Tower Topics ~ Spring 2003

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Abbey notes

Father Albert Bruecken directed a New Year’s Retreat Dec. 30 through Jan. 1 at the abbey. On Jan 11 he taught a vocation session to 15 Diocese of Des Moines deacon candidates and their spouses.

Father Albert will conduct a Conception Abbey Monastic Experience March 15-19 for students from the University of Kansas and Iowa State University. His second Monastic Experience, this one for University of Missouri students, will be March 22-26.

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Brother Frowin Reed attended the Kansas Catholic College Student Conference in Hays, Kan., Feb 14-16.

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Father Aidan McSorley recently received a new addition to the abbey’s rare book collection from alumnus Father Bob
Gregory. It is without title page and cover so some detective work remains. Preliminary examination shows it is written on parchment, both the flesh and hair sides, and sewn together.
It is about 8” X 4” and about 3 inches thick. The language
is Armenian and probably it is a liturgical book for the
Armenian rite.

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Abbot Gregory Polan and Dan Madden, Conception Abbey director of communications, along with Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey and members of the news media, appeared on the panel for a public forum entitled “Reporting Tragedy: The Conception Abbey Shootings” at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo. The Nov. 14 event, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, addressed the media’s coverage of the June 10, 2002, tragedy.

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November 7-10, Father Kenneth Reichert attended the annual meeting and workshop for Benedictine priors, held this year at Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey, Pecos, N.M. Father Richard Rohr, O.F.M, directed the workshop.

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Father Adam Ryan gave a weeklong retreat, “The Provocative Christ in Monastic Life,” to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Tucson Oct. 12-19. While there, he also visited the nearby Trappistine Nuns at Santa Rita Abbey.

Feb. 28 to March 6, Father Adam preached a parish mission
at Saint Philip the Apostle parish in Addison, Ill., the pastorate of alumnus Father Tom Sularz.

March 9-15, Father Adam preached a retreat for the Benedictine Sisters at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Atchison, Kan., and April 25-27 he will direct a joint retreat at Conception Abbey for the Lincoln, Neb., chapter of the Benedictine Oblates of Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton, S.D., and the Blue Army of St. Louis, Mo.

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Tim Stransky, the abbey's director of development, and Dan Madden, director of communications, spoke at a Nov. 12 forum entitled: "Grief: The Unwelcome Companion." The forum, sponsored by SSM Hospice of Northwest Missouri, focused on the stages of grief. Stransky and Madden shared their experiences of grief in the aftermath of the June 10 shootings at the abbey.

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