Abbot James celebrates 85th birthday

Abbot James Jones, O.S.B., who was Abbot of Conception Abbey from 1987-93, celebrated his 85th birthday on Monday, March 30. The picture below was taken on the day of his birthday. He is still able to do some walking with the help of a walker and a nurse, but otherwise moves about in a wheel chair. The day before, on Sunday, March 29, he celebrated his 61st anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. An interesting note is that he was ordained in March, 1948. In September, 1948, I first came to school at Conception as a sophomore in high school. Father James taught me Latin that first year I was here. So that means in September it will be 61 years since I first came to Conception. Time keeps moving doesn't it and the years keep counting up.

Abbot James March 30, 2009 in the lounge of
St. Stephen infirmary

The picture below is of Sister Bernadine from the Clyde Sisters and myself just before celebrating Mass for the older Sisters at Our Lady of Rickenbach at Clyde. I am holding a "flat Stanley" photo of one of her grand nieces who sent it to her to help her with a school assignment. Sister Bernadine is almost 90 years old and is still quite active, loves to play cards (10 point pitch) and visit with people.

Sister Bernadine and Fr. Kenneth in March, 2009

This past weekend the seminary sponsored an Encounter With God's Call Weekend. It was well attended by young men from various dioceses who are interested in looking at the seminary. I believe they had about 120 registered but due to the very heavy snow in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, I believe there were about 80 able to attend. They arrived on Saturday and stayed until noon on Monday, March 30.

Brother Macario arrived home from St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana last Saturday and will be here through Easter. He is studying theology at St. Meinrad. I believe Brother Guerri, who is also in school at St. Meinrad, is also coming soon for these days. Brother Pachomius, who is a deacon and in his last year of theology at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, will also arrive later this week. He will serve as deacon for all the Holy Week and Triduum ceremonies.

There are many penance services being held in the local parishes at this time of the year. Last evening, Father Prior Daniel, Father Joel, Father Timothy and myself went to Maryville to help with confessions. Father Peter, Father Xavier and Father Patrick went to Savannah, MO for confessions. There are more services tomorrow evening and later in the week.

Next week is Holy Week and the Triduum. I will probably be kind of busy so may not get a blog written. So if not, have a blessed Holy Week and a blessed and Happy Easter.

New flowers and spring

Magnolia or tulip tree blooming early between
monastery and infirmary.

More flowers blooming on south side of monastery

This past week and weekend we had temperatures even up to 80 degrees. Last night, however, it got down to the lower 30's after 1.65 inches of rain yesterday morning. We needed the rain as it has been a dry winter.

They are today working again on the windmill located on our property just to the east of the monastery. For the last 3-4 months it has been turned off because they found the blades were deficient. So all three blades are being replaced. I think the factory that made them is responsible for this as there seems to have been some problem when they were made.

This past Monday was pastors' day here at the seminary. The pastors of all the students are invited for the day to get acquainted with the seminary, see their seminarians etc.

This coming weekend will be the spring "Encounter With God's Call" weekend. The rooms are all reserved for them so it sounds like it will be well attended. It gives these young men the opportunity to visit and experience the seminary first hand.

This week I again have the community Mass at Clyde for the Sisters each day at 7:30 A.M.

I have been working on my invitations for my 50th anniversary of ordination. I was ordained on May 30, 1959 but will have a Mass of Thanksgiving in my home parish at Brunswick, MO on June 7.

Hope these last weeks of Lent will bring many blessings to you.

TEN YEARS AGO TODAY

The high altar in the basilica before 1965

The main altar in the basilica from about 1965
until the renovation completed in 1999

Ten years ago today we completed the renovation of the Basilica here at Conception Abbey. It was a great day and one we all certainly remember. We had been out of the basilica for four years during the renovation so it was exciting to be able to start using it again and praying there. I thought I would put a few pictures on my blog here from that day.

Interior of the basilica after the
renovation completed in March, 1999

Tower Topics heading for spring, 1999 and at the
bottom a picture of the Abbots and Bishops present
for that day (about 50 of them) and of Bishop
Boland celebrating the Mass after the dedication
of the altar.

10th Anniversary of the Basilica Altar Dedication

Basilica and west wing of monastery
March 15, 2009

That is correct. It will be ten years tomorrow, March 16, that we had completed the renewal of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and had the dedication of the new altar. On that date in 1999 the temperature was up in the 70's and we had a large crowd of people here for the dedication. The celebrant was our own Bishop at the time, Raymond Boland, bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Actually tomorrow again it is supposed to be up in the 70's so maybe spring is coming soon.

