanting to see some sunshine and nice weather. Today the sun did shine for about half a day but then it once again clouded over. Sorry to talk about the weather so much but that has been a topic of much concern this winter.

This weekend I have been home most of the time. However, I did go to the Clyde Monastery for two Masses this morning. On Sundays they have their community Mass at 8:30 AM and then Mass at Our Lady of Rickenbach, their Health Care Center, at 11:00 AM. On Sundays the same priests celebrates both Masses. During the week the community Mass is at 7:30 AM and I will be celebrating that all this week. The Mass at their Health Care Center is at 11:00 AM everyday and on weekdays a second priest goes over for that.

On this past Thursday the Nodaway County Health Nurse came over to give the H1N1 flu shot to those who wanted one. I got one just to be sure. Right now it seems to have pretty well disappeared but some health officials think there will be another outbreak in February or so.
I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

Every five years in the monastery we read the necrologies of the monks of Conception who have died. We read these on the anniversary date of their death at the evening meal. It is interesting to hear about the monks who have gone before us. As I get older I find I remember so many of them. I came here as a student in 1948 and entered the monastic community in 1953 so many have died during that time. Last Thursday, January 21, was the anniversary of Abbot Kevin's death and today January 24, is the anniversary of Abbot Anselm's death . Abbot Kevin died in 1995 and Abbot Anselm in 1999.

If you would like to read the blog I write for the oblates or see the Conception Abbey web site, click here.

IT'S BEEN COLD AND LOTS OF SNOW

2010-01-13T14:31:00.010-06:00

To enlarge photo just click your mouse on it.

We have had a cold winter so far and have received more snow than we have had in many years. This past week we again had good size snow, and with the high winds we have been having, it blows into big drifts. It took the highway department a couple days just to get the main roads cleared and many of the minor roads were closed many more days. Today the temperature is up into the upper 30's which feels like spring. For many days we had temperatures staying at zero or barely above zero all day. Some nights the windchill was down to 20 and 25 below zero. But, I'm sure many of you have been experiencing the same kind of weather or maybe even worse. I sent some pictures to some friends who live in Phoenix. They sent some pictures back of flowers blooming in their yard and said the temperature has been in the 70's most days. How to make people feel good??? I remember well winters like this in the past but it has been a long time since we had so much snow and cold weather.

Last Sunday I was at Cameron, MO for the weekend Masses. Two Masses at St. Munchin's in Cameron. St. Munchin was an Irish saint. And then one Mass at St. Aloysius in Maysville, MO. I always enjoy these weekend assignments. I come back tired but I meet so many wonderful people. This coming weekend I go to Plattsburg, MO. I will have two Masses at Plattsburg (one on Saturday evening and one on Sunday) and one Mass at Easton, MO on Sunday morning.

The seminarians returned for the second semester last Sunday also. I think all of them were able to make it but that would probably not have been possible a week ago.

We are gradually getting more and more settled in the renovated St. Stephen Health Care Center. It is very nice. However, we are still waiting for new furniture and some other finishing touches.

Again I want to assure you of my prayers. I encourage you to go to the Conception Abbey web site and look at that. I have a blog for oblates there. Simply click on "oblates" on the left side of the screen and then on "blog." Click here if you would like to view some of my photos on Smugmug.

BLESSED AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-01-03T09:05:00.008-06:00

I wish everyone who reads this blog many blessings in this year of 2010. The years seem to go by so fast. Did you stay up on New Year's eve to see the new year come in? I personally have not done that for a long, long time. Here in the monastery we have a little New Year's eve party in the evening after vespers. Then from 8:00-9:00 PM we make a Holy Hour for peace. After that I went to bed. I figure the new year will come in without me watching it.

On Christmas eve and Christmas day we had quite a snow storm. High winds and a lot of snow. It was difficult, if not impossible for people go to where they had planned to celebrate Christmas. Our basilica is usually pretty well filled for midnight Mass, but this year we only had about thirty people in church. I had to work in our Health Care Center all night on Christmas eve as we could not get nurses in to work. It has also been very, very cold with temperatures the last couple nights down to zero or below. Last night we had about another inch or two of snow.

We are now pretty well moved into the renovated St. Stephen Health Care Center. It is very nice and all the residents seem to be happy to be there. There are a few little things that will still have to be done but for the most part it is completed.

Below are some pictures of the renovated building.

First floor: kitchen

First floor: dining room

First floor: sun porch

First floor: exercise room

To view my personal photo site go to: http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/

To go to the Conception Abbey web site click here.

A MERRY AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL

2009-12-24T10:22:00.003-06:00

CHRISTMAS, 2009.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16

This has long been a favorite passage of mine. It seems to express what Christmas is all about. God sent the Son, Jesus Christ, to bring salvation and eternal life to all the world, to all people. The love God has for us is overwhelming. It is more than we can fully understand. We think we have to earn love from others. God is love. He loves us even as sinners. But, of course we try to return his love by our love for God and our love for our brothers and sisters. As Jesus makes clear what we do to others we do to Him.

With that spirit of love then I wish all readers of this blog a very blessed and happy Christmas. You know you will be in my prayers and remembered in my Masses on Christmas day, as well as in the prayers and Masses of all the monks.

Merry Christmas.

With love and prayers.

Father Kenneth, O.S.B.

St. Stephen Health Care Center

2009-12-20T19:34:00.007-06:00

Nurses station on left. Hall leads to monastery................. Lounge and t.v. room

Short video of one of the rooms in renovated
Health Care Center ......................................................................Nurses station up above

Last Friday on December 18, we moved the residents back to the regular Health Care Center (infirmary). They are still doing some work in the building, primarily on the bottom floor. Since the residents live on the 2nd floor we could move back in. It seems to please every one and certainly is more pleasant than the old facility. All the rooms are larger and have full baths in each room. The windows are also larger and all have a good view. Tomorrow we are going to Hannibal, MO to pick up Monsignor Louis McCorkle. He is an alumnus and friend of the Abbey and is now in his 80's. We will take care of him in our Health Care Center.

