A Relaxing and Enjoyable Few Days on the Farm

St. Joseph Church at Hurricane Branch.
Actually just out in the country alone. (No town)
My mother was baptized here.

St. Raphael Church at Indian Grove.
My parents were married here in 1921

The Reichert triplets. The little boy is Brody

The Reichert triplets -- the two girls Emery
and Gracie

The three of them: Left to right: Emery,
Gracie and Brody (the other little boy, Jaxon, died a couple
days after birth.

I returned last Friday from an enjoyable few days on the farm at Brunswick, MO. That is where I was born and raised until I came to Conception. I still have a number of relatives who live around there. My only living brother, who lives in Kansas City, owns a farm there and keeps a mobile home on it so he lets me use that every time I go there. I also have one nephew who lives on a farm nearby and a sister in law who lives on a nearby farm. It's always a good place for me to relax and get caught up on sleep, while at the same time going to visit relatives and friends.

On the weekend I was there I was assigned to go to two nearby parishes to celebrate Masses. Celebrated one Mass on Saturday evening and then three on Sunday morning. Two at each parish, Brookfield, MO and Marceline, MO.

Many monks seem to be gone right now as they are trying to get in some days of vacation before school begins. As this is the last week of July that is not far off.

While at home I got to visit one evening with my triplet great grand nephew and nieces, and also with many other nephews and nieces and relatives. We had rain many days and it was usually very hot and humid because of the rain.

Until the next time, God bless you all.

GOOD WEEK OF VACATION

As I mentioned earlier on the blog I spent a week visiting friends in Buffalo, NY and in Dayton, OH. It was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with so many friends. In Buffalo I got to see probably about 16-17 of the 22 people who were on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2006. I stayed with the lady who led the pilgrimage, Barbara Shanahan. Barbara is an oblate of Conception Abbey and usually comes here for Christmas and the Triduum each year. She is the director of the Biblical Program in Buffalo and also teaches many of the classes. I enjoyed so many good meals and, while I had seen Niagara Falls before, this was the first time I had gone on a ride on the boat that takes you practically right under the falls. They give you a plastic rain coat to wear and it is needed. It was an exciting and beautiful boat ride.

After spending three nights in Buffalo I went on to Dayton, OH. A former seminarian and good friend, Ben Darnell, lives there. He and his wife Alicia have a little boy, Isaac Joseph, who will be one year old in August. What a delight it was to spend three days with them and to get acquainted with little Isaac. I presided at Ben and Alicia's wedding in 2008 at Springfield, MO. Alicia has just finished her Master's Degree in Theology at Dayton University. Ben is Youth Director at Precious Blood Parish in Dayton. We also visited the U.S. Airforce Museum which is located in Dayton.

About a week before I went on this trip Father David Coon and his parents stopped in to see me. It was wonderful to see him, as well as his parents. I was David's spiritual director in the seminary and I went to Charleston, MO to attend his ordination and first Mass some years ago. He is now the pastor at Popular Bluff, MO in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese.

Here at Conception work during the summer proceeds. We have put in some new sidewalks which were needed. A lot of work is scheduled to be done on the roads in the next few weeks and some new laundry rooms have been put in the seminary dorm areas since the enrollment has gone up and seems like it will go up again this year.

Monks are coming and going as they each try to get some vacation days in before the students return. We are allowed two weeks. I hope to take about a week visiting family and relatives from about July 15-22 and will take a parish assignment at Brookfield and Marceline, MO that weekend.

I am posting a number of pictures here below of my trip to Buffalo and Dayton. To see more of these go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/frkenneth/BuffaloNYAndDaytonOHJune23292010#

Pictures below taken at Buffalo


















































Last three pictures below taken at Dayton, OH

Summer time is here

The new furniture of the St. Stephen Health Care Center came in this past week and it is now installed. It looks beautiful. The maker of the furniture is an almnus, and former monk and good friend of the Abbey, Cassian Heath. That is his photo in the bottom picture. The photo on the top is a general view of the sanctuary area of the chapel.

During the summer months it seems monks are sort of in and out. Some leave to give retreats at other places, some are on vacation, some are away at school. So the size of the community varies almost from day to day.

We have been having a lot of rain the last week or two so the weather has been muggy and hot most days. It seems that we get at least a shower of rain almost everyday. There are farmers who are still trying to get crops into the fields.

Front entrance of Health Care Center, St. Stephen, deacon and martyr.

Below brief film of chapel.



This Sunday afternoon, June 13, my nephew Mike and his wife Sheila and Jarrod and Katy were here for Mass and lunch. Then some of Sheila's family came and I gave them a tour. Had a good visit. We had a little more rain this morning and now it is again very hot and humid.

June 2010, another month has passed.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to put a new blog on this site since May 10. There has been a lot going
on and I just haven't had a chance to sit down and write. That being said I will try to bring you up to date.

