One Week

In just one week the new seminarians will be arriving at Conception Seminary College.  Those monks directly (and indirectly) involved with their formation are making preparations during these last days.

Just this morning I sat in on a meeting planning the arrival of the freshmen class, which I will oversee this year.  We have 26 freshmen!  I will be making room assignments over the next 24 hours.

In the meantime, we continue to have beautiful weather, with highs in the low to mid-80s.  Hopefully this trend of nice white clouds will continue as we welcome the seminarians and their family as they move in.


These are exciting days for the monastic community as our monastery continues to attract new members.  Praise God!  On Sunday we received Nicholas Marie as a postulant.  Postulant Nicholas is on silent retreat these days with Postulant Adam Haake and Novice Eric Kral.  Postulant Adam will enter the novitiate on August 14 and Novice Eric will profess simple vows on August 15.  It is always a joyful occasion for the community to celebrate these ceremonies.In other news, I acquired a new board game for the monks to play during recreation periods.  I am a big fan of card and board games and Tuesday evening, Br. Etienne, Br. Anselm, and I played Pandemic for the first time.  Unlike most competitive board games, this is a cooperative board game where 2-4 players join together to “save humanity” from a worldwide epidemic.  We played two times on Tuesday evening as we learned the rules.  Our verdict:  It is a really fun game and adds a new twist to board games by playing cooperatively.  I figured that a game like this would either foster community life or drive us far apart.  The former has been true thus far!  We look forward to playing again sometime soon.  It seems that the monks are always trying to save humanity from destruction.
  

Br. Etienne and I went for a 15 mile bike ride after Compline the other evening.  He (and his impressive beard) are pictured as the sun begins to set.
Br. Placid finished placing the brick around the large tree in the St. Joseph-St. Michael plaza. The inside is now filled with rocks and plants and looks very nice.  There has been a lot of work done on campus this summer, and still more to do.

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