The students left last Friday also and will be gone for about three weeks for Christmas vacation. Those of our own monks who are away at school are arriving to be home for Christmas. Brother Paul arrived last Thursday, and Brothers Anselm and Victor are due to arrive tomorrow. Father Frowin, who is studying in Rome, will of course not come home for Christmas.

While stores and many public places have had Christmas decorations up for weeks and even months, we so far have no decorations up. They will, however, be put up this coming week and by Christmas it will be well decorated.

I hope you have a blessed last week of Advent. I plan to post a new blog on Thursday to wish each of you a Merry Christmas.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site and the Oblate blog. click here

Brother Mark Kosiba enters eternal life

2009-12-05T13:43:00.003-06:00

Brother Mark Kosiba, a monk of Conception Abbey, died on Monday evening, November 30, at North Kansas City Hospital. About a month ago he had open heart surgery and just never did come out of that. He was in a rehab center for a while but then they had to send him back to the hospital. Brother Mark was 74 years old and through the years did a lot of development work here at the Abbey, as well as at the Indian Mission at Fort Yates, North Dakota. For a number of years he had not been in good health but he was always active and always had a smile on his face. His funeral was Friday, December 4, with a wake service the night before. He will be missed in the community for sure.

Work on the St. Stephen Health Care Center continues. The top floor is pretty well completed but there is still some work to do on the bottom floor so we'll have to see when we will be able to move. Work is also continuing on the new elevator.

Winter weather has hit us. The last few nights it has gotten down to about 14-15 degrees. Today it is a little warmer but only about 40 degrees.

I hope you are all having a blessed Advent season.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site or to read the recent oblate blog click here.

Blessing of St. Stephen Health Care Center

2009-11-28T09:42:00.003-06:00

The new name given to the renovated infirmary is now: St. Stephen Health Care Center. We had the blessing of the building last Tuesday, November 24, while all the monks were here at home for Thanksgiving week. It will be a couple weeks before we can begin moving in but things are coming along great and we are all looking forward to moving back over there.

Photos were taken by Novice Eric.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

LET US GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD OUR GOD

2009-11-24T08:49:00.007-06:00

The pictures above were all taken this morning, Tuesday, November 24, in the renovated Health Care Center here at Conception. They are all taken on the 2nd floor. The top left is the chapel in the center of the 2nd floor. The top right is one of the resident rooms. The bottom left is the hallway on the 2nd floor. The bottom left is the lounge and T.V. room on the 2nd floor. That is the only room that will have carpet. We have of course not yet moved in and the work is not all completed. We are planning and hoping to move in before Christmas. Today at 2:30 PM we are planning to have the blessing of the building. All the monks should be home by that time from their various assignments and so the Abbot wants to have the blessing when they are all home.

During this Thanksgiving week, as is traditional here at Conception, most of the monks try to come home. During the week we have meetings and also time for socializing and enjoying one another's company. We also celebrate our jubilarians for the year 2009. This year, Father Joachim Schieber celebrates 70 years of monastic profession and 65 years as a priest. Father Donald Grabner celebrates 60 years of monastic profession. Father Kenneth Reichert and Father Paschal Thomas celebrate 50 years of ordination to the priesthood. Father Karl Barmann celebrates 50 years of monastic profession. The Mass on Thanksgiving day honors the jubilarians and then a banquet follows.

The seminarians all attended the National Catholic Youth Convention this past weekend. This year this event was held in Kansas City at Bartle Convention Hall and also at the Sprint Center. About 25,000 youth and adults attended. Many pictures were posted on the Kansas City Star web site of this event. Today the students leave for their Thanksgiving break. They will return on Sunday evening.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week with our families, friends, community etc., let us not forget to take time to thank God for his many blessings. I ask you to join with me in thanking God for my fifty years in the priesthood and fifty five years as a professed monk. I am also grateful to my family and all of you who read this blog for your support during these years.

God Bless you.

If you would like to go to the Conception Abbey web site or read the oblate blog, click here.

What's going on?

2009-11-10T13:58:00.004-06:00

Here it is already November 10 and in just a couple weeks we will be giving thanks at Thanksgiving and then we begin the Advent season in preparation for the feast of Christmas. Of course we all know that many of the stores already have their decorations up for Christmas. I hope that most of us can wait a while longer. Advent is a time to prepare and then we celebrate on Christmas.A week or so ago one of our infirmary employees retired after working here for about eight years. Juanita Middleton was a faithful worker for us for those years. We are grateful for her service. On her last day of work we had a little social gathering for monks and infirmary employees to honor her.

Shown above are on the left Ronda Noble R.N. our present

head nurse, Juanita seated, Fr. Kenneth behind her
and Carol Madden, R.N. who retired as head nurse
at the end of June, 2009

This past week the weather has been beautiful with warm days and nights. I'm sure the farmers are happy about that as they have had a chance to get at least most of their grain out of the fields.

Last weekend the seniors were in Kansas City for their experience of the "inner city." They spend time helping at "First Harvest" and then with a group that takes food and clothing to those who live on the street and under bridges.

Brother Mark had heart surgery at North Kansas City Hospital last week. He was just released from intensive care a day or two ago and should be coming home within the next few days.

So far the flu has not really hit us here at the monastery or in the seminary. A few students have been ill for a day or two but seem to get back to normal fairly soon. It will be great if we can avoid an outbreak of that H1N1 flu.

That's about it for now.

If you want to read the oblate blog for this week go to http://www.conceptionabbey.org and then click on "oblates" on the left side of your screen. To go to my photo site click here.

