Interesting Week

The past week has been a rather interesting week.  Seemed like there was a lot going on.  First of all, on Wednesday, October 16, my brother Harold arrived.  His son Steve and Mary brought him up here on Wednesday from Kansas City.  We had an enjoyable few days together visiting, walking, going places and even shopping.  On Thursday I took him to the Benedictine Missionary Benedictines at Schuyler, Nebraska.  That is only about an hour from here by car.  We went out to eat a couple times and other times fixed our own meals here at the house where I live.

Top row:  my Dad and Mother, then Raymond and Mary Jane,

Harold and Dee, Jim and Vera, Fr. Kenneth and Ed.

Harold and I are the only two still living, plus Vera, 

Jim's wife.

On Saturday Harold's daughter, Diane and Randy, drove up here.  We went out to eat and then visited here in the house.  They had arranged for a room at the Holiday Inn for the night.  This morning they all came to my 9:30 AM Mass at the Nursing Home and then left for Kansas City.  Harold called me this evening to tell me that they got home about 5:00 PM. 

On Friday evening Abbot Gregory arrived.  He had been in North Platte, NE to give a workshop.  When that ended about noon on Friday he drove on to Norfolk.  We went out to eat Friday evening, and then he left to drive back to Conception on Saturday morning after breakfast.  It was good to see him and visit with him.

Weather of course continues to go up and down.  The lowest I have seen it so far was a couple days this past week when it got down to the upper 20's and lower 30's.  

This coming week Fr. Tom Greisen, a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha, is coming to visit a while and we plan to go out to dinner on Thursday.  Fr. Tom worked for a number of years in our seminary college as dean of students and vice-rector.  He had gone to school at Conception as a seminarian.

So much for this week.  Have a great week and may God bless each of you.

Fr. Kenneth
e-mail:  kenneth@conception.edu

COOL FALL WEATHER IS HERE

Finally had to turn the heat on in the house yesterday, October 5.  We have had rain off and on the past week and the weather, especially the last two or three days, has been very cool.  Saturday morning my thermometer had 39 degrees and this morning 40 degrees.  And I always thought that Conception had a lot of wind, but I am beginning to believe that Nebraska even has more windy days than we do at Conception.

At any rate all is still going well.  It seems that the days pass by very fast.  Of course I am pretty busy until about noon with two Masses and then visiting the residents in the nursing home.  Most days I get back here to my house between 11:00 and 11:30 AM.  The afternoons also seem to go fast as I spend the time reading, working on the computer, and preparing homilies.  I give a brief homily everyday at both Masses.

The abbot has informed me that he will be up in this area October 18-19.  He will be in Grand Island for a workshop and then stop by here on Friday afternoon, but has to leave again on Saturday morning.  My only living brother, Harold, who is now a widower, also plans to spend a few days with me beginning on October 16.  One of his children will drive him up and another one then come up to take him back home.  I am happy he is not trying to drive that distance all alone -- he will be 87 years old in December.

Many of you probably heard on the news about the tornado the other evening at Wayne, Nebraska.  That is not far from here but we had nothing at all that evening.  Two or three of the Sisters from here live and work in Wayne, but they were not in the tornado.  I guess there was a lot of damage. On the radar you could see how the storm went to the north of us.  We do get a few television stations from Sioux City and so they were giving full time to the storm and tornadoes that night

The days are certainly getting short.  When I first arrived here it was daylight when I left the house to go to the monastery about 6:00 AM.  Now it is still dark but fortunately there is plenty of lighting around so I can find my way.

Ever so often I like to put some older pictures on my blog site so here are a couple for this edition.

Back in the days when I was growing up we all did our own butchering.

The picture above shows my Dad (on the left) and two of

his brothers, Matthew and Otto helping to butcher a hog. 

This has always been one of my favorite old pictures of

the five boys in our family.  In our bib overalls and

straw hats.  Left to right:  Jim, Harold, Ed, Raymond and me.

My brother Harold and I are the only two still living.

Have a good week and God bless each of you.

My e-mail:  kenneth@conception.edu

My photo site:  http://http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/

Time for an Update

Already another week has gone by and already tomorrow (Tuesday) we enter the month of October.  Fall is here and yet we still have some fairly warm days.  They are predicting some pretty cool weather by the end of this week.

Well, the Kansas City Royals did not make it to the play offs but they sure got my attention this last part of the season.  They had a good year and I just hope they can keep all those young players they have coming along.  So now I guess we can turn our attention to the Chiefs.  They have won their first four games so certainly are off to a good start.  Hopefully that will continue.

This last weekend we had a large group here at the monastery.  The deacon candidates for the Archdiocese of Omaha come up here for their education and formation.  There were about seventy here this past weekend as a new class is beginning and an older class is still going on.  A good thing for me is that one of the deacons serves as deacon at the Sisters Mass on both Saturday and Sunday so they do the preaching. This past Sunday Deacon John Starman was deacon for me.  He is a brother of Sister Ruth Starman from Clyde.  

