We hosted our 19th annual St. Hildegard Society Dinner at the monastery today. The St. Hildegard Society is a recognition society for those men and women who help co-create the future of the Sisters of St. Benedict of Ferdinand by including the sisters in their estate plans. More than 50 members of the St. Hildegard Society, which currently numbers 231 members, attended the recognition dinner.

Sister Betty Drewes and Olivia Adler, a charter member of the St. Hildegard Society, talk with Tom and Jeannie Gill (center), new members of the Society who were recognized at the dinner.

High winds, remnants of Hurricane Ike, swept across our monastery grounds this afternoon, leaving branches, pieces of roofing tile and slate, and other debris strewn around campus. We are grateful that we were spared major damage, but the power of the wind gusts we experienced today makes us more aware of the destructive force of hurricanes and of the people whose lives are forever changed by such disasters.

We ask you to pray with us for all who are affected by the recent hurricanes and, if you have the means, to make a contribution to an organization dedicated to helping them.

Sisters Sylvia Gehlhausen and Leona Schlachter check out the damage done to trees on the monastery grounds by the afternoon wind storm.

About 50 Hispanic women from the tri-county area attended an “educational brunch” at Kordes Center today to hear María Estela Fernández, breast cancer survivor, speak about the disease and the importance of having mammograms done regularly. Sister Karen Durliat, director of Hispanic ministry in the Evansville Diocese and of the Guadalupe Center in Huntingburg, said that the Center received a grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Greater Evansville Affiliate to fund the brunch and program and to provide for 25 free mammograms for women who have limited resources and no health insurance.

Sister Karen Durliat serves Ana Luz Morales Perez, a former Marian Heights Academy student, who now lives in this area.

Special guests joined us for Evening Prayer and dinner today. Actor James MacArthur, best known by TV fans as Detective Danny ("Book 'em, Danno") Williams in "Hawaii Five-O," and H.B. Duntz MacArthur, professional golfer on the LPGA circuit for 12 years, are here to participate in and lend their celebrity support to our 2008 Gala and Dome Golf Classic on September 7 and 8. Those fund-raising events will be held in the domed atrium of the historic West Baden Springs Hotel and at the legendary Donald Ross Course at French Lick.