Christmas Break is Broke ... and what a break!

So, yes, I am a bad blogger. One of you even e-mailed me with the subject line "long time no blog." It has been a great month or so since my last blog. As you see from previous posts, it was a full month of flying, biking, travel, and so on. Here is a quick recap. Above is a picture of me riding in Texas. The thumbs-up is for the downhill I'm about to enjoy after a series of long, painful climbs. Texas Hill Country has a lot of hills (duh).

After Jesse and I finished biking across Texas, I flew to Saint Louis for the night. Then I hopped in my pickup for the long drive home to enjoy Christmas with family. Pictured here on Christmas Eve are my brother, Ira, and and his wife Heather. Oh, and who can forget their big lazy dog, Ajax. It is an exciting year for them as they are expecting their first child. To watch them discover the sex of the newest Signalness, see their youtube videos: part 1 and part 2.

What is the world coming to? My MOM got a Nintendo for Christmas. Wow. All I got was socks (okay, that's not true). Speaking of Christmas, there was record snowfall on Christmas Eve and Day. Many churches in the diocese didn't have Christmas Masses because of the weather. Mom and I went to Mass, after much debate about the safety of the drive, and found the church almost empty. It was a very simple, quiet Mass.

After that I made a trip to Mandan to spend time with fellow seminarians, my bishop, and my parish. Then I drove up to Sunne Lutheran near Wilton to see a baptism. It was a great pleasure to watch the baptism of Jesse and Cheryl's beautiful little girl, Joanie. Seeing Jesse with his daughter was awesome. And seeing her beautiful little eyes, hands, and feet was such a pleasure. I'm very happy for Cheryl and Jesse.

But after attending the baptism, I had to drive to Broom Tree Conference and Retreat Center in rural South Dakota somewhere south of Sioux Falls (near Irene, SD). Unfortunately I blew a tire somewhere near Watertown. It was late at night and about -10 degrees. After struggling with the jack and spare, I was back on the road in maybe 45 minutes. My hands were freezing, despite my gloves.

This is a picture of the retreat center a couple of days later, after a nasty blizzard had passed. I spent a week here in silent prayer. Four hours each day I prayed with short passages of Scripture. This is my second such retreat. They aren't always easy, but as the words on the front of the altars at Broom Tree say, "In the silence ... God speaks." The time there was a very fruitful preparation for my ordination this coming summer.

Here is the view out one of the windows at the retreat center during one of the days of blowing snow. It was often 20 degrees below zero with 40 mile an hour winds. The snow drifts pile up to six or seven feet in some places and the wind scoured the ground clean in others. The staff of the retreat center retreated before the storm hit, and were unable to return for two or three days because the roads were all blocked. As I said, this is in the country. But we were fine. It was better, in fact, because it was more quiet with fewer people around.

This is the small country church on the property of the retreat center. I spent a couple of hours each day in there, usually by myself.

It has been restored completely. The interior of the church is very simple, but quite nice. It reminded me of my first parish church in tiny Des Lacs, ND. I enjoyed it.

Now, of course, I am back in Saint Louis and have resumed my seminary studies. This semester is packed, but the courses are going to be good. I will be studying the theology of the Eucharist, deep prayer (spiritual theology) and spiritual direction, marriage preparation (yikes!), holy orders, and Saint Augustine, to name a few of my courses.

There, I feel a bit more caught up on the blogging now. If only I could get those travel logs for my last two bike trips completed. Oh, someday.