From : Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com) HULBERT, Okla. (CNS) – Benedictine monks will transform 75 large oak trees felled on the property of their monastery near Hulbert into large beams for their cloister and into doors for their residence and gatehouse.
ABBOT BOWS IN PRAYER DURING MASS AT MONASTERY – Abbot Antoine Forgeot, center, of Our Lady of the Assumption Abbey in Fontgombault, France, bows in prayer as he celebrates Mass Sept. 2 with the faithful and the monks of Clear Creek Monastery near Hulbert, Okla. Abbot Forgeot traveled to the monastery to inspect the progress of the construction of the new monastery. (CNS/Eastern Oklahoma Catholic)
Construction on the Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek began in 2004. The first building phase cost an estimated $4.5 million and consisted of the crypt and basement of what will be the church.
Phase two of construction is expected to cost $12 million. It began in November 2006 and is scheduled for completion in December of this year. It includes a four-story residence, or cloister, for the monks and the gatehouse, which will serve as a point of contact when visitors come to pray at the monastery.
With their massive walls and their huge concrete pillars sunk deep into the Oklahoma bedrock, it is clear that both the cloister and the crypt that will support the monastery's future church are meant to last.
The Benedictine community arrived from Fontgombault, France, in 1999 at the invitation of Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa, Okla. The 26 monks at Clear Creek have been using an original log house on their property as their kitchen and refectory, while they live and pray in several large metal buildings erected since their arrival.
On Sept. 2 Abbot Antoine Forgeot from Fontgombault celebrated Mass with the monks of Clear Creek. It was attended by about 200 of the faithful, who came from across the Diocese of Tulsa and from the surrounding region to see how quickly work is progressing.
In an effort to cut costs, much of the finishing work on the monastery will be completed by the monks themselves, which is expected to delay occupancy until early 2008.
Funding for the building project comes from financing, private donations and the support of the monks' motherhouse in France.
"We are probably going to build a small, wood-burning heating system for the residence next," said Father Francois de Feydeau, who is subprior and a founder of the monastery.
"But the main project we want to start is building the church. As to when we will be able to do that, well, only God knows," he told the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Tulsa.
ABBOT BOWS IN PRAYER DURING MASS AT MONASTERY – Abbot Antoine Forgeot, center, of Our Lady of the Assumption Abbey in Fontgombault, France, bows in prayer as he celebrates Mass Sept. 2 with the faithful and the monks of Clear Creek Monastery near Hulbert, Okla. Abbot Forgeot traveled to the monastery to inspect the progress of the construction of the new monastery. (CNS/Eastern Oklahoma Catholic)
Construction on the Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek began in 2004. The first building phase cost an estimated $4.5 million and consisted of the crypt and basement of what will be the church.
Phase two of construction is expected to cost $12 million. It began in November 2006 and is scheduled for completion in December of this year. It includes a four-story residence, or cloister, for the monks and the gatehouse, which will serve as a point of contact when visitors come to pray at the monastery.
With their massive walls and their huge concrete pillars sunk deep into the Oklahoma bedrock, it is clear that both the cloister and the crypt that will support the monastery's future church are meant to last.
The Benedictine community arrived from Fontgombault, France, in 1999 at the invitation of Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa, Okla. The 26 monks at Clear Creek have been using an original log house on their property as their kitchen and refectory, while they live and pray in several large metal buildings erected since their arrival.
On Sept. 2 Abbot Antoine Forgeot from Fontgombault celebrated Mass with the monks of Clear Creek. It was attended by about 200 of the faithful, who came from across the Diocese of Tulsa and from the surrounding region to see how quickly work is progressing.
In an effort to cut costs, much of the finishing work on the monastery will be completed by the monks themselves, which is expected to delay occupancy until early 2008.
Funding for the building project comes from financing, private donations and the support of the monks' motherhouse in France.
"We are probably going to build a small, wood-burning heating system for the residence next," said Father Francois de Feydeau, who is subprior and a founder of the monastery.
"But the main project we want to start is building the church. As to when we will be able to do that, well, only God knows," he told the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Tulsa.
