blue cloud abbey

Vol.16 No. 1 -- Marvin SD 57251-- Spring 2005

ABBEY NEWS

Our annual "community days" meeting was held during the week of Thanksgiving. A lengthy discussion was held in which all members of the community had a chance to give feedback and discuss our personnel situation. Our average age as a community will create some challenges in the coming years, and this meeting gave us thechance to explore some practical ways of meeting these challenges. This process will continue with another meeting scheduled in the new year.

As in most years, the number of retreat groups coming to the abbey decreased with the start of Advent. But before the holiday season got going in November the retreat center hosted a Marriage Encounter group from Sioux Falls, a Beginning Experience group from North Dakota, and a considerable number of individual guests. The Milltones choral group from Milbank had their annual concert at the abbey in early November.

Despite the usual Advent slowdown, several individual guests stayed at the abbey in December, along with a Marriage Encounter group retreat early in the month. The monks who are priests visit several of the parishes in our area for confessions each Wednesday of Advent. The local town of Chokio, Minnesota lost its pastor in a tragic accident this fall, so priests from the abbey filled in for a few weeks. Fr. Denis accepted temporary assignments at parishes in Plankington, Aberdeen and Vermillion, SD, during December and January. Fr. Matthew filled in on Christmas weekend at a large parish in Watertown, SD. Attendance at the abbey's Christmas midnight mass was strong as always. A light dusting of snow on Christmas Eve gave us just enough of a white Christmas.

The monks were especially grateful this Christmas for the "gift" of a working elevator! In late October, our main passenger elevator was shut down for major repairs. This created some difficulty for our oldest community members and guests. It took some time for the needed parts and workers to arrive, but finally the elevator was returned to service in the last week of Advent.

The monks had their annual retreat from January 3-7. Our retreat director this year was Fr. James Flint from St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois. Fr. James teaches at the university run by his monastery, and brought thirty years' experience in monastic life to his conferences.

Fr. Abbot Thomas took part in a visitation at Weston Priory in Vermont during late October, and plans to attend a conference of Benedictine superiors at Mexico City in January. Fr. Matthew is scheduled to give a day of recollection to priests of the Rapid City Diocese in early February.

OUR NEWEST (BUSY) MONKS

Br. Crispin Rork and Br. Michael Peterson

Some of the addresses on our mail list, including most of the other monasteries and religious communities, do not receive the half-size Christmas issue. Therefore we report again here that Br. Crispin Rork completed his novitiate and professed temporary vows on October 1^st, 2004. Since then he has been keeping busy with a variety of jobs around the abbey. His experience in restaurant work has enabled him to occasionally fill in as cook in the kitchen.

Br. Michael Peterson, whose solemn vows were announced in the fall issue, has also been quite involved with the work of the abbey. He is working as an assistant to Fr. Denis, our Vocation Director. Br. Michael also is in charge of our two hermitage cabins, and works in the bakery and library.

Br. Michael has also found the time to record a new disk of Indian Flute music. He has entitled the collection "Slough Music", inspired by the sloughs and small lakes of the abbey's neighborhood on the plains. Last fall, Br. Michael traveled to Pulse River Studios near Sioux Falls to record the 12 tracks on the disk. He plays six different flutes on the songs, totaling about one hour of music. Br. Michael used different tempos and keys to give the all-instrumental recording a pleasant variety of sounds. The compact disk can be purchased in our gift shop.

FR. GUY GAU

On December 10, 2004, our confrere, Father Guy Gau, OSB, died in Watertown, South Dakota while riding in a car with Brother Rene Wilson, OSB. After spending the afternoon in town at the clinic and doing some shopping, they were deciding where to have their evening meal before returning to the abbey. Father Guy died before a decision was made.

