Abbey News
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Labor Day
We'll be 'celebrating' Labor Day with a nod to both our Benedictine and American traditions by keeping it as a half holiday, that is regular work in the morning and optional work in the afternoon.
General Chapter
Tuesday, September 2nd, will mark the opening of the Order's General Chapter which will remain in session until September 23rd. Each meeting of the Abbots and Abbesses in General Chapter is important for the Order and the Church but this one will be especially so. Our Abbot General, Dom Bernardo Olivera, after eighteen years in office, will submit his resignation which, it is presumed, will be accepted by the Chapter. This will be followed by an election of his successor, something we have a vested interest in and will be watching closely.
It has been customary for Dom Bernardo to write a circular letter to all members of the Order on the feast of our Founders, January 26th. His final letter as Abbot General can be found on the Order's web page at Circular Letter 2008. In it he intends to: . . .share with you what has remained constant in my monastic identity and what has become a characteristic of my identity as a person.
On Tuesday we'll join all the houses of the Order celebrating a Mass of the Holy Spirit asking the Holy Spirit to guide and direct all the deliberations and decisions of the Chapter.
Retreatants Treat
Anyone on retreat with us these past two weeks had a special 'treat'. Each time they left the retreat house for the Abbey they would be greeted by the smiling field of sunflowers across the street. But their sunny glory is fading now as the flowers mature and the seeds develop. Sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world).
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