Labor Day Weekend

On Monday afternoon, Labor Day, I went for a good walk. I was out in the area of the orchard and took a picture of a couple of pear trees we have there. You can see there are a good number of pears on the trees this year. Then also, the apple trees seem to have a pretty good crop this year. Last year we had no fruit at all on any of our trees as we had such cold weather in the latter part of the spring and everything got frozen.

Also, on Labor Day the students had a Day of Recollection. It began Sunday evening with a Holy Hour and concluded with vespers yesterday evening. The day was conducted by Bishop Robert Finn, our own bishop of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. After the day of recollection the students and monks had a picnic together on the plaza area between St. Joseph and St. Michael Hall. I did not get any pictures of the picnic.

This past weekend we had very few guests here and no retreats. From now on every weekend is pretty well filled with retreatants and even during the week we have some groups coming to use our facilities. Both the priests of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese and the priests of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas will each be here for three or four days for continuing education.

The weather has continued to be very comfortable and we have had a couple of small rains so the grass is staying green.

Wednesday of this week, September 3, is Abbot Gregory's nameday. So keep him in prayer, especially that day.

Let us all keep one another in prayer.