Friday, December 30, 2011

Mary Christ-Mass (octave)

It has been a couple of months (Oct 21) since my last update so this is long overdue!

Between my work at Benedictine College (Masses, confessions, spiritual direction, occasional teaching [Apologetics, RCIA, BC sub], etc.) and the Abbey Development Office (Capital Campaign), things have been humming!

Significant happenings:

1. Curtis Martin (who was recently appointed to the Vatican advisory board on the New Evangelization) visited our campus (always good to see him even if I have to hear about LSU)

2. I got to preach for the feast of one of my favorite saints while at EWTN (http://www.youtube.com/user/EWTN#p/search/0/2XYHv7nm7RI) with Sarah Swafford who was the guest for the Life on the Rock episode which aired on December 15th (http://www.youtube.com/user/EWTN#p/search/0/S_DaY5XcPE8). Check out Sarah's episode - it was fantastic!!

3. I am on a BC search committee for a new professor of Youth Ministry/Catechetics. It has been interesting to see the process... and the good men seeking the position!

4. I made many trips for the Capital Campaign. I flew to: DC/Maryland, San Antonio, Denver and Dallas (in one month) and I drove all around Missouri and Kansas. I got to see some good friends along the way: Fr. Ed Hathaway (my classmate) in Arlington, VA, the Alexanders in San Antonio, Craig and Melissa Miller and tons of FOCUS personnel in Denver and the Cory family in Dallas! And I got to make some new friends!!

5. I had the blessing of attending the Solemn Profession (into the Religious Order of: Sisters in Jesus the Lord, www.cjd.cc/) of Sr. Catherine Marie of the Crucified Lord of Love, CJD. I have known her for about 10-12 years, since her first visit to Alabama with some of her relatives whom I know.

6. We had 3 novices enter our monastery on December 7th (which is great news, of course)!! They took the names: Br. Luke (formerly Jeff) Turner, Br. Timothy (formerly Cameron) McMillan and Br. Victor (formerly Branson) Stephens. More are thinking about it - please keep them in your prayers!!

7. I made a short home visit in mid-Dec and it was great to see my family (though I did not have enough time to see everyone I would like to have seen).

8. One of our BC students though up the idea of sponsoring a Bowl-a-thon to support the Abbey's Capital Campaign. You will hear more on that in the future!!

Many more things going on, but those are some of the ones I can think of right now. Maybe I should update my blog more often... or NOT!

I hope and pray that God continues to pour out his manifold blessings upon each of you, now and through out the coming year!

In Christ, our newborn King,
Fr. Justin Damien Dean. OSB

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