The weekends of May 15-16 and May 22-23, I was at my home parish at Brunswick, MO to celebrate the weekend Masses. That is quite a distance to drive and then after celebrating four Masses I am pretty tired. So I usually ask the Abbot to stay over until Monday morning before I drive back. He readily gave me permission so that helped and I got to visit with my family while by doing that. Fortunately it also gave me a chance to see my triplet great grandnephew and nieces. They have really grown. They were born on my birthday last year on July 7. Originally there were four, but one of the boys died about the second day. The three are doing well. Each of them now weighs about 18 pounds. They were two pounds or under when they were born.
The one little girl in the picture above was asleep so I didn't want to wake her.

We had our community retreat the week after school was out. It was given by Father Ronald Witherup, P.S.S. a Sulpician. Father is from the U.S.A., but is the Superior General of the Sulpicians and their headquarters are in Paris so that is where he lives now. His retreat was on the theme of Paul and Benedict: The Christ-Centered Life. It was very interesting and very helpful.

This past weekend, May 29-30, is the first weekend in May that I have not been out in a parish.
On Friday evening I attended the ordinations to the diaconate at Omaha, Nebraska. Two of our alumni were ordained deacons and will be ordained priests in another year -- Andy Syring and Kevin Vogel. I spend the night in Omaha and came home Saturday. Today on Sunday I had the Mass at Clyde for the Sisters at 11:00 AM. Next weekend I have Mass at Clyde on Saturday and then at Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Joseph on Sunday morning.

We try to have a member of the community present for the ordination to the diaconate and priesthood for our alumni. This time of year that keeps us busy as many ordinations are in late May and early June.

We are working trying to landscape and get grass started around the St. Stephen Health Care Center. All through the spring it was so wet that we could not work out there. Finally we have been able to prepare the ground and sow the grass seed. We have also put some flowers outside and yesterday I added a bird feeder or two.

Publish Post

If you are an oblate don't forget to check out the latest oblate blog. Go to the Conception Abbey website -- click here. Then on the left side of the screen click on "oblates."

MAY 2010

Here we are moving through the month of May. In some ways May is a busy month for so many people. It's a time for graduation and weddings and other family events. This year I have two grandnieces graduating from high school and one graduating from Missouri University with her doctorate in physical therapy. I don't think there are any weddings in our family this year.

Our own students here in the seminary graduate and close the school year on Sunday, May 16, the Solemnity of the Ascension. Things will be a little more quiet during the summer but we will still be busy, I'm sure. Weekend pastoral assignments usually increase during the summer.

I have been on the road a lot the last month or so taking people to the doctor either in Maryville or St. Joseph, and going to parishes for weekend Masses. Last weekend (May 1-2) I was at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in St. Joseph for the weekend Masses, then I returned to the Abbey very briefly Sunday afternoon, before leaving for Des Moines for an oblate meeting Sunday evening. We prayed evening prayer together at 5:30 PM and that was followed by a pot-luck dinner, visiting and a talk by myself. About 50 people attended the meeting.

This coming weekend, May 8-9, I again go to St. Joseph to the same parish for the weekend Masses. I enjoy this work very much and find the people always so appreciative and hospitable, but I have to say it wears me out more than formerly. I guess that is part of getting older. Last weekend at this parish I met a former classmate here at Conception, Louis Luke. I came to Concepti0n as a sophomore in high school in 1948, Louie was here already in 1947 but we spent three years of high school together. It was great to visit with him after so many years. People at the parish could hardly believe we came to school here so many years ago. At that time of course Conception had a high school, college and theology school.
The black & white picture is of the
sophomore class of 1948-49. In the 2nd row the 2nd person from the left is Louie Luke. The one on the far right in the same row is Fr. Kenneth.
The other picture was taken May 2, 2010 of the same two people.

The weekends of May 15-16 and May 22-23, I will be at my home parish at Brunswick, Missouri. The pastor is going to Ireland so he asked us to cover the parish. Naturally I was happy to go when the Prior asked me if I could do that. It's always good to go back there, although I find I know fewer and fewer of the people. I do still have a number of relatives who live in the area.

We had almost two inches of rain last night and it is much cooler today and very windy. For those who are alumni you might like to know that, yes, we do still have May Day, and this year it was moved up to April 29, since they were predicting rain for some days after that. It was good we moved it as we did have rain for a few days.

Hope all is well with all you readers of this blog. It's always good to hear from you so don't hesitate to add a comment or send me an e-mail at kenneth@conception.edu as posted on the side of my blog on this page.

To go to the Conception Abbey web site and then the oblate section click here. If you want to go to the oblate blog, click on "oblates" on the left side of the screen.

To go to my photo web site look at the left side of the screen of this blog and click on the photo site given there.