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)