Spring has Sprung!
Hello everyone!
Again I apologize for the lack of updates this semester. I guess with cabin fever followed immediately by spring fever, it’s hard to get motivated.
Anyway, things have been moving along here in Chicago. The birds are chirping, the leaves are green on the trees and everyone is out walking and jogging by the lakeshore. Spring has definitely sprung here in the windy city. Not only spring, but some summer like temps too. Last week O’Hare airport reported 90 degree temps! I’m loving it.
Along with this season comes graduations. This year I will attend 4 of them. The first was CTU graduation ceremony last Thursday night, where a Norbertine confrere from India, Fr. John Nellevelil, with whom I live, received his D.Min. degree (Doctor of Ministry) in Spirituality. Then I just returned from a weekend in De Pere to attend the Commencement ceremony at St. Norbert College. On Saturday chances are I will tend the Notre Dame Academy graduation, and then I will concede the season with my own sister’s graduation from West De Pere High School. It will definitey be A LOT of sitting in the next few weeks.
Yes, that’s right folks, you read this correctly, if I’m going to be to NDA and WDP graduation, that means I will be home. I’m concluding the year here in Chicago on Friday. Then I will return to St. Norbert Abbey with my classmate for the next 15 months! In that time I will be taking philosophy classes at St. Norbert College, doing some ministerial work in the area and enjoying life at the abbey with the community of men there. I’m definitely looking forward to being home again.
So, sorry that this is a short update, but look for me around De Pere soon.
In St. Norbert,
frater Brad
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A Tale of Two [Novitiate] Cities
Although I’ve never read Charles Dickens novel, the book is quite popular, so I thought I would borrow the title.
First of all– I’ve heard many people ask when my next blog post would be. I am sorry that it’s been two whole months. I was surprised when I sat down to write this that it has been that long. Again, my apologies!
Now, the reason I haven’t been writing is because I’ve been busy reading! Upon our return from Philadelphia we went right into a class on the Creed -essentially a Catholicism 101- course to prep ourselves for some higher level theology in the years to come. I thoroughly enjoyed that course. We raised a lot of questions about why Catholics believe what we believe and why.
The majority of the Creed was composed to answer the questions that popular heresies were trying to answer (incorrectly) in the early stages of Christianity. Although there are questions that still surface today, we at least have the Creed and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to rely on. These early believers had to find a way to prove and pass down these teachings against the heretics they were fighting.
After that class ended at the beginning of March, we started yet another class. This time on St. Augustine. We are right in the middle of this course now and it’s starting to grow on me. Augustine was quite the guy! He has been named a Doctor of the Catholic Church for his great mind and faith in Christ and His Church, however, it was not always this way…at least the latter. I’ll write about this course I’m in at a later time. (I promise!!)
With these two classes on our plate we have also been continuing our weekly ICN meetings. We only have a few left before the year is over. I don’t know where this year has gone!
We have also been reading the new biography about Abbot Pennings that was released earlier this year. (If you are in the De Pere area, St. Norbert Abbey will be presenting a presentation with the author of this book coming up soon. Check it out!) It is a good compliment to the letters that Abbot Pennings himself wrote many years ago. This has also prompted some nice discussion on the American Norbertine founder.
Latin is still progressing. I’m finding that it is a difficult language to learn because there are so many different endings and conjugations of verbs and nouns that it is hard to keep things straight sometimes. I am however finding that my English grammar and vocabulary is improving because of the close connection between English words and sentence structure and that of Latin composition
Finally, in light of the horrible and sinful abuse that happens in our church, we are required to take a class about prevention of abuse and pastoral care of those who have had to suffer because of these men. As hard as it is to listen to sometimes, it is something that I take very seriously as I’m sure I will be working with people whose hope and trust have been bruised or broken by these men.
