Thanksgiving -- Advent soon

Thanksgiving week is now ended.  Here at Conception, as usual, we had community meetings on Tuesday afternoon and then most of the day on Wednesday.  Then on Wednesday evening we began celebrating our jubilarians for this year.  This year they are as follows:   Fr. Norbert Schappler, 60 years ordained, Fr. Denis Dougherty, 60 years professed, Fr. Roger Schmit, 50 years ordained, Fr. Daniel Petsche, and Fr. Aidan McSorley, 50 years professed, Archbishop Jerome Hanus, 25 years episcopal ordination, Fr. Peter Ullrich, 25 years priesthood ordination.  Wednesday evening we had a social event and then on Thanksgiving day, Mass at 10:00 AM and then a traditional Thanksgiving meal at noon.  I am sure many of you have already read about each of these in the new Tower Topics which you have probably received by now.

The students left on Tuesday by noon.  Classes were held in the morning but no classes in the afternoon so they could leave by noon  on that day.  They will be returning today on Sunday.  Today is also the solemnity of Christ the King and the concluding Sunday of the Church year.  

That means that next Sunday, December 2, will be the first Sunday of Advent in preparation for the Christmas feast.  Of course if you have been in any of the stores it looks like Christmas is already here, but nothing we can do about that.  We don't put up any decorations around here until a couple days before Christmas. 

The day after Thanksgiving we had a young monk who is studying at Atchision KS,  St. Benedict Monastery.  He is a monk of St. Bernard Monastery at Cullman, Alabama, but is in college at Atchison.  His name is Brother Bernard Denson.  He left today after the noon meal to go back to Atchison.  

Brother Bernard Denson, O.S.B.

Last week on Sunday afternoon some good friends came to see me and stayed until Monday afternoon.  Benjamin and Alicia Darnell and their three year old son, Isaac, and their six month old daughter, Anya Marie, were here to visit.  So good to see them.  At one time Ben was here in the seminary but later he dropped out of the seminary.  When he and Alicia got married in 2008 they asked me to preside at the wedding ceremony which I did.  Ben serves as a youth minister in a parish and Alicia is a stay at home mother.

They continue to work on the roof of the monastery.  Yesterday they had a hugh crane here so that they could lift copper up over the monastery roof to the scaffold set up in the courtyard.   Here are a couple pictures I took of that.

.On a personal note, I find my eye sight getting worse as I get older.  There seems to be nothing really that they can do for it.  I still read and still am able to drive -- just renewed my license last July and passed the eye test.  But, reading from a book is more difficult.  So I now have a Kindle reader and find it much easier to read with that.  So if you ever want to give me something, a gift card from Amazon would be great as they are the ones who make the books for Kindle.  Kindle books are cheaper than printed books but still do cost.

Wishing everyone a blessed Advent season.

ELECTION IS OVER -- NOW WHAT?

   Yes, the election is over now.  At least there will not be so many ads on TVand other places concerning politics. Many were no doubt happy about the outcome, and many (like myself) were disappointed.  I think that what comes now is what really counts.   It is easy to make many  promises when seeking election but what happens after the election is what is important.  We must pray for our country, the U.S.A.  We are all proud of our country but we just seem to becoming more and more secularistic.  Almost anything goes, whether it be abortion, taking away religious freedom or anything else. So let's all pray for a change of heart in our beloved country.

Here at Conception we continue to be busy.  Every weekend our guest facilities seem to be practically full and often there are groups here during the week.  This weekend we have about 70 young men here looking at the seminary.  We have two of these weekends a year -- one in the fall and another in the spring.  Many of our seminarians had first been here for one of these weekends.  The weekend tries to give those attending some idea of what life is like in the seminary.  Most of the talks are given by our present seminarians.

A few days ago it was necessary to cut down a large tree that had been on the east side of the monastery for many years.  I know it was there already, and a full grown tree, when I came to Conception in 1948.  It was rotting and we knew it was pretty well hollow inside.  In recent years large limbs had been blown off during storms.  It was located just outside the window of my room so I was somewhat worried about it blowing over into my room during one of those storms.  At the same time it provided great shade for my room and others.  Here are a couple pictures of the tree after it was cut down.  You can see how hollow it was.

 Recently the monks were able to update their laundry facilities with four new combination washers and dryers.  Each monk, except for those in the Health Care Center (Infirmary), has to do his own laundry so we need to have on hand washers and dryers for this purpose.  Each student dorm also has similar laundry facilities for the students to do their laundry.

Washer on the bottom of each unit and the dryer on top.

Have a good month of November.  The last few days have been very warm here, but today we had some rain and it has been turning colder througout the day.

This weekend the students put on the musical HOW I BECAME A PIRATE.  I went to see it Friday night and really enjoyed it.  It was directed by Brother Cyprian.

Many blessings to each of you.
If you would also like to read my blog which I write for the oblates go to this web site,
www.conceptionabbey.org and then click on "oblates" on the left side of your screen and then on "oblate blog."