Remembering the Faithful Departed

2009-11-02T09:23:00.011-06:00

Procession to cemetery November 2, 2009

Yesterday on November 1, we celebrated the feast of All Saints. Remembering all those who have gone before us and are now enjoying eternal life and happiness in heaven. Not only those saints who are canonized by the Church but no doubt many of our relatives and friends who are now in heaven. Today we remember those who have gone before us but who are still awaiting the full happiness of heaven. We pray for them and remember them in prayer in a special way today. Here at Conception we will have a procession to the cemetery after lunch and pray especially for those who are buried in our cemetery.

Many times on November 2 it is very cold for these processions but today is sunny and relatively warm so it should be comfortable for the procession.

The infirmary continues to move along although I think it will be after Thanksgiving before we can move in. Hopefully we will be back there before Christmas so we can celebrate the feast in our new surrondings. I am including a couple of pictures here to try to give you some idea of how it is looking. These pictures were just taken today.

2nd floor hallway

A shower in one of the rooms.
Each room will have a complete
bathroom with walk-in shower.

To go to Fr. Kenneth Smugmug photo site: click here
To go to Conception Abbey web site and oblate blog: click here

FALL IS HERE, WINTER TO FOLLOW

2009-10-22T08:41:00.010-06:00

Brief video of fall colors at Conception.

I am writing this blog on Thursday afternoon, October 22, and it is quite a day. We have had close to two inches of rain, the wind is blowing and it is getting colder. It is still raining right now so it will again be a while before farmers can get back in the field. I myself grew up on a farm near Brunswick, MO, so I guess I still have a little bit of the farmer in me. I had one brother who farmed, and although he is deceased, his son Kenny still farms. Last weekend it was nice with the sun shining and on Monday the sun was shining and it got up to 70 degrees or so. This week I'm attaching some pictures of the leaves turning so I guess fall is definitely here. Unfortunately we know that winter will follow. But, then there is beauty about the winter also. I always say I like the winter as long as I don't have to drive.

We had an electrical outage last night. It was not any of the new work we have had done but an older cable that was put underground some years ago already and was thought to be in good shape but it shorted out and so there was no electricity in St. Michael Hall. The electricians came immediately and got the lights back on in St. Michael's about 12:30 AM. They will in the next few days or so have to replace that underground cable.

Last weekend I was at St. Mary's Parish in St. Joseph for the Sunday Masses. Then I came back home and left soon after for Des Moines. Karen Ceckowski and I went up to meet with the oblates in that area on Sunday evening. We returned to Conception about noon on Monday.

God bless all of you and take care.

To go to Father Kenneth's photo site click here.
To go to Conception Abbey's web site and then to the oblate site click here.

CONCEPTION GOES UNDERGROUND

2009-10-07T07:34:00.007-06:00

---with electric lines now underground on campus ---

Tuesday, October 6, 2009, was they day they began transferring all our buildings over to the underground cables. Yesterday the electricians changed to the new lines for the monastery, basilica, St. Joseph Hall, St. Michael Hall, St. Maur Hall and St. Raphael Hall. The other buildings will be changed over within the next couple of weeks. And then all the above ground lines on campus will be removed. They have been working on this project for the past couple of months. The work was done by RS Electric from St. Joseph. They are also doing the electrical work on the renovated infirmary. During the bad ice storm in December, 2007, two or three electric poles on our own property broke off so we will at least not have that happening anymore. Of course we hope we do not get anymore ice storms like that one.

Taking out the old transformers near St. Michael Hall

Preparing to install the new transformer
(click on pictures to enlarge them)

Workers are also preparing to change our water system. Our water which comes from the Maryville and Nodaway County rural water district, was coming to our propery and buildings from the south part of campus. With new pumps etc. the new system will come through St. Michael Hall and then to the other buildings.

Work on the infirmary continues to make good progress. We are hoping to be able to move in sometime shortly after Thanksgiving.

Heat is now on in the buildings. While I don't think we have as yet had our first frost the temperature has been getting down into the 30's at night. Frost and snow will come soon.

That's about it for this week.

To read the oblate blog or other oblate information click here.

Alumni Reunion and other news

2009-09-27T14:56:00.005-06:00

The annual Conception alumni reunion was held this past Friday and Saturday. My understanding is that about 90 alumni attended. The college class of forty years ago in 1969 had a very good turnout for their reunion. I had been the prefect for most of them at some time while they were here. It was good to see them again. I always refer to those 1960's as turbulent years in the Church and also in our society. I always say that during those years everyone seemed to want something different, everyone wanted change, but not many of us knew exactly what we wanted. A number left the monastery in those years and the same thing happened in most religious communities and in the diocesan priesthood.

The Eucharist was celebrated at 4:30 PM on Friday with Bishop Anthony Milone, an alumnus and retired bishop of Great Falls-Billings in Montana as celebrant and homilist. He now lives in Omaha which is where he served as priest before being appointed bishop. At the conclusion of Mass Mr. Fred Meyer was given the alumni award for distinguished service. Fred went to school here from 1934-36. He lives in the state of Washington and was not able to be here because of his age and health. His younger brother, who lives in Iowa, accepted the award in his name.

Last weekend when I was filling in for the pastor at Brunswick, MO where I was born and raised, I got to see my great great nephew and nieces who were born on my birthday on July 7. There were originally quadruplets but one of the boys died the second day after they were born. The other three just recently were released from the hospital and are now at home. Each of them now weighs 5-6 pounds. I am putting a photo of them here on my blog with their great-great uncle. I have to admit I was a little nervous holding three babies at once but very proud of them.

Brody, the boy, is in the center with
his sisters Emery and Gracie on the
left and right.

Next weekend, October 2-4, we have an oblate retreat here. It is being given by Karen Ceckowski, pastoral associate for our Prayer and Ministry Center.

