Summer is here, although it doesn't officially begin until tomorrow which will be June 21, and a lot has happened since I last write you.

Every year about this time various priests' groups come up here for their annual retreat. First, in the early part of May, the priests from the Baker Diocese in eastern Oregon spent some days here on retreat. Then from May 21 to 25 we had our own community retreat. Usually we get a retreat director from some other monastery, but this year we tried an experiment. We had eight conferences and each one was given by a different priest from our own community. It went quite well.

Following our retreat, the Holy Cross priests and brothers had their retreat here, and they were followed by the priests from the Archdiocese of Portland. So we have had quite a number of different priests here during May.

Usually we sing Vespers together and then have a special social and a meal for each group on one night of their respective retreat times. We always enjoying having the various priests come over and share socially with us.

During our own monastic retreat, Abbot Peter, Fr. Paul, Fr. Paschal, Fr. Gregory, Fr. Edmund, Fr. Philip, Fr. Marius and I gave conferences. In my conference, I gave some observations to the monks about our community. I reminded them that our external witness was good. People who come here to visit and stay with us for a while are pleased with what they see and hear and experience. We have many talented monks here - religious men with good musical gifts; our Divine Office is sung on tone (most of the time) and has a certain inspirational and prayerful quality about it, for both the monks and visitors. Generally speaking, we are quite hospitable. Fr. Edmund spoke about the importance of hospitality for monasteries. Hospitality is a way that monks show love.

And I told the monks that we had to learn to accept each other a little better, that we, being typical American males, suffer some of the same syndromes American males suffer from in general. We don't always express our feelings to each other that well. We seem to be more positive to those we serve in ministry than those we live with day in and day out. This is a problem for families in general and we are just one big, male family. I told them of the on-going alertness we need to have to pray for our benefactors and friends, who expect that we do that with attention and affection. I noted that we have many people writing to us and sending us help for our work, and they simply ask that we pray for them. We need to be really sensitive to these people and their needs every time we go into the church to pray the Divine Office. These and a few other points were the content of my conference.

A final thing I wish to report to you now is that I had prostate surgery on May 30. I have been planning on doing this for some time. My doctor is Dr. Tom Pitre, a urologist and good friend in Portland. This was one of those resection surgeries and it went well. I was in the hospital for two full days in St. Vincent's at Portland. There is some lack of comfort in it all, but not heavy-duty pain. I am still recovering and am supposed to be taking it easy.

I would ask you to continue to pray for our community and for me, as I will be having some prostate radiation treatments in a few months. There was some malignancy in the gland, but they say that is true for almost 50% of men my age.

It's good to be with you with these words. May the Lord continue to bless you all.

Sincerely in the Lord,