This weekend, as usual it seems, we had a rather large number of guests. Deacon candidates from the diocese of Des Moines and the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph were here, and also a large group of young people for a TEC retreat. The students were mostly gone for the weekend as it was a longer off campus weekend for them. They were able to leave after classes on Thursday and will return this evening.

I have now had two treatments on my face to try to eliminate the pre-cancer growths that keep showing up there. A dermatologist in St. Joseph is using what is called the Blue Light Treatment to try to get rid of these. They put something (a cream) on your face and then you sit for an hour and a half or so and then they put you under these bright lights for about 16-17 minutes. You come away with a very red face but it is not that painful. I have now had two of these treatments and will have one more on April 1, and that should take care of it. One growth had to be surgically removed as it had already become cancerous. As all of us who are getting older probably know it seems we spend lots of our time going to see doctors.

This afternoon was nice enough for me to go outdoors for a walk so I took my camera and took a few pictures that I will share with you. Nothing spectacular but maybe some of you will enjoy them.

I also wanted to mention that I have a blog especially for the oblates. You can find it at:
http://osboblates.blogspot.com/ or on the Conception Abbey web site: http://conceptionabbey.org/ and then click on "oblates" on the left side of your screen.

Many blessings to each of you as we continue our Lenten journey.

St. Raphael Welcome Center entrance

Railing and handicap lift at ambulatory
entrance to St. Joseph Hall

Death of a confrere

Father Roland Carbone, O.S.B., died last Friday, March 6. Father Roland had spent many year of his monastic life and priesthood out in parishes. However, he had returned to the Abbey about a year ago and took up residence in the infirmary. He was suffering from a very serious heart condition and the doctors did not think he would live for more than a month or two after he came home. However, he lived almost a year after returning to the infirmary. As is our custom here at the Abbey, monks took turns staying with him the last couple days of his life as it became evident he was in the process of dying. I stayed with him all of Thursday night. He died peacefully on Friday morning about 11:20 AM. He had been under the care of hospice and a couple of the hospice nurses were here with him when he died as well as one of our own nurses on the infirmary staff. He was almost 82 years old.

Father Roland
The bottom two pictures up above are of pottery
work done by Father Roland. They were placed
around the altar for his funeral.

Father Roland's wake service will be tonight (Monday) and his funeral and burial will be tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:00 AM.

We had some major electrical problems on part of the campus on Friday evening. There was a short in the wiring or the cable at one of the transformers outside the Printery House. Electricity jumped over to another old cable and eventually went to the building. Fortunately there was no major fire and no one was in the building when this happened. It was in the evening after all the workers had gone home. Some leaves did catch fire outside the building, but the C.M.C. Brothers who live in a building just next door, saw the fire and took a fire extinguisher and put it out. An electric company from St. Joseph worked all day Saturday and again all day on Sunday to correct the problem. During that time neither the Printery House or St. Scholastica Hall (where the C.M.C. Brothers live) had any heat or electricity. They finished the repair work about 9:00 PM Sunday evening.

Last weekend the Seminary Board of Regents met here. They began their meetings on Friday afternoon and concluded by noon on Saturday.

I hope the Lenten season is going well for you. Let us continue to pray for one another.

First Week of Lent

With the first Sunday of Lent we now begin our first full week of Lent. And today is also March 1 so we are getting closer to spring. That is always a special time of the year as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer.

However, it does not feel like spring today. Yesterday we had probably our biggest snow of the winter. It was not a great snow storm but we did have maybe four or so inches of snow and then last night it got down to about 5-6 above zero with a wind chill below zero.

Winter scenes taken February 28, 2009

Even with the snow and winter weather we had a number of groups here for the weekend for retreats or workshops. Groups were here from Maryville, MO and from North Kansas City, MO as well as youth groups from St. Peter Parish at Marshall, MO and from St. Bridget Parish at Pleasant Hill, MO.

Novice Damian, from Christ the King Priory, Schuyler, Nebraska, who was here all last school
year and during most of the summer for his canonical novitiate year, returned to spend the weekend with us. Their monastery has a two year novitiate so he is now in his 2nd year. He is leaving soon for their mother abbey in Germany to spend some time there.

This week from tomorrow (Monday) through Saturday I will be celebrating the Mass for the Sisters at Clyde. They have their Mass at 7:30 AM and then after Mass I usually stay for a short breakfast. This past week I had Mass everyday in our own infirmary so I have not been here for our community Mass for a while.

Let us all pray for one another and continue our Lenten journey toward Easter.