"Making All Things New"February 2014
In This Issue
SURVEY
Fr. Dan's Column
Mountain in Your Home
Winter Overnight
Archbishop Walsh Students Visit
Pictures from our Past
Amazon Smile

 

You can now support the Mountain each time you purchase from Amazon!

 

Each time you shop at smile.amazon.com and select "Franciscan Mountain Retreat," a small percentage of your purchases will benefit Mt. Irenaeus. 

More information and detailed instructions can be found on our website. 

We would greatly appreciate your participation. 
  
Nature's Corner

 

Anyone who is close to nature is never far from God. Winter has a way to make the world hush. Be still and know that I am God. Awesome. 

- Br. Joe Kotula, ofm
  
See what's happening at the Mountain!
 
Keep up-to-date on the latest events and gatherings at the Mountain and "on the Road" through our photostream available on Flickr
 
Be sure to check out Fr. Dan's visual diary of his travels and time at the Mountain.
  
 
The Mountain on Twitter
 
Follow the newly revitalized Mountain Twitter feed, featuring live tweets and beautiful photos from Fr. Dan.
  
Fr. Dan's Podcasts
 
Fr. Dan Riley, ofm, records audio reflections to share his thoughts with you.

We invite you to download these podcasts and listen as you have the time. Perhaps it's while you're on a run, driving or sitting peacefully in your home. We hope they enhance your prayer life allow you to take a step back and reflect. 

Our podcasts have evolved since their debut in 2011. We expect this ministry to continue to mature and ripen in the coming years.

Three podcasts from the last month are available on mounti.com. In his latest recording, Fr. Dan invites us to the fullness of life in Christ, though "caves" might surround us.
  
Mass Schedule

Mass at the Mountain is regularly celebrated
Sundays at 11 a.m.

Brunch immediately follows Mass. You're invited to bring a dish to pass.

 


Connect with us!
We Want to Hear From You! 

 

We're asking e-newsletter subscribers to take a very brief, nine-question survey so we can gauge the ways YOU would like to hear from the Mountain. Please click here to access the survey. 

 

Answers are anonymous. We thank you in advance for helping us learn how we can improve our e-communications efforts!

The Mountain Where We Are
Fr. Dan Riley, ofm, writes about sharing in prayer and fellowship in homes throughout the country. 

 

Fr. Dan visits with friends of the Mountain at an August 2011 Mountain in Your Home event.  

The sun rose on a recent February morning, sending a flow of warm colors over the cold snow here on the Mountain. As the sun climbed, these colors took on more life and more movement. They helped me think of the Mountain itself and its movement out to the world. 


St. Francis appeals to each one of us saying, "Let us always make a home and a dwelling place (in our hearts) for the one who is Lord God Almighty."

In our daily life here on the Mountain, we choose and receive God's intimate indwelling presence. This is the source, the place from which our ongoing mission moves from our hearts and the heart of the Mountain out to the world like molten colors on the snow, warming cold lives and cold places.

For more than 12 years, family homes have opened to small, informal Mountain gatherings for prayer and fellowship. These "Mountain in Your Home" gatherings are led by regional teams. During these afternoons and evenings, people in different parts of the country open their lives and their hearts to God's indwelling in our world today.

In Rochester, Buffalo, Connecticut, northern Virginia (for the D.C. and Maryland areas), Charlotte, N.C., and in northern and southern California, we have been trying out our "recipes" for these gatherings, having cooked them here on the Mountain for nearly 30 years. People pour their lives out in simple ways, we circle up in silence and listen to God's word and enter into conversation. Breaking bread and sharing peace continues to move all of us each time we gather in someone's home ... Read more. 
Mountain in Your Home Events

Feb. 19 - Golden, Colo.  
Sharing a meal during a Mountain in Your Home gathering.
 
Home of Mike and Reina Black 
  
March 2 - Arlington, Va.
Home of Wendy Mann
  
March 9 - Napa, Calif.
Home of Russ and Debbie Joy
 
Please contact Michelle Marcellin at [email protected] for more information about these events.
   
Visit our calendar page on mounti.com to check for upcoming gatherings in your hometown.
Winter Overnight at Mt. Irenaeus
SBU graduate student Maddie Gionet, '13 & '15, shares her reflection on the Mountain's Winter Overnight held Jan. 25-26.
 
Mother Nature did not disappoint for the Winter Overnight at the Mountain! Twenty St. Bonaventure students and two alumni enjoyed a weekend of snow, sledding and spectacular company while considering what winter meant to them.
Fr. John Coughlin, ofm, gives three students a helpful push to launch their toboggan run.
 
As snow fell all weekend, students started the overnight off in perfect
winter fashion, taking toboggans out to the field below La Paz and sledding until faces were red, laughs erupted and snow covered every inch of some students (and Br. Joe) brave enough to face the fast-paced, bumpy field. 

A warm meal in the company of friends new and old followed, in keeping with Mountain tradition. 
With stomachs full, the group took an extended walk to the Chapel, following Br. Joe on a moonlit walk through the woods, stopping at La Paz along the way. Reflection in the Chapel reminded us all that while winter may seem cold and long, it has its beauty and special gifts just as all the other seasons do - we might just have to look a little harder to find them.
Students gather with Br. Joe Kotula, ofm, (far right) on the snowy grounds of Mt. Irenaeus.

Learning is Eternal
Br. Kevin Kriso, ofm, reflects on a recent evening hosting local high school seniors at the Mountain.
 
Archbishop Walsh Academy seniors gather on Holy Peace Chapel's loft during an overnight trip to the Mountain.
 
In mid-January, Mt. Irenaeus hosted an overnight for the senior class of Archbishop Walsh Academy in Olean. It may come as a surprise to many that the Mountain has a ministry beyond St. Bonaventure University or even that the Mountain is a separate entity from the university. While it is true that a large portion of our interactions are connected to Bona's, we also have a vibrant ministry in collaboration with churches in the area and beyond. Indeed, from our earliest days, we hoped the Mountain would be a spiritual resource for local churches.

The Archbishop Walsh students are a wonderful, thoughtful group of people striving like the rest of us to find their places in the world. Our time with them reminded me not to fall into a way of thinking that older people can sometimes have about younger people. If we are not careful, we older people can think that younger people are not as "finished" as we are; that younger people somehow need to grow more or learn more before we can take them seriously. 

However, the reality is everyone, including ourselves, are who we are supposed to be at this moment. So many people live for the then instead of enjoying the now. We believe a false notion that there is a far off, magical "someday" when we will be all finished, will have no more growing pains and will have arrived ...
Read more.
Pictures from our Past 
Fellowship, gathering and cleaning up from dinner in the original Main House in 1987.

 

Contact Us

 

Mt. Irenaeus
P.O. Box 100
West Clarksville, NY 14786
585-973-2470