(1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a & Matthew 14:22-33) Waiting for the boarding call in a busy airport can be quite a challenge amid the usual noise, activity, and boarding calls for other flights departing around the same time. Failure to hear the boarding call does not mean that it wasn’t made, only that the excessive surrounding […]
Friday of the 18th Week
(Matthew 16:24-28) The cross that Jesus exhorts us to take up is not generic but personal and unique. Thus, he doesn’t say that the disciple must take up the cross, but rather take up his cross. This, in turn, highlights the difference between the cross we take up and that on which Christ died. His […]
A Word from our Cistercian Fathers
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. A peaceful person repays good for good, as far as in him lies, and wishes harm to no one. Someone else may be patient and repay no one evil for evil, being even able to bear with the one who hurts him. There […]
Thursday of the 17th Week
Clay in the hand of the potter can only be reworked for as long as it remains moist and malleable. As the clay dries out it hardens and can no longer be re-formed. The human heart when moistened and softened by the tears of compunction and sorrow can also be reworked by grace and re-formed […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the 17th Sunday
Scriptural References: 1 Kings 3:5-7:12; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52 We’ve just heard three parables that are only recorded in Matthew’s Gospel and, very significantly for Matthew, are only told to the disciples. It may be very gratifying to Jesus that, in the midst of his ups and downs with these men, and against the […]
Saturday of the 15th Week
Sins occasioned by human weakness or impulsivity are qualitatively different from sins that are premeditated and more freely willed—what the Prophet Micah describes as planning iniquity and working out evil on their couches. As monks we are right to be distressed and lament our sins of weakness, but we should fear and be ever vigilant […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the 15th Sunday
This familiar parable was important enough to the early church for Matthew to reproduce at length Mark’s original scheme and interpretation. Luke condenses it in his version, but all three present Jesus teaching the parable to a crowd, his comments in private to the Twelve, and his interpretation of it for his inner circle, an […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the Solemnity of Saint Benedict
Despite being one of the most influential Christian documents (aside from the Sacred Scriptures), Saint Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries is anything but a precise and clear set of rules, regulating daily monastic life, and leading to holiness. Again and again, Saint Benedict seems to present noble spiritual ideals only to enumerate instances when these ideals […]
Wednesday of the 14th Week
All the circumstances of life have the potential to either threaten our life of faith, or deepen and enhance it. Thus, although adversity and suffering can drive us to seek God’s help and comfort, these can also undermine our faith in God’s provident love—more than one Christian has abandoned his or her faith because of […]
A New Member
On Tuesday evening, (after completing two weeks in quarantine), Br. Paul Smith was welcomed into the community during a brief induction ceremony after Vespers. This initiated his one-year postulancy which will be followed by a two-year novitiate. Br. Paul is from Norristown, Pennsylvania where, up until recently, he served as a psychiatric nurse in the […]