A Guest at the Abbey
By Fr. John Hagemann, O.S.B.
Sometimes God simply surprises us with gifts that we had no idea might be coming our way.
For approximately a month now, a young man, only 23, has been living with us. As a very young boy he had expressed that he wanted to be a priest. In fact, he was only 5 or 7 years old at the time. This young man is Simon Michael Beacom.
Simon is a relative of mine. Although we have not spent a lot of time together over the years, we have connected on occasion, mostly on retreats at Tintern near Oakdale, Nebraska. Simon’s great grandmother, Claire, is a sister to my mother, Sally. Claire’s youngest son, Bob Simons, graduated from Mount Michael in 1983. Actually, we had lots of connections without spending much time together.
Recently, Simon and I connected at my fiftieth anniversary of priesthood celebration in Raeville, Nebraska. At that time, I invited Simon to come and visit our community, and after asking a first cousin of mine and his aunt, Julie Landgren, for his contact information, a further incentive to get him here at Mount Michael was to tell him I could use his help at the Fall Festival. And so it happened, Simon did answer the invitation, and he spent Festival weekend with us.
Within the period of mid September until October 24, he made his decision to answer the call he had been hearing most of his life. He resigned from his job and took all the steps to apply as a member of our community. That process is now complete, and he is looking forward to formally beginning the steps of formation into our monastic life here at Mount Michael.
Simon has quite a history of service and helping people. After he was here for a while, he told me about going to rest homes as a boy, only 8 years old, and visiting and helping the elderly. He told me about an article that was published in the Fremont Tribune about his efforts. It took me a while, but I recalled the article myself. My memory is that the article was published in the Catholic Voice.
Our vocation prayer is truly being answered with all the student and adult oblates that are joining us, and now the answer is being expanded with young men asking to join the community. There are others who are knocking on our doors.
We welcome Simon with open arms and ask you all to do the same. Much more will come in the future about him.