4 May, 2025, Third Sunday of Easter, Year C: Acts 5:27-32. 40b-41; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19 I draw your attention to Jesus’ question to Peter: Do you love me? For several weeks we’ve celebrated a pageant of betrayal, misunderstanding, suffering, injustice, cruelty, fidelity of the few—and the unexpected miracle of resurrection. Isn’t it so easy […]
Feast of Saints James and Philip
It is unclear (at least to me) whether Philip’s show us the Father, and that will be enough for is, is just simple curiosity, or the affirmation of a profound truth. This truth is one that we struggle to truly believe and act on. So much of our spiritual efforts involve letting go of those […]
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Saturday of the Easter Octave
It is a totally transformed and emboldened Peter who courageously defies the members of the Sanhedrin and exclaims that it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard. This “impossibility” of which Peter speaks can be understood in two ways. Firstly, in the sense in which Peter intended it. […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday, YR C: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9 For us, as for the people in this Gospel, isn’t knowledge of the Resurrection posited by indirect evidence? The Risen Jesus has yet to appear to them. In all four Gospels, he will come to them, though he is often not recognized at first. […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the Easter Vigil
Having celebrated, in orderly sequence, the last supper, the arrest and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and now his resurrection from the dead, we can naturally consider these as simply past events, annually recalled, and reverently honored. However, the truth is that they are not merely past events; instead, all the saving acts of […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper
At the beginning of each Holy Mass the priest invites us to acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries. This is a perhaps necessary reminder that the Eucharist is one of the central mysteries of our faith. And like all mysteries, our severely limited understanding of divine realities means that […]
Friday of the 5th Week of Lent
On Sunday (in the course of reading the Passion) we will again hear Jesus pray: Father forgive them, they know not what they do. And in this incredible expression of mercy and forgiveness, Jesus carries out his own teaching according to which we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you. […]
Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent
We have just heard Jesus’ saddening observation: You are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you. These words addressed to the Jews are being addressed to us also for all too often there is no room in our hearts and minds for God’s Word to enter and find a home; […]
A Word from Our Cistercian Fathers
For faith to be established, it must be tested. With regard to this testing Peter, in his first letter, speaks thus: ‘Although you may have to be saddened for a little while by various temptations so that the testing of your faith (which is much more precious than gold tested by fire) may be found […]