Every year on January 26, we celebrate the Feast Day of our Holy Cistercian Founders—Saints Robert, Alberic, Stephen, and their companions. For the monastic community, this is what we call a “Holy Day” and one in which the daily schedule resembles a Sunday. Accordingly, Holy Mass will be celebrated at 10.00 a.m. (preceded by Terce […]
Saint Anthony of the Desert
There is a world of difference between allowing an exception to an otherwise reasonable divine law, rule, or religious practice for a good reason, and doing so with a casual, negligent, or indolent disregard for such a law or religious practice. For, although the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, […]
Fr. James’ Reflection for Monday, Week 2
Monday of the 2nd WK of the Year: Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 2:18-22 In a country like ours, with no compelling sense of restraint or self-mortification, fasting for no good reason could wake us up to our habit of self-appeasement. The attempt could actually generate a solid motivation for the practice. Fasting is never […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the 2nd Sunday of the Year
Second Sunday, Year A, 15 January, 2023: Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3; John 1:29-34
Saint Hilary of Poitiers
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews seems to betray a rather sketchy knowledge of scripture with his vague comment that God has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner, namely that God rested on the seventh day from all his works. Identifying this quote from Genesis along with the ability to […]
Fr. James’ Reflection for Thursday January 12
Thursday of the 1st WK of the Year: Hebrews 3:7-14; Mark 1:40-45 There have been many theories about why in Mark’s Gospel Jesus imposes silence on those he cures. Perhaps the best explanation is that identifying Jesus as a miracle worker, who fixes problems, is a misunderstanding. That expectation puts me in the wrong relationship […]
Fr. James’ Reflection for Saturday, January 7
Saturday, 7 January: 1 John 5:14-21; John 2:1-11 I scrapped the reflection I’d already typed when I reread the Gospel out loud last night: I was touched by this miracle Jesus wasn’t planning. I was touched that he didn’t hesitate to overcome his reluctance, that he caught the appropriateness of his mother’s concern—and her […]
A Word from Our Cistercian Fathers
The Only-begotten of God, the Sun of justice, like a huge and brilliant candle has enkindled and enlightened the prison of this world – so that everyone willing to be enlightened can come near him and be united to him so that nothing may come between them and him. Our sins are barriers between us […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for Mary Mother of God
The eternal existence of God, which is one that preceded all of creation (if one may speak thus), does make Mary’s unbelievably exalted title of “Mother of God” seem rather ridiculous. After all, according to our human thinking a mother always exists prior to the child she bears. Clearly, Mary as one among many of […]
Fr. James’ Reflection for Saint Stephen’s Day
Monday, 26 December: Acts 6:8-10; 7: 54-59; Matthew 10:17-22