Especially if you are an oblate be sure to always check out our web site and oblate site located on our Conception Abbey web site. Click here

Progress on Renovation of Infirmary

2009-09-18T12:38:00.004-06:00

Renovation on the 2nd floor of the infirmary.
On the left side is the nurses station.

2nd floor renovation

This very brief movie shows the renovation of
the sun porch. Primarily larger windows.

The infirmary renovation continues to go forward. We still hope to be able to move back there before Christmas. It will be a big change. The entire building will be central air-conditioned and heated. Each room with have available computer connection, antenna for T.V. and telephone availability. Maybe I will be able to move in when it is completed. I doubt that time has come yet.

This very brief movie shows the new main
entrance on the south side of the infirmary

We have continued to have very nice weather for this time of the year. Nights have been cool and daytime highs about 80 degrees. Farmers have not been harvesting yet as the crops were planted late and they are just not dry enough yet to havest.

We have this summer and fall almost completed putting all our electrical lines on campus under ground. An electrical company from St. Joseph has been doing that and I think they are planning on the switch over now in early October. It will be great to get all those overhead lines down and not have poles breaking on campus when there is a wind or ice storm.

Want to get this on line. God bless each of you and enjoy the nice fall weather.

Don't forget to check out the Conception Abbey web site -- click here and for the oblate blog, then click on "oblates' on the left side of your screen.

NEW MEMBERS IN COMMUNITY

2009-09-01T09:28:00.006-06:00

Brother Paul signs his profession document on the Gospel book
after he made solemn vows on August 23, 2009

Brother Maximilan with Abbot Gregory and Brother Bernard
after taking simple vows on August 15, 2009

Abbot Gregory and Brother Bernard with the
four new novices who entered the novitiate
on August 14, 2009. Left to right: Novice
Craig Thomas, Novice Eric Huard, Br. Bernard,
Abbot Gregory, Novice John Bosco and Novice Samuel Backus/

The past couple of weeks have been a time of special blessings for the Conception Abbey community. Four new novices entered the novitiate and one made simple vows and one made solemn vows. Continue to pray for vocations and for the perseverance of those who have been sent to us by God. For more about vocations at Conception Abbey click here.

School has started and we have an enrollment of 116 diocesan students. This is up again from last year so that is encouraging. They too of course need your prayers so they will persevere.

Work on our renovation of the infirmary continues to make good progress. We hope to be back there by about Christmas time. A company is also working to put all our electric lines on campus underground. At least the ice storms won't be able to break the lines on campus when this work is completed.

Oblates reminder: The next oblate retreat is the weekend of October 2-4, 2009. It is on the spirituality of icons and will be given by Karen Ceckowski. Be sure to make your reservation.

Many blessings to each of you.

Death of Abbot James

2009-08-11T07:33:00.007-06:00

Abbot James and Fr. Regis (pushing wheelchair)
Taken a few years ago.

When I returned from Washington, D.C. on August 3, I was informed already at the airport that Abbot James had been taken to the hospital in St. Joseph that morning by ambulance. We stopped to see him and he was still in the emergency room. After staying at the hospital for about an hour we came on home as the nurse said they would probably keep him overnight. Later in the afternoon the hospital called and told us he had a perforated bowel and probably a tumor. The surgeon called me a little later and asked me to come down since I was designated as his agent on his living will and durable power of attorney. Both the surgeon and his regular doctor suggested that we not do surgery as they thought he might not even make it through surgery. So on Tuesday we brought him home, again by ambulance, and put him on hospice care. On Wednesday morning about 4:10 AM when the nurse went in his room to give him some medicine for pain, he was dead. We are thankful he did not have to suffer for a long time

The funeral for Abbot James was on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. The church was pretty well filled and a number of priests were here for the funeral, including Archbishop Jerome Hanus, O.S.B., our former abbot and now Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa, Bishop Rober Finn, our own bishop, Abbot Bonaventure retired Archabbot of St. Meinrad Archabbey, Abbot Gabriel from St. Benedict Abbey in Massachusetts, Abbot Barnabas and Abbot Owen (retired) from St. Benedict Abbey, Atchison, KS. Abbot James was a good friend of many people and greatly loved by those of us in the monastic community. If you would like to read the eulogy given by Father Daniel at the wake service on Friday evening, or the homily given by Abbot Gregory at the funeral Mass or the obituary notice, please go to the Conception Abbey web site:
www.conceptionabbey.org and then click on "news" on the left side of the screen.

Fr. Kenneth in front of George Washington's home at Mount Vernon

For more pictures of this visit go to: http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/gallery/9222100_3dxSs

As I mentioned I returned last Monday from visiting good friends in the Washington, DC area. It was a delightful trip and I had a wonderful visit with Mike and Angie Ryan. Mike was a classmate of mine in the seminary and we spent the novitiate together and three years of temporary vows. So we have been friends for 55 years or more. I always enjoy Washington and we were also able to visit the home of Thomas Jefferson and the home of the fourth president, James Madison. I enjoy history and especially American history so all this was very interesting. On this trip I was able to visit the home of three of our first four presidents -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. I missed the second president, John Adams, who was from Massachusetts.

Our four postulants are on retreat this week as they prepare to enter the novitiate on Friday, August 14. Also, on retreat are Novice Adam, who will make first profession of vows on August 15, and Brother Paul, who will make solemn vows on Sunday, August 23.

Until the next time be assured of my prayers.

What's going on?

2009-07-25T08:26:00.003-06:00

Infirmary renovation as walls start to go up.
Taken July 25, 2009

It has indeed been a while since I last wrote on this blog. Summer seems to be a more difficult time to do such things so today, on Saturday, I thought it was time to say "hello" again. This weekend I am not out in a parish. Last weekend I went to Marceline and Brookfield, MO to celebrate four Masses. Both of these towns used to have their own pastor but due to the shortage of priests they are now united, although Brookfield does have a Sister as pastoral administrator of the parish.

