CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS WEEK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...............

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.