Eugene Gau was born in Sioux City, Iowa on September 2, 1932. His father taught shoe repair to students at St. Paul’s Indian Mission, Marty, South Dakota on the Yankton Reservation, one of the places staffed by our community. The Gau family left Marty for several years and lived in Omaha, but had moved back to Marty by the time Eugene was a senior in high school. In 1956, he entered the novitiate at Blue Cloud. Professing vows on August 15, 1957, he received the name Guy. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 27, 1962.

During the decade of the Sixties, Father Guy served as chaplain of the Catholic students at Flandreau Indian School and was the pastor of St. William’s Church in nearby Aurora, South Dakota. Following these assignments, he was at our priory in Coban, Guatemala, and later on at Immaculate Conception Mission in South Dakota. While on the Crow Creek Reservation, he was also the pastor of St. Joseph’s Church at Ft. Thompson. From 1971 until 1973, he was at Arizona State University earning a master’s degree in counseling. Upon completion of this work, he was a marriage counselor at St. Ann’s Mission in Belcourt, North Dakota on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Returning to South Dakota, Father Guy worked for the Diocese of Sioux Falls as the Director of Marriage and Family Counseling for four years. Next he became Director of Catholic Family Services, and from 1981 until 1986, he was the Executive Director of the Beginning Experience. For a brief time he was a therapist with Benedictine Family Services in Yankton. In more recent years, until his health began failing, he was the Director of the Blue Cloud Abbey Retreat Center.

Father Guy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease thirteen years ago. He had great determination to live an active life regardless of his physical affliction. Although he had to slow down, this did not keep him from going places. We had often razzed him because of the several pieces of luggage he required for a trip. For this final journey, he took nothing with him—not even an overnight bag. And before he could decide where to dine in Watertown, South Dakota, he was whisked off to eternity, where we trust he has reservations for the heavenly banquet.

We ask the members of our monastic congregation and all other Benedictines to remember Father Guy in their prayers for the deceased. His funeral and burial were on December 15, 2004. May he rest in peace.

THOUGHTS ON LENT

By Fr. Matthew

As another Lent arrives, I find myself wondering where the past year has gone. I remember the Lent of 2004 so well because of all the public commotion over the movie The Passion of the Christ. Opening on Ash Wednesday, it packed theaters across the country through the season, and in some places caused waiting lines around whole city blocks. It was the only time I have seen every single seat filled in the theater of our local town Milbank, population 3,600. The controversies over the movie in the news media may have unintentionally served as free advertising. But for many local churches the movie gave rise to discussion groups and a renewed interest in what Jesus' death on a cross means for us.

The season of Lent may be the best time of year for us to pray and meditate on the mystery of death. The world was recently shocked by a natural disaster in Asia that was the most devastating in many years. Over 100,000 died and many more were left homeless in the devastating earthquake and tidal wave. In places where discussions take place: classrooms, churches, and certainly on the internet, people wondered why God allows such disasters to happen. But to focus on only one disaster because it happened recently is to miss the whole point. If we could have saved every single person who died in the tsunami, we know they would all eventually die in time. Even the worst natural disaster is insignificant compared to the number who die each day from illness or simply advanced age. How many billions of deaths have passed since the creation of mankind? It is a number that overwhelms the mind.

Death is always the fate of each living thing, and is therefore the universal "problem of problems", encompassing all other mysteries, including pain, illness, grief and loneliness. If we could solve the problem of death, we would have just about everything fixed, wouldn't we? If there was a way to escape death, wouldn't that be the best path to take in life?

If we meditate on the passion and death of Jesus Christ, we come to see that there is one, and only one, path that leads us away from death. Another faith or philosophy might help someone to do good and avoid evil, but whatever good we can accomplish in this world will always come to an end when we die. Only in God can we hope to have a good life that does not end in death. And only once did God actually come among us to live and die as a man.

Each Lent we focus again on the mystery of the God who came, not to solve all our problems, but to live and die like the rest of us. By His death he freed the rest of us from death, but in a way we really don't understand yet. Each Lent gives us a time to explore the mystery more fully, until finally, at the end of our own life, we enter the mystery of death and new life completely.

