Saint Albert Priory

Dominican Friars
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 596-1800

January 2004

St. Albert Priory in Winter

A deal of activity inaugurates the new year at Saint Albert’s. The student Brothers enjoyed their holiday visits home after Christmas and are wending their way back to the Priory, some stopping long enough en route to make their annual retreat. By the middle of the month they’ll all be back for a liturgy and preaching workshop.

Although most of the Brothers attend our Dominican School of Philoso­phy and Theology, Brothers actually pursue course work at several institutions (i.e. Saint Mary’s College, Peralta Community College, Queen of the Holy Rosary College), so the beginnings of the various semester programs are staggered.

The most significant event of the month at the Priory will be the solemn (final) professions of Brother Bernhard Blanken­horn and of Brother Robert King.  After several years in the Order, they and the Order are ready for their final vows as Dominican friars; the ceremony on January 31st should be splendid.

Our schedule will be somewhat irregular this entire month. Consult the schedule in the next column for the correct times if you are planning to join us for worship.

A Heart-Filled “Thank You” to our Friends

We Dominican friars extend a warm “thank you” to our many friends, family members, benefactors and neighbors who shared with us so generously during the past few weeks of the Christmas Season. To begin with, the gift of the poinsettias for our chapel Christmas arrangement was gratifying. Many of the flowers were donated in the memory of loved ones, and we remembered those beloved departed faithfully at prayer. If you visited Saint Albert’s in recent weeks you saw for yourself the lovely sanctuary display that resulted from the many beautiful poinsettia gifts we received. Also, a benefactor stepped forward to finance our new chapel sound system as a memorial to a loved one; the combined gifts of several others covered the total expenses of transporting our Brothers home to be with their families for a few days after Christmas! We have now received sufficient contributions to purchase all the student Brothers’ school textbooks for this academic year as well as next year! We were helped by the large crowds that gathered for each of our Christmas concerts as well as by those who purchased DVD recordings of past concerts. Others of you presented us with money gifts during the Holiday season while still others were most generous at our Christmas Mass collection. We thank all of you profoundly. Your gifts warm our hearts and enable us to prepare the next generation of friars for church ministry.

Liturgy Schedule

The Public is Welcome!

Joseph Romero, O.P., Rest in Peace

Early in the morning on December 27, our Brother Joseph Romero passed away in the emergency room at Highland Hospital in Oakland. Brother Joseph, known earlier in his religious life as Brother Sadoc, and to his family as “Uncle Phil” (for Filadelfio), was eighty years old and was a professed cooperator brother for sixty-one years. He served in various capacities in different Dominican houses; for many years he was assigned to Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles. Saint Albert Priory was often home for him during his years as a friar, and he died as a member of our community, even though for many months he had need of the special care provided at Mercy Center in Oakland. His funeral was celebrated at Saint Albert’s on December 31, and he was buried at Saint Dominic Cemetery, Benicia, as is the custom of the Province. We will miss Brother Joseph. May God, whom our Brother spent a lifetime serving, welcome him into eternity.

Viewing Saint Albert’s through the Prior’s Window

As our liturgical calendar on the front page of this bulletin sug­gests, January can be a most irregular month at Saint Albert’s. The Brothers visit their families after Christmas and those visits last the new year. After that, many make their annual retreat. All re­turn to the Priory for a liturgy and preaching workshop mid-month, followed by preparation for the new semester. Many senior mem­bers of the community are also traveling. The Fathers give me their monthly personal schedules so that I know when I can assign them to preside and preach at our daily Mass. As I reviewed their Janu­ary schedules, I noted that Father Jude and Father Antoninus, our preaching band members, will predictably spend time on the road this month, as will Father Mark, our vocation director, and Father Bartholomew, the vicar provincial. Our silver jubilarian, Father Luke, has scheduled several preaching assignments before leaving for his second semester assignment to the Angelicum in Rome. Many of our other priests will use the time in January for personal travel or ministry engagements. We’re all coming and going, and you’ll be aware of our movement because you’ll notice the ebb and the tide of the friar population at Mass each Sunday until the end of the month.

As a new Prior, I continue to be overwhelmed at the many, many ways that so many of you are extremely generous to us: I could never thank you adequately. I am similarly amazed by the amounts required to cover the Priory’s regular expenses and by the many unpredictable expenses that emerge each month. Some of you have asked me to keep you informed of our projects and expenses, and I’m pleased to do so. Currently the Brothers are beginning to schedule their yearly spiritual retreats. This year we expect this to cost $6,000. Our procurator, Father Mark, tells me that our chapel candle bill is about $1,200 annually, and whereas I’ve told our kitchen staff they will have to wait for our $100,000 kitchen renovation, they’ve persuaded me that they really need their new convection oven now; to satisfy them I’ll have to find $5,000 somewhere for that. To tell you the truth, I also feel that we need a tremendous amount of prayer to maintain this house of prayer, study and brotherhood in top shape; yours prayers are a treasure to us! We’ll be deeply grateful to anyone able to help us in any of these needs. May this New Year bring you many blessings!

Father Michael Monshau, O.P.,
Prior

Photo above right: Father Michael Monshau (left), conferring with Father Vincent Serpa (right), former Western Dominican Novice Master.

Note: On Saturday, January 3 I , we will not have our regular 8:30 A.M. Mass, in order to accommodate the special schedule required that day for the solemn profession of Brother Bernhard Blankenhorn and Brother Robert King.

Our Province participates in eScrip. The group name is “Western Dominican Province” and the group ID number is I 54804935. Can you support this endeavor? It’s free!

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