Monastic Road Trip

On Thursday afternoon, two seminarians and I traveled to Ames, Iowa, on the campus of Iowa State University, to have Mass at the St. Thomas Aquinas Student Center.  I celebrated and preached at their Thursday Night Liturgy.  It was nice to see a good turnout even in the midst of the bitterly cold weather.  The students were an impressive bunch, actively participating and singing during Mass.  I preached about Benedictine monastic life and invited the students to come and visit the Abbey.  I really enjoyed the visit.  Fr. Jon Seda does some fine work at the parish and student center, and we are grateful for his hospitality.

We hit the road at 9:00am this morning, driving to St. Benedict’s Abbey in Benet Lake, Wisconsin- a daughter house of Conception Abbey.  It was great to finally set foot on the grounds after hearing about it for so long.  While we did set foot outside, the frigid Wisconsin air and the strong wins quickly blew us indoors for warmer weather.  Fr. Donald Gibbs, the Prior Administrator, gave us a tour.  We are staying at St. Benedict’s Abbey as we cheer on our Conception Seminary Basketball Team at the Mundelein Seminary Basketball Tournament.

Conception played its first game at 5:30pm against Josephinum.  CSC was down early, but rallied for a commanding 38-23 point victory.  Its second game of the night was at 8:00pm, where CSC played St. Joseph’s Seminary from St. Benedict, Louisiana.  Our team took an early lead and played consistently, winning 31-18.

There are more games tomorrow, so we are looking forward to cheering on our seminarians.  They have practiced hard for months, and have looked impressive on the court.  Keep up the good work!

Below:  Conception Seminary “Sons of Thunder” in the light blue jerseys

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