IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: VISIT OF ARCHBISHOP CARLSON

Archbishop Robert Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis

Tomorrow, December 8, is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, our patronal feast. We actually honor the Angels as well as the Immaculate Conception as our patrons. When the abbey was first founded in 1873, they began to call it New Engelberg Abbey or New Mount Angel. We were of course founded from Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. However, gradually we came to be called Conception Abbey. The town was already here and was called Conception. At any rate this feast is our patronal feast so a big day for all of us here.

This year Archbishop Robert Carlson, archbishop of St. Louis and so our metropolitan archbishop will be here for the Mass and the main celebrant of the Mass. This is Archbishop's Carlson's first visit here since he came to St. Louis a year or so ago. He was here some years ago to give our community retreat but at that time was an auxiliary bishop in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

This past weekend I was at Brunswick MO to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the parish. It was a wonderful celebration with Bishop Gaydos, the bishop of Jefferson City as the main celebrant. A nice dinner was served at the Knights of Columbus Hall after the Mass.

A week from this Friday the students finish the semester and will be heading for home and a Christmas break. They all look forward to that of course.

I pray you all continue to have a Blessed Advent season and are preparing for Christ's coming on Christmas.

Many blessings.
Fr. Kenneth

THANKSGIVING AND JUBILARIANS 2010

Upper photo: Father Anthony Shidler, 70 yeears professed, middle: Brother Blaise Bonderer and Father Allan Stetz, 50 years professed. Lower: Father Quentin Kathol, Father Issaac True, 50 years professed and Father Timothy Schoen, 25 years professed.

While these monks have celebrated their jubilees at various times of the year, the community celebrates them on Thanksgiving day. A good day to give thanks for their many years of service to God, the community and the world. Most of the monks who have assignments in parishes or missions are home this week.

Today the seminarians are leaving for home for the Thanksgiving holidays and will return on Sunday, November 28.

We are having our regular four year visitation this week and it will conclude tomorrow. Abbot Justin DuVall from St. Meinrad Archabbey, Father Charles Reichenbacher from Marmion Abbey and Father Matthew Clark from St. Joseph Abbey were our visitators. According to the Constitutions of the Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictines, we are to have such a visitation every four years.

Let us all give thanks this week and especially on Thanksgiving day for all the gifts we have received from God, as well as for our families, friends and others with whom we live and work.

My prayers and best wishes to you. Have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

Fr. Kenneth

What's Going on at Conception

The weather is changing. Fall is here and winter is coming. Nothing new about that, is there? On my last blog I wrote on this site I included some pictures of the trees and flowers on campus. Well the leaves are pretty well gone now and the flowers have frozen a couple times. We have had a lot of windy weather in this area and so the beautiful leaves are mostly on the ground by now. We are well into November. I went into Walmart in Maryville yesterday and you would have thought it was already Christmas. Christmas decorations and Christmas music. The business world has certainly taken over the Christmas feast.

Speaking of the weather, however, the last few days have not felt at all like Christmas. We have had some days when the temperature got down into the 20's at night, but the last few days it has been getting up into the 70's. Great weather for being outside. The harvesting is pretty well all done in this area. We had a lot of nice weather for the fall and so the farmers were able to harvest all their crops in good time. Some years they are barely finishing by Christmas.

This coming weekend will be the first vocation weekend of the present school year. Called "Encounter With God's Call" two of these are held each year, one in fall and another in the spring. It is a good way for young men in high school or college to visit and get acquainted with the seminary as well as those who are presently seminarians. Talks are presented by seminarians here.

This next weekend too will feature the drama production for this fall. Cotton Patch Gospel will be presented in the gym and auditorium on Friday evening, November 12, on Saturday evening, November 13 and on Sunday afternoon, November 14.

Last week we had a farewell luncheon for two of our employees in the Development Office. Jarrod Thome, an alumnus of the seminary, and his wife, Emily, are moving back to Wichita, the home town of both of them. They have four girls, two sets of twins. Olivia and Sophia were three years old last August, and this fall another set of twin girls were born, Nora and Grace.
So I think they are looking forward to some help from family and friends when they get back to Wichita. Jarrod began work here in March 2007, as Director of Communications. Later his wife Emily also began working here on investigating available grants. They will be missed by all of us here at the Abbey and Seminary and we appreciate their friendship and all they have done for Conception. We wish them many blessings in their life.

