Commemorating 30 Years With What We Do Best

Br. Kevin Kriso, ofm, describes the planned 30th Anniversary celebration in September.

A wonderful group of Mountain friends and Mountain residents have been contemplating the question, “How do you celebrate 30 years of blessing and the gift of helping to join with Jesus Christ in making all things new?”

Our 30^th Anniversary planning group wanted to do right by this momentous occasion. We thought big, and we thought small. We did not go so far as to suggest blaring horns, having a parade or setting off fireworks. In the end we decided to do what we do best and what has worked for the last 30 years with a few special touches, to bring back old friends and to make some new ones as well.

Thirty years ago, some land was purchased in Allegany County on a wooded hilltop. This capped a dream of Fr. Dan Riley and many others to have a place and a community steeped in prayer and hospitality. Over the years, we have increased our outreach to the community, inviting others to join us in our Gospel manner of life and ministry and adding more land, buildings, hermitages, trails, gardens, a common house and a chapel.

We have also strengthened the outreach beyond the Mountain with “Mountain on the Road” and “Mountain in Your Home” gatherings, which bring people together to share a sense of Mountain Time while “In the Valley.” In recent years, we have turned to the blessings of new technologies to reach out to friends far and wide.

Through all of our growth, we at the Mountain have kept close to our original formula of a daily rhythm of work, prayer, solitude and community that provides others with active and contemplative opportunities and to be attentive to the faith in their own hearts. We provide a place and community to reflect and respond to God's goodness, to seek out and find light and life … and share it with others.

It is, in the truest sense, “living out the Gospel in daily life." The life at Mt. Irenaeus is a practical and pragmatic way to live faith for all seekers, even those of us who are blessed to live on the Mountain each day. 

Our plans for our 30^th anniversary celebration on Sept. 19 and 20 will closely follow our original formula, because it has worked so well for us in the past 30 years. There will be time for work, prayer, reflection and community—only there will be more people on the Mountain those days, along with live music and lots of food and old and new friends and t-shirts and so much more.

Visit www.mounti.com/30 for more details about the 30^th Anniversary celebration schedule.