11 months...

11 months ago today (Aug 14, 2009) I entered the Postulancy here at St. Benedict's Abbey. On December 7th I entered the Novitiate. I am doing well... as I anticipate making first vows and becoming a junior monk on December 8th - less than 5 months away!

Monthly update:

1. I actually remembered (with a little help from their godmother) my twin goddaughters birthdays on the day!! One more to go next week and I'm homefree for another year!!

2. We were the site of the LifeTeen Leadership Conference in late June/early July. There were about 450 first-class teens here (plus chaperones). They received some excellent talks and seemed to enjoy themselves very much. It was also a lift to many of the monks - seeing the vibrant faith of these youngsters!

3. A couple of visitors over the past month - Fr. Jack Riley (former classmate from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philly) spent a night as he passed through on his way to join the staff at the Augustine Institute in Denver (an excellent Catholic grad school!) and Julie & Greg Alexander (of Marriage Works in Christ fame) made their 2nd stopover and shared lunch with the monks (afterward we got a little time together before they had to move on toward their home in San Antonio).

4. Speaking of my alma mater in Philly, a classmate of mine, Fr. Shaun Mahoney, was recently named rector of that venerable institution! That was fantastic news - to me, if not to him! Please pray for him in this most important assignment!

5. We celebrated the Feast of St. Benedict last Sunday (July 11th) with some extra festivities - meaning "I ate more food than I needed"!

6. This weekend is the annual Amelia Earhart Festival in Atchison (her hometown). I have heard that our small town of 10,000 will balloon to about 50,000 for the festivities. The fireworks show on Friday night is one of the highlights. I hear that we watch it from on top of one of our buildings and I look forward to seeing it.

7. And finally, mom is holding steady. I talk to her regularly and look forward to seeing her when I get my home visit in December.

That is about it from here. Keep me in your prayers and be assured of mine for you!!

God bless,

FrJDD

Passing of Brother Martin

Just a short note to say that our oldest monk passed away Sunday morning at about 2:30 AM. His name was Br. Martin Burkhard. He turned 94 years old less than a month ago and was a very kind hearted man. Please pray for the repose of his soul and all who will miss him (here and elsewhere).

God bless,

FrJDD

Update....

Well, I have been here at St. Benedict's Abbey for over 10 months now and passed the 1/2 point of the Novitiate on June 8th!

Some things which have happened since my last update (in late April):

1. Thanks for the prayers for my mom. As I stated in my previous post, her heart stent operation was a great success, but her overall mental health (dementia) and physical health (not very active and doesn't feel like doing a lot) are still not good. So, please keep the prayers coming.

2. On Saturday, June 5th, one of our brothers (Fr. Jeremy Heppler) was ordained a priest at our monastic church! His first Mass of Thanksgiving followed the next day (on the feast of Corpus Christi). They were very nice celebrations for a great occasion!!

3. We had our annual monastic outing to a Royals game on Tuesday, June 1st. Every Tuesday home game at Kaufmann Stadium is "T-shirt Tuesday" and the first 20,000 fans get a free t-shirt. Ours was one commemorating the 1985 World Series Champion Royals! Of course, I applied for a credit card and got a free Royals hat also!

4. Six of us monks played in a golf tournament (scramble) that benefitted our High School (Maur Hill-Mount Academy) on Friday, May 7th. We actually did the best the monastery team has ever done - we finished at par!! Which is still really bad for a 6-man scramble, but we had a great time (partly because they had great Italian Sausage through out the course!!!). To show you how bad our team was, we used numerous shots of mine (it was my 4th time playing golf as a priest [3 of them in tournaments like this one] - which is over a 19 year span)!!

5. I continue to work on a couple of Bible Studies - one from the Augustine Institute on the literature of St. John (Gospel and Revelation so far) and one called the Great Adventure (which covers the 14 historical books of the Bible in an overview of Salvation History). Both are excellent and I would highly recommend them.

6. Fr. David Nix was ordained on May 15th for the Archdiocese of Denver. He was a FOCUS missionary for me when I was in Troy. We have kept in touch over the years and I was blessed to go to his diaconate ordination last September in Denver. He came by here to visit about a week after his priestly ordination. It was great to see him again.

7. Benedictine College broke ground for a fantastic new Academic Building on June 11th. You can check it out on their web site: www.benedictine.edu We have a GREAT college and one of my parishioners from Montgomery, Zak Francis, is going to be starting his freshman year in the fall. He and his dad (Chris) came for an orientation program June 11-12. It was good to see them and I look forward to their whole family coming when Zak enters in August!

8. A couple of priest-friends of mine celebrated jubilee anniversaries recently. Fr. Francis Lynch, CM (pastor of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Tallassee) celebrated his 60th anniversary as a priest on June 3rd! And Fr. Francis Butler, SSJ (now in Church Pointe, Louisiana) celebrated 25 years on May 25! Congrats to them both!!

