GROUND BREAKING FOR NEW GUEST HOUSE

The J.E. Dunn construction trailer was moved
in this week.

Breaking ground for the new guest facility.

The blessing began in the St. Raphael Hospitality Center.
Pictured are Abbot Gregory, Mr. Bill Dunn and Father Benedict.
Brother Paul is just behind the Abbot.

Monday, June 20, we had the blessing and the ground breaking for the new guest house to be built just to the north of St. Joseph Hall. Most of the monks, many employees and construction people and architects were on hand for the ground breaking. This week they began to relocate some of the underground structure such as the water line, gas line etc. Soon then they will begin digging preparing the area for the new building.

Pictured above are Steve and Christy Arnold and their family who visited me last week. I had presided at the wedding of Steve and Christy in August, 1999. They now have five beautiful children and it was good to visit with them again.

Tomorrow I am going to Brookfield, MO to celebrate a funeral Mass. Evidently the priests of the diocese are all on retreat and they could not find a priest to have the funeral. So they called the Prior and I am going down to do this on Friday. I just helped at this parish this past Holy Week so I know a number of the parishioners.

Most of you have read of all the flooding on the Missouri river. Fortunately we are far away from that but we all assure these people of our thoughts and prayers at what they are going through. Unfortunately it sounds as though it will last through most of the summer because of the heavy snow up north last winter and the heavy rains this spring.

To read the new oblate blog click here. and then click on "oblates" on the left side of your screen.

Summer seems to have arrived

St. Raphael Church at Indian Grove, MO is today
celebrating it's 125th anniversary. This is the
church where my Dad and Mother were married
in 1921. It is still open today--a country church
at the little village of Indian Grove. Bishop Gaydos
will be there for Mass today.

Summer seems to have arrived. In the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of hot and humid weather. The weekend of May 28-29 and again on the weekend of June 4-5, I went to Kansas City to celebrate the Masses at St. Andrew Parish in the north part of Kansas City. The first weekend it was chilly when I left Conception so I wore a sweater. By the time I got to Kansas City it was hot so I did not even have to take the sweater out of the car. Both weekends I celebrated four Masses, one on Saturday evening and three on Sunday. I spent the nights with my brother and his wife, Harold and Dee Reichert who live very close to this church.

We have had enough rain so that everything is green and the flowers are blooming. It's a beautiful time of the year except for the heat and humidity. We do not have air-conditioning in the monastery except for a few rooms but most of us do have fans. We hope to eventually renovate the monastery and we will probably air condition then, but I don't know whether I will still be around by that time. Who knows? This summer we are planning to begin work on our new guest house. It will be toward the north part of the campus and will have 32 rooms as well as some meeting rooms. At the present time they are moving some gas lines in order to get ready to start building. I believe the ground breaking is scheduled for June 20.

I have been working on a little project, trying to write some of my memories down and make them available to my nephews and nieces, and other family members. It is kind of fun to do this and I enjoy such projects. I have, in the process, put together a number of older family pictures. A lot has changed in my life time for sure. We did not even have electricity on the farm until I was in the fifth grade.

Many of the monks are coming and going during the summer. Each final professed monk is allowed two weeks for a home visit or vacation each year. The latter part of July I plan to go to Brunswick and spend some time on the farm, just relaxing and visiting relatives. Sometimes during the summer we really get low on numbers, especially on weekends when many priests have to go out to parishes to help out.

Monsignor Louis McCorkle, a priest of the diocese
of Jefferson City and an alumnus of Conception, who
is in residence in our Health Care Center celebrated
his 90th birthday on May 28

Father Anthony Shidler, O.S.B. and Monsignor
McCorkle shake hands. Father Anthony will
celebrate his 90th birthday in August, 2011