The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching. It is a non-work day and we follow the Sunday schedule. All communion will be distributed from the main altar. The relic of the True Cross will be exposed for veneration from the First Vespers of the Feast on Thursday, […]

This Friday we celebrate the patronal Feast of our monastery, the Exaltation or Triumph of the Holy Cross. Blessed John Henry Newman said that the mystery of the cross of Christ is the heart of our religion. As with so much of Jesus’ teaching and life, the cross is a paradox to our human perception. […]

Follow Christ even as he ascends the cross and is lifted up from the earth that you may position yourself not only above yourself but, also, above the entire world, on the summit of your mind, looking down at all the things that are on the earth; and looking down, too, as it was written: […]

One topic requested from the post It’s Your Call was finding silence in our busy and overactive society. I find this question is often raised by visitors to our Guest House, too. In some ways it’s very hard for a monk to answer this question because we live in an environment with a schedule and […]

This morning Abbot Robert offered the Mass for Preservation of Peace and Justice. He recalled the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhatten and on the Pentagon, here in Virginia, eleven years ago. At that time we were actually preparing for the final days of our year long celebration of our founding in […]

There are so many things to write about that sometimes I am unsure where to begin. Aside from news items and schedules and bibliographies, there are the Cistercian tradition, the spirituality of the Rule of St. Benedict, the issues of sustainability, ecumenical dialogue, the spirituality of stewardship–and many more topics as relevant to you as to […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. James Orthmann preaching and presiding.

The Psalms listed here are, in fact, used for all the Feasts and Solemnities of Mary. The numbers follow the normal translations following the Hebrew Psalter; the numbers in parentheses apply to the original Grail Psalter/Vulgate/Septuagint.  Vigils: Invitatory: Ps 95 (94). First Nocturn: Pss 24 (23), 45 (44), 46 (45); Second Nocturn: Pss 48 (47), 84 (83), […]

You may recall from the posts back in May that three of our monasteries in this country had elected new superiors, all of them former Novice Directors. One of those houses, Santa Rita Abbey in Sonoita, Arizona, is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of its foundation. The community’s new Prioress, Mother Vicki Murray, was one of […]

What’s a Monastic Immersion Weekend? You may have read on this website Kurt Aschermann’s posts inviting prospective candidates to participate in a Monastic Immersion Weekend. But what is it? Basically, it is what it claims to be: the structured opportunity to experience a slice of monastic life. The schedule, silence, communal prayer of the monks […]