Abbey News
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Mission Sunday
Although we try to be mindful of missionaries frequently throughout the year the Church annually sets aside Mission Sunday to give us the opportunity to become more aware of the sacrifices they make and to pay special attention to them in prayer and the giving of alms for their work. Along with our special prayers for them today we will take up a collection after Mass for the missions, the only time in the year when we have a collection.
West Coast Visitor
 We have a visitor with us over the weekend, Fr. Paul Mark, from our monastery of Vina in California. He is currently Vocation Director and Novice Director for his community and has recently accepted an invitation to become a member of the AIM USA Board of Trustees. He is on his way to a meeting of AIM USA in Erie, PA this week.
He spoke to us in chapter this morning bringing us up to date on the goings on in his community, our youngest sister house. Looming on their horizon is the upcoming resignation of Dom Thomas their Abbot for 38 years as he reaches his seventy-fifty birthday.
AIM USA is described as an organization composed of 168 communities of men and women in the United States and Canada who follow the Rule of Benedict and over 300 English-speaking monasteries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It provides spiritual, educational, formation and building assistance to monasteries in developing countries to enable them to be centers of life for others.
Cistercian Bishop
A rarity in the church hierarchy is a Cistercian Bishop although there have been several down through the centuries. The 21st century is no exception now with the appointment by Pope Benedict on October 18, 2008 of Dom Yvon-Joseph Moreau, OCSO Abbot of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Lake in Canada (more commonly known as Oka) as bishop of Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, Quebec Canada. While we congratulate him on his appointment we realize the sacrifice the community is called upon to make in losing him. He has been their Abbot for the past eighteen years.
Vocation Day at Franciscan University
This Friday, October 24th, the Franciscan University at Steubenville, Ohio will hold its annual vocation day, reputed to be one of the largest vocation fairs in the country. We've been participating for the past several years and we will do so again this year. Fr. Gerard and myself will drive to Steubenville by way of Latrobe, PA where we will stay Thursday and Friday nights giving us the opportunity of visiting with our Br. Isaac who is attending St. Vincent Seminary there. There's a write up in the Franciscan University paper about the affair on Vocations Awareness Page complete with a photo of Fr. John and myself stumping for vocations.
It is unlikely there will be an Abbey News update next Sunday due to lack of time.
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