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."