At a small ceremony before Evening Prayer last night (August 14), I entered the postulancy (with 2 young men - Chris & Vincent) at St. Benedict's Abbey. We were presented by the Vocation Director (Fr. James Albers, who is also the Prior [2nd in charge of the abbey]) to the Abbot, who prayed for us, blessed us and accepted us into the postulancy.
Today (Saturday, August 15), at the Mass for the solemnity of the Assumption, Br. Simon Baker completed his novitiate and made his first vows to the monastic life. It was my first experience of witnessing such a ceremony. It was very beautiful and powerful.
These 2 occurrences will be published in our "Kansas Monks" magazine and will probably be online (www.kansasmonks.org) in the not too distant future.
We will have our first meeting as postulants this Sunday. I am sure that it will be very informative.
God bless you all,
Fr. James Dean
Congrats!
ReplyDeleteWill you be able to post pictures of the Abby and it's surroundings?
Do they refer to you as Father Dean or do they call you something else?
What was your first chore?
Do they have cows?