So that has been my semester thus far. Not to mention the additional time spent in prayer and adoration, cooking (I’ve been trying out some new recipes…I find myself getting more creative in the kitchen, and so far not too many complaints from the other guys!) going to Spiritual Direction and random chores around the house, I find myself limited in time to just relax or write in my blog.
Now as Dickens-inspired title implies, this last weekend we took leave of our Woodlawn Ave. house in Chicago
and 3 hours later we ended up in Madison, WI.
Why you ask? Well because they are both novitiate locations for St. Norbert Abbey.
When the De Pere community was growing exponentially back in the late 1920s-30s, the community was running out of room in the abbey.
This was before the current Abbey building was erected in 1959. The community was faced with a decision…where do we put the novices? Some land was acquired in Madison, right on Lake Monona. So for some 30 or 40 years, novitiate was held in Madison before it returned to De Pere when the new Abbey was built and now in Chicago at the House of Studies.
The Madison property is a beautiful quiet plot of land right in the middle of a commercial street these days. Although, St. Norbert Abbey still owns the property, some Capuchin Franciscan friars have turned it into a house of prayer and retreat house. They were kind enough to give us a tour of the interior. It is beautiful! Although I didn’t take any pictures of the interior, I do have pictures of some of the exterior features.

The back of the house. (The front is above) This side of the house faces Lake Manona and has a great view of the capitol building from its second floor porch

A retaining wall on the Lake. The novices (or frats, as we are called) of the past had to build and re-build this every year. Although there is now a professional company that will maintain this, these rocks were placed by young Norbertines
Before we toured the old novitiate however, we first took a trip 15 miles or so outside of Madison to a small town called Roxbury. About 40 years before Abbot Pennings came to America, another Norbertine by the name of Fr. Adelbert Inama, O.Praem. from Wilten abbey in Austria came here to establish a foundation to work with German speaking immigrants. He founded a church (St. Norbert Parish) and worked with these people. One more Norbertine succeeded him, but no foundation could be established. The last of these two men died in 1890–three years before Abbot Pennings would arrive. Pennings would have had no knowledge of Fr. Inama at the time. Check out the parish website: http://saint-norbert.org/

St. Norbert Parish. A small country church on top of a hill. They have an active parish life complete with a school. They still celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. They have beautiful videos on their website!
Well I think that’s enough for now, I will write soon. Take care!
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Another update
Hello,
Sorry that I haven’t written yet but it’s been kinda busy out here in Philly.
We have class everyday. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we have History of Norbert and the Order. All of this dates back to the year 1121 so we have quite a bit to cover. The other day we were looking at pictures of Norbert that date back to 1650, pretty neat stuff.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have a Liturgy class where we talk about different components of the Liturgy, where they came from and some of the theological pricipals behind them. I think this is my favorite class because there is less reading, and more discussion. Plus we are talking a little bit about the new Roman Missal that starts this Advent, so it’s nice to hear the reasoning behind some of the changes.
The third class that we have is on Prayer. We are reading a book called ‘Praying Your Experiences’ which talks about how to view everything that we do in a day as a gift from God. It’s an interesting way to pray for sure.
On Fridays we meet with the abbot who is our interim Novice Master while we are here. He asks us to write some reflections on our novitiate thus far, and I find that really helpful. Plus we go over the schedule for the week.
On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we have a work period from 1:00 to 4:00. Although most times we are done by 2:30. We have cleaned windows, the tabernacle, sweeping floors, cleaning out closets, polishing the stainless steel in the elevator, organzing store rooms, etc. It’s been a nice bonding opportunity with the 2 novices out here for Daylesford.
This last Friday, we took a trip into Philly. We did a lot too. We visited a museum of early portraits, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Christ Church (where almost all of the early Americans worshipped at one time or other), Betsy Ross’ house, Old St. Joe’s (the oldest church in Philly) then we went for dinner at Joe’s Steaks and I had my first cheesesteak. It was pretty good, but I guess it wasn’t as authentic as it could have been because the cheese wasn’t melted completely. Who knew that made a difference!!
