On
June 18th, our community played host to a long-time friend
of our
Prior Dan Homan and Fr. Mike Green.Basilian priest, Gordon Walker, is a classmate of theirs from
the
seminary in the University
of Toronto.The three men not only studied together, but
also enjoyed playing hockey on a regular basis.While Fr. Dan and Fr. Mike have for the most part remained here
at St.
Benedict's, Fr. Gordon's assignments have taken him across Canada,
from
parishes
in
Toronto
to British Columbia,
at
times
a
parish
priest and at others a high school teacher.His periodic visits have been occasions for
these old friends to "catch up" and recall favorite memories.The following Thursday, Father returned to
Canada to resume his ministry.We pray
that Fr. Gordon's stay with us has been a blessing to him and through
his
friendship with our community the Benedictine spirit may continue to
enrich his
life.
6/23/09
Community's Annual Retreat
Beginning
Sunday evening, June 14, our community at St. Benedict Monastery
started its
annual retreat.This five-day period of
prayer afforded the monks an opportunity to step away from their
ordinary
routines, take time to focus more attentively on prayer and become
refreshed
through the Lord’s abiding presence in their lives.Through conferences, daily holy hour and
greater observance of silence, the normally scheduled time for
community
liturgies was enriched.When the retreat
ended on Friday, the monks resumed their “regular” schedules with the
added
inspiration and motivation from the retreat experience.
6/09/09
European
Travelogue Part II
Fr. John
Martin recently returned from a
thirteen day vacation in Europe.Here is the second of the two parts of his
“travelogue”.
From
our
monastery
in Giulianova, Fr. John Martin and his
sister, Margaret, returned to Rome
for a few more days.Margaret was
“winding down” her trip – she had actually come to Italy
a week before and was now
scheduled to return to the States on May 15.So Father and his sister finished their time together with a
series of
little jaunts around the city: the Piazza of St. Peter’s Basilica at
night, the
Trevi Fountain, dinner at a Chinese restaurant (which Fr. John Martin
reports
was very good!) and an energetic performance of operatic arias in a
little
church near the train station.
Most
of
the
remainder of Fr. John Martin’s stay in Europe
was spent on a pilgrimage to the ecumenical
monastic community at Taizé,
France. Visitors come to Taizé from all over. Many are Catholic; others embrace a variety of
Christian traditions. Some speak English as their primary language;
many more
speak it as a second language. Yet Fr.
John Martin found that neither the language nor denominational
differences got
in the way of the tremendous openness of people to one another as
brothers and
sisters in Christ.Father commented,
“During the three days in Taizé, we prayed together, worked
together and shared
about our faith and life experiences. And
in a very short time our mutual respect
and love helped us to develop a sense of what it means to be part of
one human
family.”Fr. John Martin returned safely
to the States on May 21.
6/02/09
Celebrating Anniversaries of Service
This
past
Tuesday,
May
26, the Archdiocese of Detroit hosted
a special Jubilarian Mass for priests observing 25, 40, 50, 60 and more
years
of ordination.In attendance was our own
Fr. Dan Homan, who, on June 7 of this year, celebrates 40 years of
priestly
service.(Fr. Dan has often observed
that he became a priest “the same year they put a man on the moon”,
1969)
ast weekend our community at St. Benedict Monastery was
among the more than 140,000 residents of Southeastern
Michigan left without electrical power due to violent
storms which
swept through the area.The inclement
weather arose suddenly on the afternoon of Saturday, April 25, with
rain and
wind gusts that knocked down trees and electrical wires.The winds were so strong that just north of
the town of Oxford
a line of eight electrical poles all fell over like dominoes!
The
morning
Eucharist
at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral was
presided over by Archbishop Allen Vigneron and attended by at least 100
priests, many of whom were among the jubilarians.The
liturgy
featured
beautiful
music and a message
of gratitude and encouragement from Archbishop Vigneron.A delicious lunch followed at Sacred Heart
Seminary which gave everyone an opportunity to reconnect with fellow
priests
and classmates.
The loss of power affected both the monks and
the ninety
young people and their leaders who were scheduled to make retreats at
our
Subiaco Retreat House that weekend.The
Sunday community Mass went on, though without the usual organ
accompaniment.But the youth retreats had
to be cut short,
principally due to the lack of water supply caused when power was cut
to the
water pump.
Despite
the
inconvenience,
the
community is thankful that
electricity was restored in a relatively short period of time and that
no one
at the monastery or in the area was injured.
However, several community members did express interest in considering
the purchase of a generator in order to keep things running smoothly in
the
future!
European Travelogue Part I
Our Fr. John Martin recently returned from a
thirteen day
vacation in Europe.He arrived on May 9 and spent the first part
of the trip in Italy
with his sister, Margaret.They stayed
for several days at Santo Stefano, our Curia house in Rome and enjoyed
the hospitality of Abbot
Michael Kelly and his counselors.While
there they visited several of the great churches and beautiful piazzas.The trip to the Basilica of St. Paul
“Outside the Walls” was especially
noteworthy in this year dedicated to the great “Apostle to the
Gentiles”.This being his third time in
Rome Fr. John
Martin observed that “the city quickly feels like home”.
A
bus
ride
to the Adriatic coast brought Fr. John and his
sister to the “Monastero Santo Volto” or “Holy Face Monastery”, our
Sylvestrine
community in the seaside town of Giulianova.It
is
a
small
and very friendly community,
and Prior Leonardo Bux and the monks were very gracious hosts.In addition to enjoying some quiet time in
the monastery, Fr. John Martin and his sister experienced the beautiful
beach
at Giulianova and traveled with Fr. Carlo Farinelli to the popular
shrine of San Gabriel
and the medieval
city of Teramo.Parts of the region were impacted by a recent
earthquake and so the monks have been hosting a number of refugees in
the
monastery guesthouse.
