Mount Saviour Monastery

July News:
Brother Dominic Savio, a Vietnamese Cistercian monk who has resided with us for over seven years while furthering his schooling left on the 1st to begin a cross country car trip to reunite with his brothers at their two monasteries in Missouri and California. His community had no monasteries in the United States when he initially came to Mount Saviour. Traveling with him is his monastic confrere Brother John of the Cross who we are sponsoring as we did Brother Savio. He will return to us in August as he resumes studies at Christ the King Seminary in Buffalo. It will be up to Brother Savio's Abbot and community in Vietnam to decide how Br. Savio can best serve his community in the future. Please keep both of them in prayer.
   

On Independence Day the community celebrated with our 2nd annual outdoor Mass followed by a picnic. The weather cooperated for the forty or so people in attendance. Brother Mark and a guest spent a few days painting one of our hermitages. If you come across a freshly painted blazing blue building in the midst of the woods that resembles a Tiki Bar you'll know you've arrived.
 

 

Chester, an Observer from the Philippines, arrived on the 10th. He will live with the brothers for a month while he discerns a possible vocation with the community. Please remember him in prayer also. On the 14th Barbara Sekella who manages our bookshop and her husband Curran, enjoyed a festive celebration of the 50th anniversary of their wedding at the monastery.

Brother Bruno along with other farmers in our area has been trying to complete the haying between frequent rain showers. On the 15th he reached the number of haystacks needed to get the sheep through the winter. The stacks, however, still need to be transported from field to barn which last year did not happen until the 2nd week of December. That was when the fields finally firmed up enough to allow equipment into them. Five days later Brother Bruno received word of his older brother Frank's death in Utah. Please pray for Frank and the family.

COMING EVENTS:
August 11th: Dedication Day. Mass 10:00 a.m. Mass is immediately followed by brunch in the monastic refectory to which everyone is invited. At 12 Noon there will be a free performance by Grammy Award Winning Artist Rhonda Larson in our chapel. For more information about Rhonda, please visit her website http://www.rhondalarson.com

OCTOBER 6th: A talk by Sr. Mary Donald Corcoran in Saint Joseph's lounge after Mass.

October 17-20: Oblate Retreat Weekend