Monthly Update...

13 months down (as of today)... less than 3 to go!!

Another good month... crops are almost all in (a few more tomatoes to gather)... grass is slowing down. A couple of projects to complete during these next 3 months will keep us novices busy.

Over the past month:

The monastery hosted its 16th annual college faculty/staff and their families for a beginning of the year picnic on August 18th. About 300 people were in attendance (not counting our monks).

A few visitors stopped by - the entire Francis family dropping of Zak for school (do I even miss them and especially their beautiful music at the OLQM Masses), Jeff & Rachael Slipke and family (some of my wonderful former parishioners from Auburn - Rachael came into the Church while I was in Auburn), the Estis family (Joann, Buddy and 4 of their children - the 3rd or 4th time they have been through with Buddy's work) and Andy Swartzer (a former student of mine at AU and parishioner in Montgomery) who spent a day and a half here before working a week in Omaha with the USAF. It was great to see them all!!

The day at the Lake (8/20), sponsored by Br. Leven Harton's parents was a blast (as expected). A couple of brief showers did not dampen our spirits. And, as oftentimes happens at the lake, there was way too much food - but we still tried our best to get it all down!!

Football has started... Benedictine College (BC) won its first 2 games (at home 21-0 and on the road 38-19). AU is 2-0 and rising in the national ranking!! (And yes, the evil empire is also 2-0.)

BC dedicated it's new Nursing & Health Education Building to Mother Teresa on her 100th birthday (8/26)!

Nothing else of monumental importance - a few side items: my brother Barry turned 45 on 9/11, mom is doing well, Richard (and his daughter Ann Marie - my goddaughter) are planning to come to my first profession (12/8/10) and the rest of his family is doing well.

That's about all for now... and its time for bed!!

God bless,

FrJDD

Hospital Implosion

Here are some videos of the Hospital Implosion which I mentioned in my last update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSmEbLiObcI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfMzo8Wegx4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3mBPey-mfo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i6EsXlKS8M&feature=related

One Year!!

It is hard to believe that I have lived at St. Benedict's Abbey for 1 year as of today. I got here a couple of days early - with my brother Barry - on Aug 12, but I became an official resident on the 14th. Less than 4 months remain in my Novitiate as first (simple/temporary) vows is scheduled for December 8th!

Report for the last month:

1. Picking... Picking... Picking... a couple of times each week we go out and get the fruit of our harvest - especially corn and tomatoes!! They are delicious. We planted 4 sets of corn and recently picked the last batch. The tomatoes are still flooding in - at a rate of about 12-15 boxes per week! When not bringing in the crops we have cut a lot of grass!!

2. Some of the monks (including me) attended the Amelia Earhart Festival Fireworks display on Saturday, July 17th. It last about 30 minutes, was synchronized to music on the radio and was very good (especially for a city of about 10,000 residents). During this annual festival the city gets about 50,000 visitors. It is a big to-do each year with a lot of events through out the weekend!!

3. During my Novitiate I have been viewing some A/V classes. I recently finished my third DVD home study course (one was on Salvation History [the Great Adventure], one on Pauline Literature [Augustine Institute] and one on Johannine Literature [Augustine Institute]) and a CD class (Epic, 20 hours on Church History). All of them were excellent and I look forward to putting them to use after my novitiate. I am now studying Matthew's Gospel (with a special emphasis on the Sermon on the Mount, which is chapters 5-7).

4. This morning we got to witness the implosion of the old Atchison Hospital (which is right across the street from our school. Sounded like a string of firecrackers which was followed by the falling of the building and a mushroom cloud of dust! It was cool!!

Coming events:

1. This Friday, August 20th, the parents of one of our junior monks is providing us with a day at the lake. I look forward to the swimming, water skiing and the relaxation!

2. The Benedictine College (BC) move-in date for new freshmen is Saturday, August 21. Two freshmen are former parishioners of mine - Zak Francis from Montgomery and Michael Farnet from Auburn. The Francis family is military and have lived in Montgomery for the past 6 years. And the Farnet family currently lives in KC. They left Auburn when Michael was 3 years old!

3. BC begins classes on Wed, Aug 25 and dedicates a new Nursing Facility (honoring Mother Teresa) on Aug 26.

4. Football season is right around the corner. There is not quite the excitement at BC over this sport as there is in the state of Alabama and the SEC. But we are surrounded by Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma - so I hear plenty of Big 12 talk... it almost made me happy UAT beat Texas last year! Another advantage of living in Kansas - I don't have to listen the redneck Bammers all season!!

That's all for now. God bless you all and please keep me in your prayers and be assured of mine for you!!

Father Justin Damien Dean

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