Maintenance and Repairs
We are moving in the right direction here at Most Blessed Sacrament Friary regarding care for this aging monastery! For the first time in probably decades, at least since I was first here fourteen years ago, we have no water in our basement. After a string of several major repairs to drainage and sewer lines, some done by the brothers and some done by plumbers, we have conquered and tamed the beast of unwelcomed water into our basement! The mold is decreasing and the ground is finally dry. I never thought something like that would make me so happy; but as it were, it is one less distraction that once forced us to change our plans on a regular basis and caused other issues. Without your contributions… I may be in the basement dealing with flooding rather than writing this letter. Thank you!
Thanks be to God the water issues have basically been settled, because several other challenges have come up over the last six months or so that have been quite significant.
The roof over our wash room has been consistently leaking over many years now. Yearly, we made the necessary repairs. Last year, the plaster ceiling below the leaking roof was sagging so much from the weight of the moisture that we had to tear it all down before it fell on its own… pulling the lights down with it (as happened in our library years ago). We made it through the winter last year without that ceiling or insulation. Thanks be to God, it was only our washroom and a couple of bathrooms that took the brunt of the pervading cold draft of outside air. Because of your generous and consistent donations, we have signed a contract to completely replace the section of slate above the washroom and make the necessary decking repairs. The work should only take the roofers a week and should be completed before the end of November. Just in time for us to insulate and replace the ceiling before the winter. The brothers will be extra grateful when their bathroom isn’t close to freezing temperatures in the early mornings! Thank you.
Every now and again we get an unannounced visitor in our friary or rummaging through some of the vehicles. What happens? Well, we have always been fairly safe and a brother or two escorts the guest off of the property. Nonetheless, the exterior wall that runs along 10 th Street has started to crumble which leaves our home a little more vulnerable than normal and presents a real danger for pedestrians if the wall were actually to tumble. Once again, thanks to your generosity, we have been able to sign a contract to have the wall in part torn down and repaired. The materials are sitting in the back yard as I write, and the work should be completed by the time you read this letter.
Something that has been on our radar for a while now, and maybe will be able to be addressed in the future is the ceiling in the courtyard. The ceiling, unfortunately, has begun to rust through in many parts which provides easy access to many birds who want to nest below the floor of the bedrooms of many of the brothers. We do our best to block the holes, but the birds are tenacious and the holes are multiplying. With the replacement of that ceiling, we also hope to place insulation above it so that the floor in the brother’s rooms above it won’t serve as an air conditioner in the winter!
Thank you again for your generosity! The more Most Blessed Sacrament Friary becomes manageable from a maintenance perspective, the more free I am to serve as a Priest - not only time wise, but with the peace of mind that our friary is not falling apart and the brothers have an adequate place to live. Thank you for the great gift of helping us to rebuild Most Blessed Sacrament Friary so that we may continue to cooperate with the Lord’s grace in doing our part to rebuild His Church. We are very grateful!
- Fr. Stephen Dufrene, CFR
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