In the last couple of weeks I have spent a lot of time working on pictures from my 50th anniversary celebration. I put together a couple of DVD's that I could send to family. I enjoy doing these sort of things but it does take time.

My cousin who was a priest, died a few weeks ago. He was 71 years old but died after having a massive stroke. His name was Father Henry Reichert, a priest of the diocese of Jefferson City, MO. Brother Blaise and I went to his funeral at Tipton, MO where he was pastor. He also was taking care of two parishes -- the one at Tipton and also the one at California, MO. He was from a family 16 children and he is the first one to die. He grew up in the Brunswick area just a couple miles from where I grew up.

This coming week on Thursday, July 30, I will fly to Washington, DC. I have a good friend there and he and his wife did not come to my 50th celebration but wanted to send me money to fly out to see them for a few days. So I am looking forward to that. I have been to Washington, DC before but always enjoy it as there is so much to see there.

Right now I am also going through a lot of dental work on my teeth. I have neglected seeing a dentist for a number of years and now I guess I have to make up for that. As you get older you wonder if you are going to get your money's worth out of the work they do on those teeth.

Work on the infirmary continues as you can see on the picture up above. There are also a number of other projects going on this summer which we hope to complete before school begins again.

For those who are interested in seeing more photos of my jubilee celebration or of the oblate "pray and work" weekend, go to my photo site: http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/

Until the next time God bless all of you.

Fr. Kenneth

What a blessing!

2009-07-08T07:41:00.003-06:00

Gift I received from some of my family on my 50th anniversary.

The big news this week for me is that yesterday one of my grandnephews and his wife gave birth to quadruplets. Obviously they have known for some time that she was pregnant with four babies. They were born yesterday, July 7, in Boone Hospital at Columbia. All four seem to be doing o.k. They are very small -- only about two pounds each but seem to be doing well so far. I was especially excited as they were born on my birthday. There were two boys and two girls and these are their first children. My grand nephew's last name is Reichert. So it seems the Reicherts will be around for a while yet. Say a little prayer for them that they will continue to grow and be in good health.

I am still working to get the photos together from my 50th anniversary of ordination. It takes a while to get all that done and then I would like to make a DVD for some of the family.

We have had some good rains in the past week and the heat and humidity have decreased so the weather is more bearable.

This weekend, July 10-12 is the oblate "Pray and Work" weekend. We are expecting about 35 oblates here for the weekend. We will spend a big part of the time on Saturday doing work.

That's it for this week. Prayers and blessings to all of you.

Hot and humid week

2009-06-29T13:41:00.005-06:00

Cactus blooming on south side of the monastery

The past week has been very hot and humid. Most days this past week the heat index was well up over 100 degrees. We got a shower just about everyday and that only made the heat and humidity worse.

I had a priest cousin die last week. His name was Father Henry Reichert and he was a priest of the diocese of Jefferson City. He was only 71 years old but had a massive stroke at the rectory. They flew him to Columbia, MO and the doctors put him on life support but told the family he would be pretty much a vegetable if he survived at all. So the decision was made to remove the life support. He died a few hours later. The funeral was on Friday at Tipton, Missouri where he was pastor. He was much loved as a pastor and the church was packed for the funeral as well as most of the priests of the diocese were there for it. Since Tipton is about 200 miles from here, Brother Blaise accompanied me to the funeral and helped with the driving.

About a year ago there were four priests still living who grew up in my home parish: Monsignor Victor Moser, also a cousin of mine, died in May 2008. Monsignor Lawrence Speichinger died a few months ago. And now Father Henry Reichert who also grew up in the Brunswick area has died. So I am the last remaining priest who grew up in that little rural community at Brunswick. So life goes on. We are only in this world for a short time.

I have also been busy trying to send out thank you notes to so many people who remembered my 50th anniversary of ordination. By the way some of the pictures of the anniversary are now available on my Smugmug photo site. Go to: http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/ and then click on the album: "50th Anniversary of Ordination."

We now have four postulants here in the monastery. They hope to enter the novitiate in August. It is good to see young men coming to the monastery and considering a monastic vocation.

Below is a brief video of the conclusion of my Mass of Thanksgiving on June 7, 2009.

Thanks be to God for fifty years of priesthood

2009-06-16T17:40:00.003-06:00

At the Mass: left to right - Deacon Michael Smith,
Fr. Kenneth and Fr. Leonard Misey (pastor)

At the dinner following the Mass - left to right at
the head table -- Fr. Misey, Deacon Michael Smith, Fr. Kenneth,
my brother Harold and his wife Dee, my sister in
law Vera and my Aunt Mercedes Gladbach.

What a wonderful celebration I had for my Golden Jubilee of ordination to the priesthood. On Saturday evening, June 6, we had a family gathering at the farm of my nephew and his wife, Kenny and Julie Reichert. Many relatives were there and also some of the out of town guests. Then on Sunday morning I celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving. The church was full and overflowing as chairs had to be set up. That was followed by a dinner served by the Knights of Columbus at the Knights Hall. It was certainly a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I am certainly grateful to God for being able to celebrate this occasion and also to all my family and many others who helped to make it a wonderful day.

My good friends Ben and Alicia Darnell were there and spent a few days. They now live in Dayton, Ohio where Ben is youth director at one of the large parishes. They are expecting their first child in August. Also, his parents Rick and Sandy Darnell were there. They came all the way from Phoenix, Arizona for the occasion. The deacon for the Mass was a former seminarian who served at my first solemn Mass at Brunswick in 1959. He is now married and is a permanent deacon. He now lives in the Detroit area. I was also very happy to have the brother of Father Alexis there. Father Alexis was ordained with me and we were good friends. He died after heart surgery in 1998. His brother Bill and his wife Shirley and one of their daughters came from Peoria, Illinois to be present for the day.

