Today is our patronal feast, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. We usually go by just Conception Abbey but we are under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. When the first monks first came here from Switzerland in 1873 they first called the monastery, New Engelberg Abbey after our founding Abbey -- Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. The little town of Conception was already located here and the early settlers had named it Conception in honor of the Immaculate Conception. So before long they began to simply call the monastery Conception Abbey.
We are following our Sunday schedule today and there are no classes for the students. We had a solemn Mass at 10:30 AM celebrated by Abbot Gregory. That was followed by a banquet meal. We will now have solemn vespers of the feast at 5:30 PM.
Two of our young monks who are away studying theology at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana returned home Saturday evening as they completed the first semester. The other monks who are studying away from home will be returning for Christmas in the next week or ten days.
Brother Guerric and Brother Macario
The 10th of December will mark the first anniversary of the big ice storm we had here a year ago. It started freezing rain the night of December 10 and continued throughout most of the day on December 11. We hope and pray we have nothing like that again this year.
That's about it for this week. I pray you are having a blessed season of Advent and looking forward to the feast of Christmas. If you are interested you might also like to read my "Oblate blog." You can find it either on the Conception Abbey web site (http://www.conceptionabbey.org/) and click on oblates or go to http://osboblates.blogspot.com/
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