Volume 34, Number 4
Richardton, ND 58652
October 2006
June
Chronicle
Eight of the monks who have served in our
priory in Bogotaá, Colombia, pose for the
camera. Left to right: Bro. John Seiler,
Fr. Sebastian Schmidt, Fr. Geral Ruelle,
Fr. Philip Vanderlin, Fr. John Odermann,
Fr. Lawrence wagner, Fr. Denis Fournier,
and Fr. Valerian Odermann.
Fr. Valerian combined business with pleasure during the first weeks of June when he drove to Mother of God Monastery, Watertown, SD, to give the Sisters a retreat. Then he continued down to North Platte, NE, for a visit to his sister and her family. Watertown is not near Richardton (about 400 miles), but we are very familiar with those Sisters. After all, they taught at St. Mary’s School here in Richardton for many years. As for Valerian, his idea of a vacation is pretty strenuous.


Bro. Pius has suffered from arthritis for many years, but doesn’t take it lying down. Instead, he moves up and down the halls on his walker and crutches, keeping his body limber. Lately he has taken to picking bits of stuff off the floor to stretch his back and legs. Well, one day he found a squashed pea, and then another one and another. What was going on? The Case of the Squashed Peas! Turns out that somebody was using a pack of frozen peas for a cold pack—and they got away.

Bro. Anthony was busy during the middle weeks of June at Camp ReCreation here in Richardton. He is on the board of directors of this camp for disadvantaged citizens which meets at Richardton High School. This year some of the events were held here at the monastery, in the north lounge below the cafeteria. During its first 20 or so years, the Camp was centered at the Abbey so it is good to see some of the monks still involved in its activities.

The White House has been torn down! No, not the one in Washington but the slightly smaller one east of the Abbey. This was once a convent for our cooking Sisters, and then it was a guest house for our friends and other groups. It was as comfortable as an old shoe, but unfortunately it lacked even the basic safety features so it could not be economically insured. We moved out of it two years ago thinking that a Dickinson party would move it up there for further occupancy. But finally it was torn down by the Dakota Construction Company of Dickinson, in exchange for the lumber. It leaves an ugly hole in our landscape that we will have to fill.



July
Chronicle


The high point of July and of the summer hereabouts occurred on the 15th. On that Saturday, which featured intense heat, we auctioned off a lot of the chattels that have been accumulating around here for years and years. A couple of hundred people descended on the place and bought up most of the stuff we put out at auction. There was so much material that some of it was on display in front of the gym and the rest was sold in the North Lounge of the cafeteria building.

If we didn’t know it before, we know now that an auction takes a great deal of preparatory work. Under the guidance of CMT auctioneers of Richardton, the monks spent weeks and months locating and getting things into order for the great day. Fr. James was in charge of the whole operation, and he deserves to take the rest of the summer off. He won’t. Bro. Anthony was his main assistant, but Brothers Michael, Aelred and Jacob did a lot of the hauling. Finally, on the last day before the auction, an all-points bulletin from the Abbot directed every able-bodied man-jack to the gym for the final push.


Fr. Francis was home for his vacation from South America this July. It is a special year for him, since this is his fiftieth jubilee of profession. He celebrated with the community in Bogota, but he still got in on a golden jubilee in the U.S.A. This is also the fiftieth anniversary of his blood sister, Sr. Matthew Wehri, of Sacred Heart Monastery, Yankton, SD. So Francis drove down there with Fr. Thomas, a close friend of Sr. Matthew.


On Sunday, July 30, a delegation of monks headed for St. Anthony’s Mission at Mandaree for a special event. That afternoon, Bishop Paul Zipfel dedicated the new parish church, with Abbot Brian functioning as one of the liturgical ministers and Bro. Bertrand chanting the Litany of the Saints. For many years the pastor, Fr. Stephen, has been working toward this new edifice and finally it has become a reality. The new church is built like an Indian earth lodge. It is a low dome set into the side of the hill, with soil covering most of the wall. The inside has wooden framing exactly like an earth lodge. The Stations of the Cross were executed by our confrere, Fr. John, who ministered at Mandaree for some years as a young priest.
A customer at the recent Open House makes up her mind as Fr. James waits to take her order.

Photo: Fr. James Kilzer

You can see 20 miles out our dining room window. Her Bro. Elias (right) points out a distant feature to Fr. Victor.












Photo: Br. Aelred Reid
Bishop Paul Zipfel of Bismarck is shown here consecrating the altar of St. Anthony's Church, Mandaree. Several monks attended the blessing of this church, which is served by our confrere, Fr. Stephen Kranz. The church is built in a Native American style.

August
Chronicle

On August 16, Bro. Anthony departed for St. Meinrad, Indiana, where he will begin seminary training. More precisely, this will be a year of pre-theology, which consists mostly of courses in philosophy. It has been quite a long time since we had a student at St. Meinrad (Fr. Thomas in the early -90s), so it is good to reestablish contact. Of course, Fr. Damian continues to teach Scripture in that school of theology. He spent July with us as is his wont. There wasn’t much hay for him to bale, but he baled it anyway.


Lately Abbot Brian has been busy writing books. He has produced a study of the seven deadly sins entitled The Seven Evil Servants. Fr. Abbot obtained a degree in spirituality at Duquesne University many years ago, and now he finally has a little time to develop some of his thoughts in book form. Of course, the book is useful to us monks, since we are all sinners. But it is written in an accessible style that anyone can grasp.

The new work is a large-format offering of 32 pages. It sells for $8.00, and may be obtained by writing to Abbey Press, P.O. Box A, Richardton, ND 58652. Add $2.00 for postage.


This has turned out to be a truly desert-like summer, with virtually no rain and day after day of torrid heat. We had a long string of days in the 90s during July. That is nothing in the air-conditioned parts of this country, but up here we take what comes. Needless to say, crops were ranged from bad to worse. Our hay crop was about one-third of normal, and the pastures were in tough shape from the first of July onward. We had no more than five inches of rain from January 1 to July 15—less than half of normal. All of this spells DROUGHT.


Br. Aelred has been launching out into the retreat ministry lately. During the week of August 22-24, he led the boys of the North Dakota Youth Corrcevional Center in a spiritual program. Aelred has been working with these boys for some years now, and groups of them have been making occasional visits to the monastery. Fr. Julian has said Mass at the Center for many years.

Editor: Terrence Kardong, OSB
Assumption Abbey Newsletter
PO Box A, Richardton, ND 58652
www.assumptionabbey.com