9. And my home diocese of Mobile had 4 ordinations to the priesthood last weekend!! That is very good news after a 6 year drought! Now Fr. Driscoll is no longer the "baby priest" of the Archdiocese!!

10. In the clergy changes for the Archdiocese of Mobile, my cousin, Fr. Den Irwin, was assigned to my former parish (St. Martin of Tours) in Troy. It will be a great fit and I look forward to hearing some of the good stories that will come from his ministry there. And Auburn got a much needed 2nd priest (Fr. James Morrison), for which I am thankful.

11. We had our annual monastic retreat from June 7-10. It was very nice and we ended with a cookout at one of the parishes we founded 127 years ago, which we are about to give over to the Archdiocese of Kansas City, KS as one of our priests retires (who is 82 years old!).

I guess a few more things happened over the past month and a half. I will try to update more frequently in the future.

Thanks for the prayers and I look forward to seeing a lot of you during my home visit in December!!

God bless,

FrJDD

Quick update on my mother...

The operation yesterday (Wed, June 2nd) was very successful. They put in 2 stents. My brother saw the before and after pictures and said it was "horrible" before and very good/clear with the stents. I hope that this new blood flow will be a lift to mom's body and spirit.

Thanks for all the prayers!

God bless,

FrJDD

Update and Prayer Request...

I was recently granted permission to visit my sick mother (Dottie Dean) by Abbot Barnabas. I went home on Monday (May 31) and returned to Kansas the next day, spending approximately 24 hours in Montgomery. (I only told my family that I was coming as I did not want this to turn into a social trip where I tried to see the many people I love in Montgomery.)

When I arrived on Monday, my mother she was short of breath, felt a pressing pain in her chest, was nauseous and a little dizzy. We called an ambulance and she was taken to a local hospital. After tests, it was determined that she should go to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) Hospital (90 miles north of Montgomery). A specialist there had already committed to putting a stent into the clogged arteries going to her heart (the same procedure that a Montgomery cardiologist said that he would not chance). The doctor in Birmingham does these procedures frequently and seemed to think that there is no extraordinary danger in this case. Mom was taken by ambulance to UAB Hospital on Tuesday afternoon and the procedure is scheduled for today, Wednesday, June 2^nd (it was originally scheduled for Monday, June 7^th).

I was blessed to have much quality time with my mother on my short visit and I ask your continued prayers while I thank you for the many prayers already offered!

God bless,

Fr. Justin Damien

Planting season...

Lest I forget, we have been doing a lot of planting recently. Tomatoes, corn, beans, tomatoes, okra, onions, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, tomatoes, etc... Yep, lots of tomato plants - 231 planted so far, about 100 more to go... Last year we planted about 300 and (fortunately) we reaped what we sowed!! I learned to make salsa last year and am looking forward to the almost unlimited supply of tomatoes and peppers...

Monthly Update...

I will try to remember to post at least once a month (someone just got on me for not posting more often - but we do a lot of the same things day-to-day here).

Lot going on at our school - Benedictine College (www.benedictine.edu). A new building was approved. It will be the signature building on campus. Check it out on the web site... and pray that the rest of the funds to come in to build it ($4.4 Million still needed!). It is going to be beautiful and have a great view of the river (as it will be on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River).

Holy Week was nice here at the Abbey. It was different not running around taking care of details and preparing for the beautiful liturgies of the Triduum (and being exhausted afterward!).

On Easter Monday, our monks went on an Emmaus walk to a local parish where we had a cook-out. Some monks rode in cars. I did not have the sense to do so and got a big blister to prove it!!

The Sunday after Easter, our Archbishop visited (Most Rev. Joseph Naumann of KC in Kansas) and celebrated our Mass where about 11 students received sacraments for the first time (varies ones receiving - full initiation (2), confirmation (5), first Communion and reception into the Church (4)). A very nice Mass and a feeling of completion to the Easter Vigil!

My niece (and goddaughter), Ann Marie Dean, was confirmed on my parent's anniversary (April 11). She took the confirmation name of Justin! I am very proud of her and edified at the choice of such a great saint's name, the same as I took at my entrance into the Novitiate.

I went to a softball and baseball game of our college. We won both of the ones I attended. I was tempted to grab a bat or a glove and go out on the field... but I wisely resisted.

Blood Drive yesterday at our college (yes, I reaching now)...

I am currently watching 2 Bible Study DVD series' (The Great Adventure - overview of the Bible timeline and a class from the Augustine Institute's class on the Gospel of John). Both are excellent.

Everything else is about the same - pray, work, study... Please keep me in your prayers!

God bless you all,

Fr. Justin Damien Dean