I have been busy since I returned to the Abbey last week on Thursday. I now have many thank you notes to write but I'll get to them in good time.

The temporary infirmary seems to be working out well. The main problem is that we do not have any extra rooms available.

Thank you to the many of you who sent a card or an e-mail for my jubilee. Thank you especially for the prayers.

Until the next time, God bless you.

Temporary Infirmary

2009-05-30T12:51:00.004-06:00

This is the nurses station for the temporary infirmary
located on the first floor of the monastery.

This used to be the oblate office only. Now it is the
oblate office, my infirmary office and the office
for the head nurse in the infirmary.

This picture is looking back to the infirmary resident
rooms in their temporary quarters. Taken from the
nurses station area.

This has been a rather busy week as we moved everything from our infirmary into temporary quarters located on the first floor of the monastery. There was a lot of furniture and other things to be either moved or stored someplace until after we finish the renovation of the infirmary. The walls will be taken out, the rooms made larger, the bathrooms made larger and central air conditioning put in. On Friday of this week we moved the residents over to the new temporary quarters and now we are trying to get thing located and in some kind of order so we can find things.

Last weekend I was home to preside at the wedding of my grand niece Jamie and her husband John. It was a beautiful wedding and a very large crowd was present for the wedding. After the wedding there was a reception, dinner and dance. Since I was very tired I left before the dancing began.

Today, May 30, is my 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. I along with four other monks were ordained by Bishop John Cody on May 30, 1959. I am the only one of the five still living. Next Sunday, June 7, I will go to my hometown, Brunswick, Missouri to celebrate a Mass and dinner at St. Boniface Church. I was baptized there as well as made my first communion, was confirmed, celebrated my first solemn Mass there, went to eight years of grade school there, have buried my parents and three of my brothers from that parish and served numerous Masses there as a young person. So I have many ties to that parish and still have many relatives living there. I am grateful for all I have received from this parish as well as from the monastic community here at Conception and many relatives and friends. Please keep me in prayer as I will you.

Many monks are coming and going these days as is usual once school is out and we have made our annual retreat.

Busy Week

2009-05-10T14:22:00.004-06:00

A picture taken at Pella, Iowa

This past week has been somewhat a busy week or at least it seems that way. On Sunday, May 3, Karen Ceckowski and I drove to Des Moines to attend an oblate meeting for the oblates in that area. We had about 50 or more oblates come to the meeting. At 5:30 PM we prayed vespers (evening prayer) in the Basilica of St. John. Then we went to the parish hall downstairs where we enjoyed a pot luck dinner together. We had so much delicious food and we enjoyed and gave thanks for all of it. Then we had a more or less informal meeting. We primarily wanted the oblates who have for many years been affiliated with Conception Abbey to get acquainted with 60 or so oblates who have transferred to Conception Abbey from St. Gabriel Priory in Des Moines. Father Aquinas, who was Prior of the Priory and also pastor of the parish, St. John's Basilica hosted the meeting. I stayed overnight at the rectory there at the Basilica and Karen stayed with some of our oblates there in Des Moines.

About mid-morning on Monday we left for Pella, Iowa. Marilyn Mutti, an oblate from Pella invited us to stop by for lunch. She served us a delicious lunch and then we went out to see some of the tulips for which Pella is famous. They were in full bloom and really beautiful. I have put some of the pictures that were taken by Karen on my smugmug photo site. To see them go to: http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/gallery/8161318_HNkDz/1 There are also a few pictures there of the oblates praying vespers together.

We returned home Monday evening and May Day was in full swing here at Conception. It was a beautiful day and the first nice day to have May Day. That is an old tradition at Conception. It was going on way back when I first entered Conception as a student in the 1940's.

A couple days last week I had to go to Maryville for physical therapy. Then on Thursday evening I went to the diocesan jubilee celebration in Kansas City. They always honor all the priest jubilarians at a special dinner at Hillcrest Country Club in Kansas City. Bishop Finn is kind and also invites the religious priests who are in the diocese to this celebration. Father Aidan (40 years ordained) and myself (50 years ordained) went and Father Frowin went along to drive.

This week is the last week of the school year. Next Sunday is graduation and then the students will be leaving.

I hope all of you will eventually have a chance to see a very good movie made about Conception Abbey entitled "The Rule of St. Benedict." It was made by an Episcopal priest from St. Louis. He does this as a hobby and is quite professional in his work. He has made a number of documentary films and has won a number of awards at film festivals. Eventually the Printery House is going to sell the film through the internet. At present it is available only in the Abbey gift shop. Keep checking the Printery House web site. www.printeryhouse.org

God bless you all.

Warm weather and spring

2009-04-26T07:58:00.004-06:00

First of all I just want to show you two or three pictures I took while out walking a couple days ago. It's a beautiful time of the year with trees and flowers blooming. Nice days to go out for a walk.A beautiful crabapple tree blooming between

the monastery and infirmary.

Tulips blooming on the south side of monastery.

Trees and bushes blooming in the courtyard of the monastery.

We have had some warm temperatures this past week as it got up into the lower 80's a day or two. Farmers have been out working hard trying to get crops in for the growing season.

We are getting ready to renovate our infirmary building. So that means we have to provide temporary living quarters for the monks who live in the infirmary. We are fixing some rooms on the first floor of the monastery for this purpose. Fortunately at the present time we only have four residents in the infirmary. They will completely gut the inside of the infirmary and then re-do all the rooms, making the rooms larger and putting complete bathrooms in each of the rooms. They will also install central air-conditioning. The present infirmary building was built in the early 1960's. I have had to move my oblate office, which was located on the first floor of the monastery, so they could use that room for a computer room.

The constuction company thinks it will take them about six month to complete the infirmary work but we'll see once they get into the work. Hopefully we can be back over there by Christmas.

