The parables suffer from our familiarity with them. That familiarity, however, may be more superficial than intimate. It is important to remember that the priest and the Levite mentioned in today’s Gospel were bound to fulfill their cultic obligations for the good of the people, obligations they couldn’t fulfill should they be defiled by a […]
Saturday of the 14th Week of the Year
Our Lord’s admonition that we not judge one another so as not be judged ourselves, is one we find difficult to heed. Almost at every moment we are making judgments and assessments—some necessary, others not. Judging the breaking distance required while approaching a red traffic light is necessary, but judging the motives of a brother […]
A final touch
Unlike the man in Jesus’ parable who began building a tower and was unable to complete it, we have finally completed our new bell-tower. This final touch was the dressing with stone of the base and foundation of the tower. And although this doesn’t add much to the strength and stability of the tower, it […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the 14th Sunday of the Year
The German word “Schadenfreude,” is one we have come to use in those situations where the misfortune of another brings us pleasure—albeit one we will not openly admit to. Similarly, we have probably all had the experience of hoping for the downfall and punishment of some villain portrayed in a film or novel. In daily […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for Corpus Christi
In the long history of Christianity heresies have sometimes been associated with Christians unwilling to live with mystery and thus seeking (with puny human intelligence) to comprehend and describe the infinite. And although this tendency has been more pronounced in the great mysteries of the Trinity and the person of Christ, it has not been […]
Gift Shop Closing Days
Please Note: The Gift Shop will be closed all day Thursday July 11 in honor of the Solemnity of Our Father, Saint Benedict, and will reopen on Friday morning at 10.00 a.m.
Friday of the Eleventh Week of the Year
Saint Paul’s claim that he would rather boast of his weaknesses than his strengths rings a little hollow coming, as it does, after a very impressive cataloging of the sufferings and persecutions that he so courageously endured. But two phrases following this long catalog of heroic endurance reflect the ultimate humility of this great apostle. […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Trinity Sunday
In dogmatic theology we refer to the Trinity as a “procession,” that is to say, something or someone that “proceeds”. In the Creed we speak of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, and this, in fact, refers to John’s Gospel, at the end of Chapter Fifteen: the Spirit of Truth that proceeds from the […]
Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our motivations for doing things are not always as clear as we might think, or as pure and unselfish as they need to be. Ideally, we should, like Paul, be impelled by love in all that we do—echoing Saint Augustine’s adage, love and do what you will. Unfortunately, pure love and unselfish love cannot be […]
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua
Like some low-grade, persistent, but untreated infection in the body that, though not life-threatening, constantly undermines a person’s health, so habitual patterns of sin whose deeper roots are never uncovered may not extinguish the light of grace, but they do constantly rob us of inner peace and preclude that purity of heart without which we […]