spiritual father
St. Valentine’s Day in a Monastery
Today I e-mailed a little humorous greeting to some of my friends, saying, “Happy Valentine’s Day, or as we call it in the monastery, ‘Friday.’” Actually, today the Church celebrates the memorial of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, two 9th century brothers born in Thessalonica. Both were ordained priests and lived in a monastery, but were…
All Winter Long
Snow fell briefly before noon yesterday. The sun broke through long enough to melt the little that had accumulated on the sidewalks. And, a few pictures taken from the highway (don’t worry, I wasn’t the one driving).
Conception Seminary Basketball Featured on KQ2 News
A few weeks ago a reporter from KQ2 News in St. Joseph, Missouri came to Conception Abbey and Seminary College to film Conception Seminary College’s basketball team. The footage was edited to become a 3-part series focusing on Skip Shear (Director of Wellness at Conception Seminary) and his role with CSC athletics. The Documentary is…
The Monks Visit their Neighbors
Every year on the Feast of St. Scholastica, the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration invite the monks over to their monastery for Evening Prayer and supper. St. Scholastica is the sister of St. Benedict. It is an event that we always look forward to. The monks arrived around 5:00pm on another cold winter day. Below:…
Serve one another
Yesterday morning, snow flurries blew around in the cloudy sky, as Br. Jacob, Br. Anselm, Postulant Eric, and I traveled to St. Joseph, Missouri. We began our day’s work by helping out at the Open Door Food Kitchen in downtown St. Joseph. We visited with the men and women who came inside to escape the cold…
The Unconquered Snow
It was yóu who fíxed the bóunds of the éarth, yóu who máde both súmmer and wínter. -Psalm 74:17 The snow prevented many people from coming into work yesterday. Br. Blaise, our “weather-monk”, measures the temperature, snowfall, and precipitation daily. It was difficult to predict accurately how much snow there was on Tuesday due to…
Winter Storm Nika
Snow began to fall gently around 11:30am this morning, and it has not stopped as we move into the evening. Many of the schools in the local area, including Northwest Missouri State, were cancelled even last night as they anticipated the storm. Somewhere between 2-4 inches of snow have fallen, making the roads pretty treacherous…
St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr
Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God free you from illness of the throat and from any other sort of ill. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When I was a junior in high school, I took St. Blaise as my Confirmation…
The Weekend brings us into February
Today we celebrated the Presentation of the Lord with a candle procession at the beginning of Mass. We had about 20 Benedictine Prioresses from all over the United States joining us for Mass, lunch, and Day Prayer. I visited and ate lunch with a few of the Sisters in our guest refectory and enjoyed a…