"Making All Things New" May 2016
In This Issue
New Executive Director
Fr. Dan's Column
Prayer & Scripture
Community Service Day
Matching Gifts
Intercollegiate Weekend
Mountain on Instagram



Nature's Corner

Creation shows us that life cannot be stopped. 

Flowers that we call weeds continue to show up and flower no matter what. 

 We need to learn that we too can flower, because God loves us much more than the wild
flowers.
 
Peace, Br. Joe Kotula, ofm

Mountain Financial Facts

$1,000 covers the cost of groceries at the Mountain for two weeks.

$50 supports Sunday brunch.

$750 heats the House of Peace for one month. 

As part of a broader effort to regularly share more information regarding the Mountain's operating expenses and how our donors' generous contributions make a difference, we'll be  periodically highlighting brief "financial facts." Thank you for your support!

Save the Dates:
Summer Weekends of Transformation

June 10-12 or Aug. 5-7, 2016

 Join us for this weekend retreat of personal growth, transformation and leadership formation for all those involved with "On the Road" and "In Your Home" ministries.

 A core circle of leaders hunger to learn, rest and reflect on how we might "renew the face of the earth." Together we will grow and further grow the Mountain's mission to go "out to all the world." This is an important and exciting opportunity to spend time with others from many different parts of our country finding their way into Mountain life.

 For more information please contact Michelle Marcellin (mmarc@sbu.edu or 716-375-2096)

Spring 2016 Newsletter

Access the latest print newsletter online. 


Fr. Dan's Podcasts



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Connect with us!
Mike Fenn Begins Tenure as Mountain's New Executive Director
Longtime Board of Trustees member to help lead Mt. Irenaeus into new era.
Welcome to Mike Fenn, who is Mount Irenaeus' new (and first ever) full-time executive director!

Mike has been involved with Mt. Irenaeus since 1987 as a freshman at St. Bonaventure University, and he lived in community with the friars during the summers of 1990 and 1991. He was invited to join the Board of Trustees in 2007, eventually taking the role of board chair in 2014.

After working in the corporate world for the past 24 years, Mike began to recognize the need for a dramatic change in his professional life.

He will work alongside Fr. Dan, Br. Kevin and the whole Mountain family, near and far. The role of executive director is critical in sustaining the Mountain's way of life and ministry, and we are thrilled to have Mike take on this crucial post. Learn more about Mike and his new role here!
A New Spring
Fr. Dan Riley, ofm, shares an update on his health and reflects on the exciting, new developments taking shape at the Mountain this spring season.
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Metaphor ... languaging
Fr. Lou McCormick, ofm, presides over Mass during the Mountain's recent Convocation.
sameness, hidden similarities, more than comparing one to another.

A hidden meaning voices itself as a bell ringing when we hear or read or see an effective metaphor.

"June is busting out all over!" - one such metaphor from an American musical -  immediately stirs the energy and enthusiasm for all the new life and new possibilities that splash out in greens and yellows, pinks and blues - a burst of color and wonderful possibilities we call spring.  

But more than that, spring is a season of new life; a metaphor of the eternal ongoing return of Christ, the light and life that has come into the world. This goes way beyond metaphor!  

The Mountain is experiencing this bursting out, this bubbling up, this eternal return of Christ this spring season.

I am experiencing, through some recent news regarding my throat and lungs, a sense of a new spring. As we were checking out the possibility of cancer, a fungus was discovered that may be the culprit for the aforementioned health concerns. If this is indeed the case, along with healing there is an invitation to look at life and a new springtime when energy returns ... Read more.  
Prayer & Scripture
Fr. Dan offers a prayer and suggested scripture reading for Pentecost.
  
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia.
  
For this weekend and coming days you might want to reflect on a passage from John's Gospel (John 20:19-23). 
  
In this you will hear the deep, strengthening message, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 
  
Let us hold each other and the world in prayers for peace.
Spring Community Service Day at Mount Irenaeus
Thanks to all who flocked to the Mountain April 23 and 24 to help clean, prepare and refresh the grounds and main house for the coming year. We are so grateful for your assistance!
Helpers gather together to reflect during the community service day.
Br. Kevin and some of the day's volunteers prepare the Mountain's garden for the coming summer.

Matching Gifts Opportunity

Are you interested in helping to sustain and grow Mt. Irenaeus? We invite you to join us in a challenge to "make all things new!"

Through May 31, several special friends of the Mountain - Mari Snyder, Rob Buckla, and Hilary (Moran) & Kevin Van Norstrand - are offering a dollar-for-dollar match for gifts that will propel us toward our annual $200,000 Mountain Fund goal. 

While the Mountain's impact on our spiritual life and enhanced relationship with God is priceless, there is a price to operate it. All gifts to the Mountain Fund go toward operating expenses, which are approximately $500,000 per year. 

Please consider this opportunity to double your gift's impact, and join us in supporting Mt. Irenaeus! 
Students Gather for Intercollegiate Retreat
Students from five colleges grow and learn from Mt. Irenaeus.

Each semester, Mt. Irenaeus hosts a weekend retreat for students from various local colleges and universities.

This semester, we had 26 students from St. Bonaventure, Houghton College, SUNY Geneseo, Nazareth and the Rochester Institute of Technology. We use the Sunday Gospel as the jumping-off point for prayer and discussion -- this time, the Fourth Sunday of Easter. 

We prayed and shared over the themes of the rich diversity of people in the world, our need to accept each other as children of the same God and the command to "Go out to all nations."

- Br. Kevin Kriso, ofm
Off to help out in the sunshine.
There is bounty all around us.
It's not just SBU students who love the Mountain!
So far we've managed to solve all the world's problems in this discussion...

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

This morning, the suffering of the world seems to be taken up in the suffering of Christ, in union with the One who endured all for all of us in his journey to be one with everyone.
 
"May the strength of God pilot me, the power of God preserve me today. May the wisdom of God instruct me,
The eye of God watch over me,
Christ be with me
Christ before me
Christ after me
Christ in me
Christ under me
Christ over me
Christ on my right hand
Christ on my left hand
Christ on this side
Christ on that side 
Christ at my back
Christ in the head of everyone to whom I speak.
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me.
Christ in the eye of every person who looks at me today."
- St. Patrick 

 May we know the presence of Christ in all people, in every place, in every creature that we walk with - that we may be inclined to walk by. May we know that we are one with all others and in Christ today!

Contact Us

 

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