After completing a six-month postulancy Br. Paul Smith had the joy of receiving the Cistercian Novice’s Habit—thereby beginning his formal canonical novitiate. The so-called “clothing of the novice” is a special event in the life of the monk (and of the community) as we each recall our own reception of the habit and renew our […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent
3rd Sunday of Advent, 13 December, 2020: Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28 John the Baptist has something very important to tell us about discipleship, about the spiritual life: he knows who he is not. Unfortunately we live in a world urging us to label ourselves, selling us ways to […]
Thursday of the 2nd Week of Advent
In an age when trees, woods, and forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, the image of God planting cedars, acacias, myrtles, cypresses, and pines in the desert wasteland, is a rather timely and relevant one. God’s intervention is a reminder that the continuing damage being done to our environment is largely the result […]
Feastday of Saint Francis Xavier
The church has sometimes been criticized for adopting a “fortress mentality” in relation to the world and is, thereby, thought to undermine its positive influence and role in the world. Monastic enclosure sometimes receives a similar critique by those who believe that monks and nuns should be out evangelizing rather than taking refuge behind monastery […]
A Word from Our Cistercian Fathers
By the wonderful favor of God’s loving care, in this solitude of ours we have the peace of solitude and yet we do not lack the consolation and comfort of holy companionship. It is possible for each of us to sit alone and be silent, because we have no one to disturb us with interruptions, and yet it […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent
First Sunday of Advent: (Mark 13: 33-37) Be watchful and alert is the strident call on this First Sunday of Advent. As monks we are familiar with Saint Bernard’s “three comings” of Christ—his first, at his incarnation, his second, at the end of time, and this third and interim coming, by grace in the present […]
Friday of the 34th Week
REVELATION 2:1-7: Our reading from Revelation speaks of the dead being judged according their deeds. This raises the question: Which deeds? Our good deeds, or our bad ones? Does our eternal destiny depend on which we the most of—good or evil? If so, then are we not back to earning our way into heaven? An […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day, 26 November, 2020: Sirach 50:22-24; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19 We’re concluding a difficult year fraught with racism, contested elections, rampant conspiracy theories, Church scandals, tropical storms, uncontained wild fires, a pandemic—topped by the narcissism, denial and immaturity of our national culture. Now, of all times, it is crucial not to forget […]
Tuesday of the 33rd Week
Saint Andrew Dung Lac and Companions: Divine consolation, peace, and the absence of suffering can sometimes be more difficult to bear that their opposites. As monks, we have grown so accustomed to associate virtue and following Christ with self-denial, deprivation, and hardship, that comfort, ease, and relaxation are suspect. Thus, wars, insurrections, famines, and earthquakes […]
Our 70th Anniversary
Seventy years ago, today, the founding monks of Holy Cross Abbey arrived in Virginia from our Motherhouse in Massachusetts. We were founded at a time when great numbers of young men were entering our monasteries. Indeed, our founding was a consequence of this happy phenomenon that stands in such marked contrast to the smaller numbers […]