"Making All Things New"August 2015
In This Issue
Fr. Dan's Column
Looking Back
Celebrating 30 Years
Mountain on Instagram
Nature's Corner

We do not like bees because they sting, but when they are out of the way and just "BEEing." Think about it. Amazing!

Peace, Br. Joe Kotula, ofm

RSVP to 30th Anniversary
 
Please join us at Mt. Irenaeus as we gather for 
the Mountain's 30th Anniversary Celebration!

Sept. 19, 2015

2 p.m. Memorial Celebration in the Labyrinth
 
3:30 p.m. Festive Eucharist under a tent

5 p.m. Dinner, followed by Kim and Reggie Harris in concert with friends

Mass will be celebrated as usual at 11 a.m. on Sunday, followed by a dish-to-pass brunch.

 

 For more information, please contact the Mountain office at:



Annual Mountain Auction

Saturday, Nov. 7, at Premier Banquet Center

5 p.m. Mass

 6 p.m. Silent auction opens, followed by live, verbal auction


$60 per person includes cocktails, dinner buffet and desserts.

 The Auction is our largest fundraising gathering, raising more than $30,000 for the Mountain each year.

 Please consider attending, contributing a gift to the auction or hosting a gift-gathering party. 

 We welcome new products and gift certificates in all price ranges.

 

For gift ideas or more information, please visit our website, or contact the Mountain office at 716-375-2096 or mount.irenaeus@gmail.com


 

Our online auction will be held in November. Stay tuned for more details!

Fr. Dan's Podcasts





Connect with us!
Tide Rolls On
Fr. Dan's reflections from the Jersey Shore at Mountain on the Road, looking toward our 30th Anniversary celebration at Mt. Irenaeus. 
 
"Time and tide wait for no man." Yes, no person is so important that time or tide wait for us; they keep on rolling. So do our days and our nights and our dawns unto new days for all of us, and for new days at Mt. Irenaeus and beyond.
 
So many of us will gather on the Mountain to celebrate the 30th Anniversary on Sept. 19, commemorating more than 30 years of life and the gathering of families both here and beyond. 

Many of us have grown in different ways over these years - certainly older!  Each of us in our own way, all of us finding wisdom in our life to take to other places. We all live and move and find our being in God, and sacred places help us find our being with one another in a God-path, a way of life that we call Franciscan ... Read more.
Looking Back
Charlie Specht, '10, shares what Mt. Irenaeus means to him.

If I close my eyes, I can still see it.You know, the path leading up to the chapel, the last leg of the journey to the summit of Mt.Irenaeus.It is beautiful, still, quiet.

What defines it is not so much the chirping of birds or the feel of soft wind on your face as you climb, step by step, toward that wooden chamber of refuge.

No, what marks this particular journey is a sudden absence.
An absence of hurry.

Of speech.

Of haste.

Of doubt.

Of the cell phone's ding, ding, ding, listen-to-me pull that makes us wonder what we're missing someplace else ... Read more.
Participants in a 2007 men's overnight gather for a photo, together with Fr. Bob Struzynski, ofm, (back row, center) and Fr. Dan Riley, ofm. Charlie Specht is pictured in the second row, second from the right.
Celebrating 30 Years
Each month, we've been featuring photos from each decade of the Mountain's history to commemorate its 30th Anniversary. This month we've included photos from 2010-2015 (below). For more photos, a podcast and a graphic timeline of the Mountain's history, visit mounti.com.



Members of Mountain Community Leaders gather at the Mountain
Aug. 30, 2014.


Coloring friars with Br. Kevin Kriso, ofm, during the Mountain's recent Family Weekend on June 27, 2015.

The Mountain on Instagram
Enjoy this recent post from Fr. Dan. For more, follow @mtirenaeus.

 I was lost on roads between the Buffalo airport and Mt. Irenaeus this evening... Who would believe? I've driven that route for 30 years!

After I felt frustration and was angry with myself, with God's roadside intervention, I realized I was wandering through a deeply beautiful, wildly mysterious, magical farm country with some hills covered with those giant wind mills! 

Dirt roads, steep hills, deep dips and bends, and a closed road, only intensified my resolve to let this OPEN UP the evening rather than close it down. We all know we have that choice ... I'm not always clear enough to know when.

Night had begun in our Chapel. I had flown in from Oakland, Calif. and was still miles away. Then I saw the sun beginning to set out the back window of the car... I mean it looked that near! After I pulled over and parked, I climbed back down a dirt road hill to stand there and take a few pictures.

A little later, the full moon rose. A pink-orange-white-blue sky flew by repeatedly over and over as I drove wildly by a series of hills ...as I found my (rest of the way) home! Get lost,, wander happily sometime!

Contact Us

 

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