THANKS TO OUR DONORS
Last year I started the custom of recognizing our leading benefactors in the Spring newsletter. With Lent coming so early in 2005 and publishing schedules what they are, this list was assembled very early in the year. If anyone who should be on this list was accidentally left off, we apologize most sincerely and promise to print the correction in our next issue.

These totals refer to support received during calendar year 2004. Only support coming through the Blue Cloud Ministries mail list is included here. Thanks are also due to the many (and I mean many) benefactors who supported us at other levels. The monks of Blue Cloud feel blessed to have the support of so many good friends. Your support truly makes a difference in our local charitable works, and the American Indian Culture Research Center.

Support of $1,000 or more
Delores Buller

Mr. Dan Campbell

Rose Forster

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Hillenbrand

Mr. John Kinnear

James Meyer

Dr. & Mrs. Dermot Murray

Mr. & Mrs. James Ryan

Joan Seibert

Porter E. Thompson Foundation

Mrs. Constance Weber

Support of $500 or more
Mr. George Bonnarens

Erna & Marie Brock

Mr. & Mrs. Howard Chatterton

Mr. & Mrs. Pete Cheskie

Mrs. Anne M. Coy

Mrs. Donald DeGreef

Mr. & Mrs. Harold Dittes

Mrs. Walter L. Friedman

Marlene Hagele

Mrs. John Horrocks

John & Katherine Kelly Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Kern

Mr & Mrs. Frank Lane

Mr. & Mrs. Clarence B. Luhr

Mrs. John R. McDowell

Carmelite Community, Shoreline, WA

Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Murphy

Mrs. Mary Osterburg

Mary Rose Rowan

Mr. Philip Sandoval

Mrs. Vivian Schuhs

Support of $250 or more
Mary Abramovich

Mrs. Veronica Albrecht

Mrs. Margaret Alderson

Mr. Gerald Allen

Myrtle Beane

Mr. & Mrs. Keith Block

Mrs. Mary T. Botelle

Mr. & Mrs. Edward Brent

Dorothy Brown

Mrs. Margaret Bruce

Bobbie Chropka

Mrs. Frank Cler

Mary K. Conway

Mrs. Clarita Donaldson

Mr. William Frankman

Mrs. Mary M. Freihaut

Mrs. Emily Guhin

Bob & Nancy Hall

Bill & Diane Hartman

Mrs. Barbara Hauer

Mrs. Elizabeth Hausauer

Mr. & Mrs. John Heffernan

Paul J. Heles

Mrs. Cecilia Herdegen

Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Horgan

Jeanette Hughes

Mrs. Alice Hurlburt

Mr. & Mrs. Arnold Jirasek
Joel Johnson

Mrs. Marlene Kiernat-Yaeger

Geraldine Kortsch

Rev. Ivars Krafts

Mr. Francis J. McCarthy

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Morow

Mr. Wayne Nelson

Mr. James H. Nieters

Mrs. Joseph Novosel

Mr. Stanley Passino

Mr. Bruno Perfetti

Mrs. Frank Puncer

Patricia M. Pung

J. Terry Radigan

Harriet Rausch

Mrs. Russell Reetz

Mrs. Mary Richmond

Robin Rieper

Ann C. Robinson

Joe & Betty Roers

William Rork

W. A. Rubino

Please Remember
Blue Cloud Abbey in Your Will

Through the centuries, monks have prayed for the souls of their departed benefactors. This may be our most important work! Including the Abbey in your will supports the Church's future and provides for your own remembrance. Our legal name is Blue Cloud Abbey. We are a religious, charitable corporation located in Marvin, South Dakota.

Mr. & Mrs. Paul Sahm

Mr. Joseph B. Schorpp

Patricia Sextro

Mrs. Ernestine Silger

Elsie M. Smith

Mr. John H. Stegner

Mike & Marlene Streitz

Mrs. Mary Stueve

Marilyn R. Toepfer

Tim & Colleen Tucker

Mark & Betsy Vinz

Helen Zwadyk