Mount Saviour Monastery

September 2023 News:
Michael, who has been approved to begin Postulancy in the near future, visited from the 1st to 4th and then again for Brother Antonio's funeral.
Brother Antonio's body received a final blessing before cremation on the 5th.
The brothers were pleased that the Abbot President of the Beuron Congregation was able to pay us a brief visit on the 8th and 9th. Abbot Franziscus is a previous monk of Maria Laach in Germany, the monastery where Father Damasus began his monastic journey. The funeral Mass and burial of Brother Antonio took place on the 9th with many of his relatives present. Candles he had made that surrounded his cremains before burial were given to the family. After a reception at Saint Joseph's Guesthouse, the family ate the midday meal with the community before returning home.
On the 11th the community decided to seek a lighting specialist to improve the lighting in our chapel. Updating is especially called for in the choir stalls. Brother John visited Saint Mary's Monastery in Petersham, MA, from the 18th ' 22nd as part of a Visitation Team for our Province. Every monastery in our Province undergoes a Visitation every three years. We meet individually with each brother, listen and ask questions, then reflect back to the community by way of a written report which goes to our Abbot President, what we have heard and observed. The overall purpose of monastic visitations is to help communities to grow in self-understanding, to recognize and acknowledge their particular strengths and weaknesses, to identify what should be corrected or eliminated in their life, to help them solve their present problems, and to articulate the needs that should form their agenda of items for continuing examination.

Fall arrived on the 22nd. Our heating system was put into action the following rainy day with high temperatures only in the 50's.
On the 29th the community had a festive celebration with Brother Michael on his name's day, St. Michael and the Archangels. Nazareth College students from near Rochester also arrived that day for a weekend retreat.