ASSUMPTION
ABBEY

 

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JANUARY
CHRONICLE

 

Bro. Placid is a great traveler, who loves to go on trips to see his multitude of relatives around the world. He has taken some great vacations. But this year our man decided to do things a bit different—he stayed in his room! What’s that you say? His room? What on earth was he doing in there? Well, he is writing another book. This time the subject is his home parish, St. Anthony’s. That rural church, which has been closed for many years now, was located about 15 miles south of Napoleon, ND. Placid says he has so much material, he does not know what to leave out.

 

We had a jolt on January 11 when the fire alarms went off during Vespers. The shrieking siren and flashing lights brought the chanting to a halt for a few seconds. Thank God that the problem was not a fire, but a malfunctioning sprinkler system. We installed this system about ten years ago, and it has never been used. In fact, unlike many other abbeys, we have never suffered a major fire here. Years ago we prayed a long litany every day to ask God for fire protection. We stopped praying that prayer about 40 years ago, but God continues to watch over us.

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This has been a hard winter. We thought last winter was pretty awful, but this one is shaping up to be just as bad. We have huge piles of snow that never melts, and now we have power outages. Since we get very little rain up here in the winter, we rarely get ice storms. But in the period around January 25 we got a lot of freezing fog. At first it did not seem too dangerous, but eventually it started to bring down the power poles. At least 6,000 homes were without power, and some for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, our new generator never once kicked in because our power never went off. Go figure!

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Another item about Bro. Placid. He announced that this month is his 50th anniversary on the Abbey farm. When Abbot Ignatius asked him in 1960 if he would like to work down there, he said “No.” But the Abbot said: “Oh, all the young guys like to drive around on tractors, so you’ll like it.” Although Placid grew up on a farm, he says that he actually knew nothing about farming when he came here. He says he has learned all he knows from the local farmers. Of course, he also likes to socialize.

 

 

FEBRUARY
CHRONICLE

 

The local boys’ basketball team, the Richardton-Taylor Raiders, is having a tough season. Normally, they have a good team, but this year they have not won a single game. Perhaps the boys are thinking that they are the worst team in the world, or at least in the history of Richardton. But the 1954 Abbey Cubs took a back seat to no one when it came to incompetence. We did win a couple of games, but I remember losing once to Beach 82-28. In that game, as in many others, it was strictly men versus boys, and we were not the men.

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The Abbey now has a vocations committee. We never had one before, at least in living memory, but now the situation seems to call for one. We have not had a novice in many years, and so we are concerned. Abbot Brian has appointed Bro. Michael head of this committee, and he has assembled an all-star cast: Fr. Patrick, Fr. Sebastian, Bro. Bertrand, Fr. Benedict and Bro. Jacob. Of course, God sends vocations, but the committee wants to see what it can do to prepare the ground.      

This committee is backed up by a new lay advisory board, which met for a supper meeting on February 11. The members of this board are: Bonnie Staiger (Bismarck), Rick and Jen Padilla (Dickinson), Jeff Vranna (Dickinson), Mark Rummel (Richardton), Chris Hartze (Bismarck) and Marlo Nelson (Dickinson). Since the vocation problem affects the whole church, we are grateful to these friends for agreeing to think about it and advise us accordingly.

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Abbot Brian attended the annual winter retreat of abbots at Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, CA, February 5-9. The speaker this year was Dr. Michael Downey, who gave a series of lucid talks on the Trinity. But he knows the abbots are practical men, so he made sure to relate this lofty spiritual doctrine to everyday monastic life.  

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On February 12, Bro. Victor woke up and found himself 90 years old. His confreres and friends threw him a big party on February 14, with plenty of cake and ice cream. All things considered, Bro. Victor has probably spent more years living at Assumption Abbey than any other monk in its history. Ad multos annos!                                           

 

Bro. Michael (left) and Bro. Basil engage in one of our favorite pastimes, namely, folding and inserting our development letters. Actually, Michael is exceptionally happy because he is the boss.

 

The Young and the Old. Bro. Jacob (left) is pictured with Br. Victor at a picnic some years ago. Victor recently celebrated his 90th birthday.