Thanksgiving Week

During Thanksgiving week the monks who are out serving in various missions come home for the week. This year all were home except for the four who are away at school: Bro. Pachomius, Bro. Guerric, Bro. Macario and Bro. Anselm. Our students in the seminary left for home after their last class on Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday we had community meetings and chapter meetings.

On Wednesday evening of the week we begin to celebrate all the jubilees of monks who are celebrating jubilees this year. On Wednesday evening we had a social and the junior monks put on a delightful drama to honor the jubilarians. On Thanksgiving day we had a solemn Mass at 10:00 AM and then at noon a banquet to also honor the jubilarians. Abbot Gregory was celebrant for the Mass and among the concelebrants was Archbishop Jerome, our former abbot, and now the Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa. Also, home and concelebrating was Abbot Marcel, another former abbot and former Abbot Primate of the Benedictine order.

Jubilarians this year were: Father Malachy, 70 years professed, Father Hugh and Father Regis, fifty years ordained, Father Francis, Father Rene and Brother Mark, fifty years professed, and Brother Cyprian, twenty five years professed.

The picture up above was taken the day after Thanksgiving. As you can see we had a white Thanksgiving. We had snow a big part of the day on Wednesday and, although most of it melted right away, probably a good inch accumulated on the ground. The weather also turned very cold. I believe last night it got down to about 12 degrees.