Mount Saviour Monastery
May 2004
Dear Friend of Mount Saviour,
Dedication Day this year will be Sunday, August 15th.
It was 51 years ago on this day that Bishop James Kearney blessed
our Chapel dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Peace. 25 years ago
on this day, Bishop Matthew Clark consecrated the enlarged Chapel
for worship. It is always a special joy when the Sunday for Dedication
Day falls on this Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Mass at 10 AM will
be followed by a Brunch and music.
This is certainly a time of great crisis for our poor world and the poor
of our world. We can be so taken up with the details of the disasters
that we fail to understand the Scriptures and the power of God. It is
a time of great testing of our faith and hope in God and in ourselves.
We have the mind of Christ, as St. Paul says, and that means we not merely
imitate him in his suffering and resurrection, but that we participate in
them and share his Spirit. We tend to forget the beginning of the Church
when the Holy Spirit descended on 120 people at the first Pentecost.
Most of our churches have more than 120 people at every Mass on Sundays.
Each Mass the same Holy Spirit descends on us to consecrate the gifts of bread
and wine and unite us with the crucified and risen Jesus and one another.
The Good News or Gospel is that nothing can separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the promise of God to us and to every
human being!
News from the garden is not good. Voles, who eat their body
weight daily, have eaten all of our broccoli and much of the other greens.
It will be back to peanut butter this summer! Our lamb crop is over
225 and on Good Friday a donkey was born. His name is Friday but it
is too soon to know whether to add Good or Bad to his name. We are concerned
that Br. James Cronen will need a knee operation in June. His 50th
Anniversary of ordination will be at the end of May and his family is planning
a small reception here. We are sorry we can’t have an open invitation
but I know he will appreciate your prayerful good wishes.
The Second Damasus Winzen Memorial Lecture will be given by Fr. Gerard
Sloyan, Sunday June 26 at 4 PM in St Joseph’s Guest House. Fr. Sloyan
is an outstanding teacher, the author of many theological books and articles
on Christology and Liturgy. He was a student of Fr. Damasus and they
labored together in the Liturgical Movement before the founding of Mt. Saviour.
Rev. Martin Shannon, an Episcopal priest of the Company of Jesus, completed,
with distinction, a doctoral thesis at Catholic University on Fr. Damasus’s
role in the Liturgical renewal in Europe and the States. We are encouraging
him to have it published as soon as possible.
There is much more to tell and so little space in which to tell it.
I do want to ask your prayers and financial help, if possible, for some projects
that are needed.
The East and West monastery buildings haven’t had the wood sections stained
or the buildings painted for over 20 years and the wood is starting to disintegrate
in several areas. There is some needed caulking also. That will
be around $22,000.
As recent guests will recognize, the small cottages and St. Peter’s Guest
House need refurbishing. We plan to keep this
under $10,000.
Other jobs are needed but not urgent so we intend to wait until next year.
Please join us on August 15th in thanking God for past blessings, asking
forgiveness for when we have not been a blessing and asking Mary, as
Queen of Peace, that we all may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
In Xto,
Fr. Martin