Also this week, Daylesford Abbey has been under visitation. Every group in the Church, including the Norbertines have a visitation take place. In our Order it’s every 6 years. Basically two Norbertines from outside the house come and spend the week interviweing all of the community members, the Bishop(s), the associates and anyone else associated with the house to see if they are fulfilling their tasks and such. So this week we have Abbot Eugene Hayes from St. Michael’s Abbey in California and Prior Paul MacMahon from Storrington, England. It’s been nice to talk with these guys. We didn’t have to interview with them because we are not a part of this canonry. De Pere’s visitation is next year in preparation for our abbatial election. De Pere’s visitators are Abbot Richard who is the abbot of Daylesford and Father Augustine from California.
A week ago Sunday, about 19 of us went to the local parish, St. Norbert, to promote vocation awareness week. After Mass I was standing next to the abbot greeting people and out of the blue he put his miter on me so I could “try it on”. I thought that was pretty neat. He told me my height fit the miter well. Who knows, maybe someday I will have my own miter haha.
On Sunday afternoon, James, Jacob and I accompanied the Daylsford novice, Gerard to a downtown church for an ecumenical prayer service honoring Martin Luther King Jr. It was a really nice time. There were about 3 or 4 black gospel choirs there, plus a children’s choir. The clergy represented Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Baptist faith traditions. Justin Cardinal Regali was supposed to preside but he fell ill and had to call in a bishop an hour before the prayer service started. I was bummed because I was looking forward to meeting the Cardinal.
Every Thursday we head to South Philadelphia to help out the Norbertine community of four priests living at a parish called St. Gabriel’s. It is a beautiful parish. It looks more like a cathedral actually. I’ll have to take pictures the next time we go. Last week we swept the church out because there was still a lot of hay from the nativity scene, and we shoveled snow for the path for the casket for the funeral the next day. After work period we prayed Vespers with the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM). They are delightful. There are about 12 that work in the school associated with St. Gabes. Now keep in mind, St. Gabe’s is in the middle of the projects in South Philly. There are drug deals on the corner outside the church, violence (there is a stray bullet hole in the priory window), and other kinds of gang stuff, but these IHM sisters (most of them are over 65) love what they do. They all have a South Philly attitude, but they are great. They don’t let anyone push them around, for sure!
Next Thursday we are going to help out at the Bethesda Project. This was started by a Norbertine that lives out here about 20 years ago. It’s a program designed to help the homeless of the city. There are a few different homes around and we are going to one of them to help serve food I think. I’m looking forward to it.
As a part of our time out here, we are going on two tours of the city. One being the Norbertine Heritage tour and the other being an ecclesial tour. I didn’t know that the Norbertines have been out in Philly sine 1932. Abbot Pennings sent a group out here to teach. They taught at John Newman High School (formerly Southeast Catholic) and started a sister school to Notre Dame Academy, Archmere Academy. So on our tours we will see those sights. Plus the cathedral and the shrines of John Newman and Mother Kathryn Drexel.
On Feburary 2, not only do I celebrate my birthday, but the community out here will welcome our Abbot General for a few days. He is from Germany and now lives at our Generalate House in Rome. He will be in America visiting St. Michael’s Abbey in CA for a little bit and then stop here on his way back to Rome. (He will visit De Pere in 2012 because of General Chapter) So I’m excited to meet him. I’m telling the guys here that they were too generous to get the Abbot General here for my birthday present ![]()
I’m becoming quite the cribbage player. It’s a very popular after dinner game here. So far I’ve only lost 3 games in my time here. And I’ve skunked the ‘resident champion” twice. He’s not too happy about it so he keeps threating me by saying “This is the calm before the storm Brad…its not going to be pretty when the storm hits.” He’s kidding of course. But I’m still waiting for that storm to hit. He’s over 80 so I wonder how bad of a ‘storm’ it’s going to be haha.
