Missed Feast of Ascension This Year

Interestingly, this year, 2014, I missed the solemnity of the Ascension.  Yes, in the Province of St. Louis, which includes the entire state of Missouri the feast has been transferred to the following Sunday.  In the Province of Omaha, which includes the entire state of Nebraska it is still celebrated on Thursday.  So last week I was at our monastery, Conception Abbey, for our community retreat.  I returned here to Norfolk on Friday, May 30, and so missed the feast this year.  Kind of unusual I thought. 

We had a very good retreat last week.  The conferences were given by Monsignor Kevin Irwin, a priest of the archdiocese of New York, but who has spent much of his life in Washington, D.C. and in Rome.  He has his Doctorate in Liturgy from Sant' Aselmo in Rome and presently teaches at the Catholic University of America.  So the theme of the retreat was the Liturgy.  The conferences were all very interesting and helpful.  

As most of you know the monks have all moved out of the monastery at Conception and today, Monday, June 2, they should be starting with the demolition and then renovation of the monastery.  On one day of the retreat all the monks went to the monastery and the Abbot conducted a little prayer service, thanking all of our predecessors for all their work in building the monastery and asking God's blessing and protection on the workers who will renovate the monastery.  I am posting a couple pictures:

 This is Fr. Kenneth taken in the room and almost the exact

spot where I was shot on June 10, 2002.  The room is now empty

in preparation for the renovation.

Abbot Gregory conducting the prayer service with

the community gathered around him.  When Fr. Norbert and

I were shot in 2002 it was just inside the door you see in

this picture.

Another blessing the community received at the conclusion of the retreat was the ordination to the priesthood of our confrere, Father Macario.  The ordaining bishop was our own Archbishop Jerome Hanus, O.S.B., who just retired after serving as bishop for 26 years at St. Cloud, MN and then as Archbishop of Dubuque.

Left to right:  Father Macario, Archbishop Jerome

and deacon who is a seminarian studying for the

Sioux City diocese

Many guests were present for the ordination including some good friends of mine.  Among those present was Jeremy Long, an alumnus who now lives in San Francisco.

Jeremy Long and Fr. Kenneth

When I left Norfolk to go to Conception there were over forty novice directors and novices from Benedictine women communities throughout the United States here for workshops.  They were still here when I returned on Friday but left then on Saturday.  They seemed to all enjoy their time together.

I believe that Sister Pia Portmann, the superior here at Norfolk, who has been gone most of the month of May, returns tomorrow.

Finally in closing I want to refer my readers to a blog written by Father Paul Sheller, O.S.B., vocation director at Conception Abbey.  All the pictures I have on this blog were taken by him and he regularly posts on his blog.  He includes many photos.

Go to:  http://listenmyson.wordpress.com/

God bless you all.