This is a busy time of the year for weddings, graduations etc. I will be going to Brunswick on May 23, to preside at the wedding of my grandniece Jamie to John Case. Then the first Sunday of June I'll be there again to celebrate my own golden jubilee of ordination to the priesthood.

Easter Octave

2009-04-20T09:23:00.004-06:00

Blessing of the Easter fire in front of basilica
at beginning of Easter Vigil

Now that we have completed the eight days of celebrating Easter with the conclusion of the Octave days of the feast, we begin the Easter season which will last up until Pentecost. So the Church does not want us to just stop celebrating this important feast but to continue reflecting and rejoicing in it for these fifty days.

During the Easter Octave we had a different schedule on Monday and Tuesday. Monday we did not begin our morning Vigils until 7:00 AM and then Morning Prayer at 8:15 AM. On Monday evening about 25-30 Sisters from Clyde came over to join us for vespers and then for dinner. It is always a joy to have them join us. They invite us over for vespers and dinner on the feast of St. Scholastica, February 10, and we invite them over usually for vespers and dinner on Easter Monday.

On Tuesday we had our regular morning schedule but did not have reading at meals.

Everyday during the Easter Octave the community had a social gathering at 3:00 PM in the afternoon with refreshments being served. On Monday afternoon we saw the final edition of the documentary film done on Conception Abbey by Jay Kanzler from St. Louis. He is an Episcopal priest but does documentary films as a hobby. It is very well done and will soon be available for others who may want to purchase a copy.

This past weekend we had just about a full house in our guest and retreat facilities. The largest group was for an oblate retreat given by Father Daniel Petsche, O.S.B. There were fifty one oblates present for the retreat. This is, I believe, the largest group of oblates we have had for these retreats which are held twice a year. There were also three other smaller groups here. For some pictures of the oblate retreat go to: http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/gallery/7948933_ewR3N#516005119_5fU5C

The students returned on Sunday evening to begin the last four weeks of the school year. Soon it will be May and time for school graduations and other events.

BLESSED AND HAPPY EASTER

2009-04-11T09:49:00.000-06:00

CHRIST IS RISEN, ALLELUIA

And the angel said to her (Mary Magdalene): "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he had told her. (John 20)

LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD ON THIS EASTER DAY.

BLESSED AND HAPPY EASTER!

Father Kenneth

Abbot James celebrates 85th birthday

2009-03-31T07:40:00.002-06:00

Abbot James Jones, O.S.B., who was Abbot of Conception Abbey from 1987-93, celebrated his 85th birthday on Monday, March 30. The picture below was taken on the day of his birthday. He is still able to do some walking with the help of a walker and a nurse, but otherwise moves about in a wheel chair. The day before, on Sunday, March 29, he celebrated his 61st anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. An interesting note is that he was ordained in March, 1948. In September, 1948, I first came to school at Conception as a sophomore in high school. Father James taught me Latin that first year I was here. So that means in September it will be 61 years since I first came to Conception. Time keeps moving doesn't it and the years keep counting up.

Abbot James March 30, 2009 in the lounge of
St. Stephen infirmary

The picture below is of Sister Bernadine from the Clyde Sisters and myself just before celebrating Mass for the older Sisters at Our Lady of Rickenbach at Clyde. I am holding a "flat Stanley" photo of one of her grand nieces who sent it to her to help her with a school assignment. Sister Bernadine is almost 90 years old and is still quite active, loves to play cards (10 point pitch) and visit with people.

Sister Bernadine and Fr. Kenneth in March, 2009

This past weekend the seminary sponsored an Encounter With God's Call Weekend. It was well attended by young men from various dioceses who are interested in looking at the seminary. I believe they had about 120 registered but due to the very heavy snow in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, I believe there were about 80 able to attend. They arrived on Saturday and stayed until noon on Monday, March 30.

Brother Macario arrived home from St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana last Saturday and will be here through Easter. He is studying theology at St. Meinrad. I believe Brother Guerri, who is also in school at St. Meinrad, is also coming soon for these days. Brother Pachomius, who is a deacon and in his last year of theology at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, will also arrive later this week. He will serve as deacon for all the Holy Week and Triduum ceremonies.

There are many penance services being held in the local parishes at this time of the year. Last evening, Father Prior Daniel, Father Joel, Father Timothy and myself went to Maryville to help with confessions. Father Peter, Father Xavier and Father Patrick went to Savannah, MO for confessions. There are more services tomorrow evening and later in the week.

Next week is Holy Week and the Triduum. I will probably be kind of busy so may not get a blog written. So if not, have a blessed Holy Week and a blessed and Happy Easter.

New flowers and spring

2009-03-25T09:26:00.002-06:00

Magnolia or tulip tree blooming early between
monastery and infirmary.

More flowers blooming on south side of monastery

This past week and weekend we had temperatures even up to 80 degrees. Last night, however, it got down to the lower 30's after 1.65 inches of rain yesterday morning. We needed the rain as it has been a dry winter.

They are today working again on the windmill located on our property just to the east of the monastery. For the last 3-4 months it has been turned off because they found the blades were deficient. So all three blades are being replaced. I think the factory that made them is responsible for this as there seems to have been some problem when they were made.

This past Monday was pastors' day here at the seminary. The pastors of all the students are invited for the day to get acquainted with the seminary, see their seminarians etc.

This coming weekend will be the spring "Encounter With God's Call" weekend. The rooms are all reserved for them so it sounds like it will be well attended. It gives these young men the opportunity to visit and experience the seminary first hand.

This week I again have the community Mass at Clyde for the Sisters each day at 7:30 A.M.

I have been working on my invitations for my 50th anniversary of ordination. I was ordained on May 30, 1959 but will have a Mass of Thanksgiving in my home parish at Brunswick, MO on June 7.