This weekend I will be helping out with a youth retreat that is from St. Norbert’s Parish. The deacon that I lived with in Chicago this past semester was ordained on Dec. 18 and is now staffed at that parish. So he asked if I would help out with that and I said yes. It will be nice to be working with high schoolers again.
And finally, in my spare time, I’ve been working on teaching myself organ. It’s been kind of a challenge because reading 3 staves of music at once isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but I can now play the melody line, some harmony, and all of the pedaling to the song “For All the Saints”. Now my next challenge will be to ask the organist for some simple organ music. Hymns are pretty easy, but organ music is a little bit more challenging.
So like I said, this is a pretty big update because I haven’t written. I can’t upload pictures here because they don’t have the same program installed on the computers so I will have to wait until I’m back in Chicago the second week of February.
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Happy New Year!
Sorry it’s been a while. We spent the last few weeks in De Pere at St. Norbert Abbey studying our Order’s Constitutions and enjoying a Christmas Break back at home.
But now we are in Philly! We have come to Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pennsylvania for some classes on the History of the Order, Liturgy and Prayer. Daylesford Abbey is quite impressive. Much different than St. Norbert Abbey but still very nice. I will be sure to take a lot of pictures, but I don’t know if I will be able to upload them right away or not so you may have to wait until we get back to Chicago in Feb.
Daylesford’s website is www.daylesford.org if you want to check out the pictures on there.
As far as traveling goes, it was quite the hassel. We arrived at the airport around 9:00 for our 10:05 flight. According to Fr. Komatz that is usually enough time. Midway airport is not nearly as busy as O’Hare, however, because of the day after the holiday, I would imagine that delayed flights from Saturday were being serviced yesterday.
At any rate, the line for the baggage check was a two hour line!!! I have never seen so many angry people in my life. It was rediculous. We wrapped around Midway airport lobby twice before even entering the roped off queue line! Needless to say we missed our flight (along with about 500 other people)
So we were put on stand-by and tried to board the 1:55 flight. No luck. There was only one seat available and neither of us wanted to fly alone. So we were put on stand-by again for the 4:20 flight. Thankfully that flight wasn’t full and we were able to board the plane. So we finally arrived in Philly at 7:25 when we were supposed to arrive at 1:00.
I love spending all day in an airport. (Please note my sarcasm) Needless to say I have my fill of people watching for some time.
We just had our first class on the history of the Order. And at 2:00 we get a tour of the abbey.
We are also going to take a trip into Philly next week and visit the Norbertine sponsored school called Archmere Academy. It’s a school sister to Notre Dame Academy. The Norbertines also run a homeless shelter in Downtown Philly which we will be visiting, so I will be seeing poverty first hand. BUT don’t worry!!! SNC students go out to that shelter every January so it is still relatively safe.
So I think that is enough of an adventure for you to enjoy and I haven’t been in Philly for 24 hours yet! Hopefully I will write soon!
Peace!
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Update Extraordinaire
Happy Advent to all!
Sorry for my lack of updates lately, but it’s been kind of busy around Chicago lately. The month of November started off pretty quiet, until the second weekend of the month when the Norbertines of Holy Spirit House of Studies returned to St. Norbert Abbey to celebrate the Feast of All Saints of the Order. During this time, we also honored our current lay Associates as well as welcomed new candidates into the associate formation program. It was very good to see a lot of familiar faces and to catch up with people who I haven’t seen since the summer.
Then we returned to Chicago for another week and a half, only to come back up to De Pere again to spend some time at the abbey for Thanksgiving. While back at the abbey, we ‘celebrated’ the end of our novitiate hermitage period by going to the local Wal-mart so I could use some of my monthly allowance to buy a winter hat and gloves. Sounds lame, but when you aren’t allowed to do much, this was an exciting trip.
