1. We had our first monastic death since I entered the monastery. Br. Robert Heiman passed away at 9:30 AM. He was a wonderful, hard working brother who has spent 52 of his 72 years in the monastery. The tolling of the bell (one ring for every year of his life) was chilling. ("Ask not for whom the bell tolls".)
2. The funeral of one of my dear parishioners from Queen of Mercy (Carl Bruton) took place the same morning (at 9:00 AM). Carl was sick and fought hard for many months, assisted by his loving family and friends, but finally was relieved of his earthly struggle by our merciful Lord.
3. My mother entered an assisted living facility that afternoon. Her memory is starting to fail and her health is declining. After a life of service to her family and others (such as at the "City of St. Jude"), she is now getting waited on and served by others. She likes her new surroundings and is blessed to have my brothers, sister-in-law and her grandchildren in the area and visiting often. I talk to her most days and am looking forward to seeing her when I get my home visit in December. Please keep her in your prayers...
4. On Thursday, January 14th, I hit the 5 month mark in the monastery. Not a huge mile marker in itself, but it was the Vegas over/under line on my stay in the monastery (set by a certain priest in Montgomery[who will remain nameless but his initials are FrDC!]). So the "over" win that bet!!
That's all for now... keep me in your prayers and be assured of mine for all of you!
God bless,
FrJD