Hope these last weeks of Lent will bring many blessings to you.

TEN YEARS AGO TODAY

2009-03-16T13:56:00.005-06:00

The high altar in the basilica before 1965

The main altar in the basilica from about 1965
until the renovation completed in 1999

Ten years ago today we completed the renovation of the Basilica here at Conception Abbey. It was a great day and one we all certainly remember. We had been out of the basilica for four years during the renovation so it was exciting to be able to start using it again and praying there. I thought I would put a few pictures on my blog here from that day.

Interior of the basilica after the
renovation completed in March, 1999

Tower Topics heading for spring, 1999 and at the
bottom a picture of the Abbots and Bishops present
for that day (about 50 of them) and of Bishop
Boland celebrating the Mass after the dedication
of the altar.

10th Anniversary of the Basilica Altar Dedication

2009-03-15T13:52:00.006-06:00

Basilica and west wing of monastery
March 15, 2009

That is correct. It will be ten years tomorrow, March 16, that we had completed the renewal of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and had the dedication of the new altar. On that date in 1999 the temperature was up in the 70's and we had a large crowd of people here for the dedication. The celebrant was our own Bishop at the time, Raymond Boland, bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Actually tomorrow again it is supposed to be up in the 70's so maybe spring is coming soon.

This weekend, as usual it seems, we had a rather large number of guests. Deacon candidates from the diocese of Des Moines and the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph were here, and also a large group of young people for a TEC retreat. The students were mostly gone for the weekend as it was a longer off campus weekend for them. They were able to leave after classes on Thursday and will return this evening.

I have now had two treatments on my face to try to eliminate the pre-cancer growths that keep showing up there. A dermatologist in St. Joseph is using what is called the Blue Light Treatment to try to get rid of these. They put something (a cream) on your face and then you sit for an hour and a half or so and then they put you under these bright lights for about 16-17 minutes. You come away with a very red face but it is not that painful. I have now had two of these treatments and will have one more on April 1, and that should take care of it. One growth had to be surgically removed as it had already become cancerous. As all of us who are getting older probably know it seems we spend lots of our time going to see doctors.

This afternoon was nice enough for me to go outdoors for a walk so I took my camera and took a few pictures that I will share with you. Nothing spectacular but maybe some of you will enjoy them.

I also wanted to mention that I have a blog especially for the oblates. You can find it at:
http://osboblates.blogspot.com/ or on the Conception Abbey web site: http://conceptionabbey.org/ and then click on "oblates" on the left side of your screen.

Many blessings to each of you as we continue our Lenten journey.

St. Raphael Welcome Center entrance

Railing and handicap lift at ambulatory
entrance to St. Joseph Hall

Death of a confrere

2009-03-09T09:05:00.005-06:00

Father Roland Carbone, O.S.B., died last Friday, March 6. Father Roland had spent many year of his monastic life and priesthood out in parishes. However, he had returned to the Abbey about a year ago and took up residence in the infirmary. He was suffering from a very serious heart condition and the doctors did not think he would live for more than a month or two after he came home. However, he lived almost a year after returning to the infirmary. As is our custom here at the Abbey, monks took turns staying with him the last couple days of his life as it became evident he was in the process of dying. I stayed with him all of Thursday night. He died peacefully on Friday morning about 11:20 AM. He had been under the care of hospice and a couple of the hospice nurses were here with him when he died as well as one of our own nurses on the infirmary staff. He was almost 82 years old.

Father Roland
The bottom two pictures up above are of pottery
work done by Father Roland. They were placed
around the altar for his funeral.

Father Roland's wake service will be tonight (Monday) and his funeral and burial will be tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:00 AM.

We had some major electrical problems on part of the campus on Friday evening. There was a short in the wiring or the cable at one of the transformers outside the Printery House. Electricity jumped over to another old cable and eventually went to the building. Fortunately there was no major fire and no one was in the building when this happened. It was in the evening after all the workers had gone home. Some leaves did catch fire outside the building, but the C.M.C. Brothers who live in a building just next door, saw the fire and took a fire extinguisher and put it out. An electric company from St. Joseph worked all day Saturday and again all day on Sunday to correct the problem. During that time neither the Printery House or St. Scholastica Hall (where the C.M.C. Brothers live) had any heat or electricity. They finished the repair work about 9:00 PM Sunday evening.

Last weekend the Seminary Board of Regents met here. They began their meetings on Friday afternoon and concluded by noon on Saturday.

I hope the Lenten season is going well for you. Let us continue to pray for one another.

First Week of Lent

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With the first Sunday of Lent we now begin our first full week of Lent. And today is also March 1 so we are getting closer to spring. That is always a special time of the year as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer.

However, it does not feel like spring today. Yesterday we had probably our biggest snow of the winter. It was not a great snow storm but we did have maybe four or so inches of snow and then last night it got down to about 5-6 above zero with a wind chill below zero.

Winter scenes taken February 28, 2009

Even with the snow and winter weather we had a number of groups here for the weekend for retreats or workshops. Groups were here from Maryville, MO and from North Kansas City, MO as well as youth groups from St. Peter Parish at Marshall, MO and from St. Bridget Parish at Pleasant Hill, MO.

Novice Damian, from Christ the King Priory, Schuyler, Nebraska, who was here all last school
year and during most of the summer for his canonical novitiate year, returned to spend the weekend with us. Their monastery has a two year novitiate so he is now in his 2nd year. He is leaving soon for their mother abbey in Germany to spend some time there.

This week from tomorrow (Monday) through Saturday I will be celebrating the Mass for the Sisters at Clyde. They have their Mass at 7:30 AM and then after Mass I usually stay for a short breakfast. This past week I had Mass everyday in our own infirmary so I have not been here for our community Mass for a while.

Let us all pray for one another and continue our Lenten journey toward Easter.

Lent is almost here

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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

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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.