On Black Friday, we piled back into the van again to head back to Chicago. We arrived back at the house and I took a quick nap before the sisters came to spend the weekend with us. They have never been to Chicago, so we volunteered to host them and show them the sights of the city. So on Saturday, we went to the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears tower) to go to the 103rd floor. The sisters told me that in Slovakia one of the tallest buildings in their city is 6 stories. So they were amazed to be 103 floors in the air.
After the Willis Tower, we went took our Trolly tour shuttle to State Street. It was very crowded because it was the busiest shopping weekends of the year, but the sisters didn’t seem to mind. They loved looking at the bustling city life. We stopped by the Macy’s department store to look at their famous Christmas windows and to take a peek inside. Again, the sisters were amazed at the size of Macy’s. The had big smiles on their face walking through the wonderfully decorated store.
After realizing that the crowded Macy’s food court was not going to provide enough seating for us, we walked to a Corner Bakery and enjoyed some sandwiches. After lunch, we walked a few blocks to Millennium Park to see the famous Bean!
All in all a good day! After the Sisters left Chicago, we immediately started cooking as we were hosting a professor from CTU and a friend of the Norbertine. We made another Thanksgiving dinner which turned out delicious!!
Last weekend, we returned to the abbey yet again for a Come and See weekend. We had 8 men participate in the weekend, which was wonderful! It was interesting meeting some new men interested in our way of life as well as connecting with the familiar faces.
After the weekend, we returned to the house in Chicago once again for a celebration for the end of the semester. We had two birthdays and an ordination to celebrate. We went to an Indian restaurant and enjoyed the food and each others company.
We also were treated to a New Orleans style dinner thanks to Fr. Getchel. He has been in Chicago this semester as well because of his sabbatical program at CTU. Every Wednesday he cooked dinner for us. He is a wonderful cook, for sure. Things won’t be the same without him next semester.
Now, we again are at the Abbey for the rest of the month. We will be celebrating Christmas and the New Year here with the community as well as taking classes in the Order’s Constitutions and Peace and Justice issues.
All in all it’s been a busy month of traveling and moving around. But it keeps us busy. Stay tuned for more updates in the future.
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All In a Day’s Work
Hi everyone.
I hope all of you are well. I heard that snow was flying the other day in Green Bay. Nothing down here in Chicago yet, but it has been getting colder and colder.
Some of you have asked about what a ‘typical’ day in the Novitiate is like. Although I can’t guaranty that any day here is typical, this is what usually happens.
Monday
7:00 Lauds and Mass
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Spanish Class
10:00 Religious Life/ Spirituality Class
12:00 Noon Prayer, then Lunch
1:00 Work Period
3:00 Free time/Study
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Recreation with the community and dinner
7:00 Free time
Tuesday
7:00 Leave for ICN
3:00 (or so) Return home
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Recreation and Dinner
7:00 Free
Wednesday
7:00 Lauds and Mass
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Latin Class
10:00 Reading time
12:00 Prayer and Lunch
1:00 Work Period
3:00 Free time
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Rec. and dinner
7:00 Free time
Thursday
7:00 Lauds and Mass
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Clase de Español
10:00 Religious Life Class
12:00 Prayer and Lunch
1:00 Free time
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Rec. and dinner
7:00 Free time
Friday
7:00 Lauds and Mass
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Latin Class
10:00 Free
12:00 Prayer and Lunch
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Rec. and dinner
7:00 (Usually) a movie or cards or somthing
Saturday
8:00 Lauds and Mass
12:00 Prayer and Lunch
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Rec. and Dinner
7:00 Free
Sunday
8:00 Lauds
9:30-11:00 Mass somewhere in the City
5:00 Vespers
5:30 Rec. and Dinner
7:00 Free time.
There. Now you all know where I am at every moment of the week. haha. Be well!
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Picture Perfect
Hello!
So thanks to the generosity of my parents, I received a care package the other day. Not only were there treats (that we all enjoyed for dessert last night) but there was also a very nice camera!!! So, I thought I would test it out around the house. Here are some pictures of where I have been living for the past few months. Enjoy!