Jarrod, Emily, and family

I myself have been seeing doctors recently. For years I have had high blood pressure, but suddenly it went up very high. Finally it is coming back down after the changing of medicine and adding more medicine. I had to cancel an oblate trip to both Des Moines and Wichita because of this. Sorry about that.

Let us all continue to pray with and for one another.

Fr. Kenneth

FALL COLORS

Some of the beautiful fall colors seen around the Abbey and on campus at this time of the year.





We have had some beautiful fall weather in recent weeks. Last week it actually got quite warm for a couple days again -- up in the mid eighties, but a cold front soon moved in and so it is again cool but pleasant.

Last weekend we had our fall oblate retreat. About forty oblates attended the retreat given by Brother Thomas Sullivan, O.S.B. All seemed to enjoy the weekend very much and the weather was cooperative.

It seems I have spent a lot of this past week seeing doctors. On Monday I had to see the dermatologist in St. Joseph, on Monday night I did a sleep study at the hospital in Maryville and yesterday I saw my primary care doctor in Maryville. Such is life as you get older it seems.

How about the story of the miners in Chile being rescued from deep in the earth? That was something to watch and certainly it was good to see good news rather the usual bad news on television. We all, I'm sure, join in giving thanks to God for their safety after so days underground.

This weekend the Seminary Board of Regents will be meeting here at Conception. They usually meet on Friday afternoon and evening and again on Saturday morning.

So that's it for this time. Have a wonderful day and don't forget to give some time to God. We have much to be grateful for and we all know we need God's help in living our Christian life. Let us pray for one another.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site, click on the marker at the top of this blog.

It's Been a While

Sorry folks -- I realize it's been a few weeks since I last wrote anything new on this blog. Seems like time goes so fast and I don't always keep up to date on things.

This weekend is a very busy weekend here at Conception. It is "Family Weekend" for the students and many, many guests are coming. The last I heard it was up to 260 or more guests for dinner this evening. The enrollment goes up and that means there are more families coming for this annual family weekend. Fall in general is a busy time for our guest department as many want to come for retreats and many larger groups come at this time of the year.

Last weekend I was in Kansas City and St. Joseph. On Friday afternoon I left for Kansas City to celebrate the Mass and funeral of a good friend, Eleanor Harshner. Her daughter Sandy Darnell wanted me to celebrate the Mass and so I went down on Friday, attended the wake service, spent the night with my brother and his wife and then had the funeral Mass and burial at 10:00 AM at St. Andrew Church. I got acquainted with the family through their son (Eleanor's grandson) Benjamin Darnell, a former student here. He left the seminary and is now married and has a little boy. It was good to see them all again.

Weather is gradually turning cooler. Tonight they are predicting some light and scattered frost as the temperature drops into the 30's. We had a very hot summer but soon we will be wishing we had some of the warm weather back.

The sister of our Subprior, Brother Bernard, died this past week of cancer. She lived in Lincoln, Illinois. Brother Bernard attended the funeral and returned yesterday evening.

This week I wanted to include a picture of the five residents presently living in our Health Care Center. In the front row left to right: Fr. Joachim Schieber (91 years old), Fr. Anthony Shidler (89 years old), Bro. George Strohmeyer (88 years old). All three of these use electric wheel chairs. In the back are Fr. Paschal Thomas (76 years old) and Monsignor Louis McCorkle (90 years old). Monsignor McCorkle is a priest of the Jefferson City diocese and an alumnus of Conception Seminary.

Next weekend (October 8-10) we will be having an oblate retreat. We have two of these a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and during the summer we have what we call a "Pray and Work" weekend. Brother Thomas Sullivan, OSB, will be conducting this retreat and it is entitled:
"A School of the Lord's Service."

May God continue to bless each of you.

Please don't forget to go to the Conception Abbey website. Click at the top of this blog.