Yesterday evening on Sunday we had our first deanery meeting since I arrived here.  It was held at the church at Battle Creek which is only about 10-12 miles from Norfolk.  Father Ross Burkhalter is the dean of this deanery.  Ross is an alumnus of Conception.  Father Stan Schmit and Father Greg Carl are also members of this deanery and both are alumni.  After our meeting they evidently have the custom of going out to eat so we all came back to Norfolk and ate at the newly opened Perkins which just opened a week ago.  I love to eat breakfast there any time of the day so that is what I ordered.  The pastor of the parish where we meet pays for the meal.  

I really don't like to drive after dark anymore so I rode over with Father Greg Carl who is the associate pastor here in Norfolk.

The days are getting shorter and the nights longer.  I have started checking out books from the Norfolk Public Library.  They have a lot of large print books and I enjoy reading them very much.  I can also check out books for my kindle from the library.  I am not a big television watcher but do enjoy sports on t.v., the news and a few programs on the history channel.

Hope you are all enjoying the fall weather and I ask God's blessing on each of you.

Immculata Monastery at Norfolk

BENEDICTINE MISSIONARY SISTERS: 90th ANNIVERSARY

Today, on Sunday, September 22, the Benedictine Missionary Sisters here at Norfolk celebrated 90 years of being in Nebraska.  We had a beautiful celebration with Mass at 10:30 AM with Father Prior Mauritius, from Christ the King Priory, at Schuyler as celebrant.  After my 9:30 AM Mass at the nursing home I came back to the monastery and concelebrated the Mass.  We had a deacon here from Omaha and many guests.  The Mass was followed by a dinner for the Sisters and guests.

Father Mauritius and Father Kenneth and the deacon at 90th anniversary Mass.

Earlier this week, on Thursday, I went to Winnebago, NE for a visit to the Indian Reservation there.  Fathers David Korth and Father Dan Wittrock are both stationed there to take care of their spiritual needs.  Father Korth was gone but I had a nice visit with Father Wittrock.  The Benedictine Sisters from here have worked there since 1957.

 Some of the children eating lunch in the cafateria

Alumnus Father Dan Wittrock

The weather has been more like fall lately.  Yesterday it started off in the morning with a low of about 45.  Today was warmer again but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

In closing I would like to call attention to my modified Smugmug photo site.  Smugmug has changed a number things and I hope you will enjoy the new site.   http://kennethosb.smugmug.com/

Also, to remind you again, I am, for the most part now using my Conception e-mail address:  kenneth@conception.edu

My phone number is:  402-371-5657  or my cell phone:
402-750-9684

Have a good week and God bless you all.

More News from Norfolk, Nebraska

The Sisters here in Norfolk sometimes ask me if I get lonely here by myself.  I tell them that I do indeed miss Conception.  After being at Conception for about 65 years as a student and a monk, of course I miss it.  But, I am adapting.  In so many ways the Sisters have made me feel so welcome and  they welcome me to many of their activities.  I eat two meals a day with them and have many opportunities to share with them.  They encourage me much with their kind words and compliments.  I appreciate all of that.

And I have to say that the staff and residents of the St. Joseph Home, where I also serve as chaplain, have also received me so well. The residents seem to enjoy it when I stop in to see them.  One lady who is 100 years old, expresses her thanks to me again and again for stopping in and when I tell her goodbye, she will say "be sure to stop in again tomorrow."  She is not a Catholic but a very friendly person and her mind still seems to be perfect.  I try to visit all the patients at least a couple times each week.

The weather is now much more like it should be by this time in September.  About three or four days ago I turned off the air-conditioner and have the windows and doors open.  At night especially it gets quite cool.  Makes it hard to get out of bed but I long ago trained myself to get out of bed when the alarm goes off. 

The Sisters had a workshop this weekend.  It was given by two Mercy Sisters, although they go by a different name now.  Sister Pia, the Prioress here, had asked Abbot Marcel for some suggestions for the workshop and he suggested these Sisters.  They were formerly Mercy Sisters but left the order in the early 1970's.  There were eight of them at the time and now they number about 100 Sisters.  They wear a habit and a veil and are now located in Michigan, I believe.

This coming Thursday I plan to drive to Winnebago, NE.  The Sisters here have a mission and school there.  The two priests stationed there are Fr. Daniel Wittrock and Fr. David Korth.  Both are alumni of Conception Seminary College.  One of the Sisters here will go with me since I have never been there before.  

I continue to keep busy, especially in the mornings.  I have one more talk coming up in November when I will speak to the priests at the Norfolk Serra Club "Priests Appreciation Dinner."  

By the way, a week or so ago Archbishop Lucas was in Norfolk and I spoke with him a while.  He is a wonderful person and is very grateful we have a priest from Conception working here in Norfolk.

Conception Abbey and Seminary College

Picture taken from Fr. Paul's Facebook page.