The back of Holy Spirit House of Studies. Originally built in 1906 by the Hoover family...the vacuum people
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Aumtumn Update
Hello Everyone!
Many prayers, all the time,
Frater Brad
Filed under: Daily Happenings, Vocation | 1 Comment
Hi Everyone.
As Fall sneaks it’s way into Wisconsin and Illinois, my novitiate class and I got a chance to head up to North-eastern Wisconsin this past weekend. We began by taking an opportunity on Thursday afternoon to visit several places in the Southern Door Peninsula that were the foundation stones for the De Pere community. As we are reading Abbot Pennings’ letters back to Holland, he describes in detail the Peninsula and the places which they served. It was good to see these same churches standing today (although some are in bad shape). I even got a chance to walk through the house where Pennings and his confrers lived!
Thursday night we were able to head over to St. Norbert College and share in the Discernment Group meeting that was being held for the college students. It was quite an impressive group. Besides the 11 Norbertines that were there, there was also a Franciscan Sister and 7 college students interested in exploring a possible calling to religious life themselves. Keep all who are discerning in your prayers!
Friday was a nice leisurely day to take a walk on the beautiful Abbey grounds and to enjoy what Fall has to offer. (although it was sort of cold and rainy)
In contrast, Saturday was beautiful. Sunny and even a little too warm for late September if I dare to say that. As the new Schneider Football Field was being dedicated, a few Norbertines were able to go to the game to show our support. It was a wonderful time. The 4 novices, 3 Norbertine sisters from Slovakia, and 4 professed members of the community came out to show their support. Here are a few pictures from the game:

Talking with the sisters. (This was their first experience of American Football, so I was trying to explain the game to them...as best I could, that is)

As part of the game, a new Mascot was revealed to the community. Pictured left to right is Frater Jacob, Frater Bradley, Frater Matthew, Sir Norbert, Sr. Adriana, Sr. Magdelena, and Sr. Benedicta
After all of the excitement of the game on Saturday, we taught the sisters how to play a card game after dinner. They are card sharks! They all enjoyed the game, and none of them were in last place either. Tough competition.
On Sunday morning we were able to witness the new members of the Norbertine Volunteer Community be installed for this year of service. We also were able to hear the new Schola sing for the first time in the Abbey Church. It was beautiful! I’m very excited to hear such beautiful singing in that space. After lunch, we then headed back to Chicago.
All in all, a pretty eventful weekend. This week holds a 3 day retreat in Racine with our ICN group (see previous post). We will be talking about family systems and how we fit into that schema as religious.
I hope all of you are well! Keep praying for me, and I will do the same for you!
In St. Norbert,
Frater Brad
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Hi Everybody
One of the highlights of the week here in Chicago is our weekly Tuesday trip to Techny Illinois. What was once the head quarters for the SVD’s (Society of the Divine Word) is now a conference center and beautiful chapel. We leave the house every Tuesday at 7:00am to travel to Techny for a gathering of novices from about 12 different religious communities. This meeting is called Inter-Community Novitiate (ICN).
During these meetings, we gather as a group of friends all going through novitiate together. Because of this, ICN is sort of like a “support group” helping us all along on the road of religious life. Along with this community, we have presentations by a number of lay and religious folk. Last week’s presentation was on Poverty in today’s world, and this week’s topic is Transitions.
My favorite aspect of ICN is the diversity that exists within this group. Out of the roughly 40 or so novices that are in attendance, we represent many different countries. At lunch, I have shared a meal with novices from Brazil, Ghana, Tanzania, Ireland, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Taiwan, just to name a few.
Because of this diversity, I am learning much about the Catholic Church as the Universal Church that it is. My appreciation of other cultures is rapidly expanding. For closing prayer last week, we sang a traditional song from Bangladesh using genuine Bangladesh instruments. I’m also getting some practice in Spanish thanks to the sisters from Mexico.
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