Monastery Fruits cakes are available in the familiar Two-and-a-Quarter pound round cake and in One-and-a-Half pound loaf cakes. The cakes can only be purchased directly from the Gift Shop; we are not shipping out cakes. The cakes are available on a first-come-first-served basis. If you are coming from a distance it is best to telephone […]
25 October, 2015, 30th Sunday, Year B
Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-9;Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52 The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching.
Monastic Prayer According to the Rule of St. Benedict, cont’d
We’ve been reading in the refectory a small book by Abbot Francis Acharya of Kurisumala, our monastery in Southern India. Abbot Francis died just a few years ago. By birth and monastic profession he was from Belgium, born Jean Mahieu. Eventually he would found a Catholic monastery in India, adapted to Indian culture and its […]
Monastery Fruit Cakes for the 2015 Holiday Season
Thank you for your inquiries about our Bakery products at Holy Cross Abbey. Our fruitcakes are for sale only at our Abbey Gift Shop. We are not able to ship our fruitcakes at this time. The fruitcakes available are our regular 2-1/2 pound round cake and we have a new size, a 1-1/2 pound loaf […]
Twenty-Ninth Sunday, Year B, 18 October, 2015
Readings: Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45 The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. Joseph Wittstock residing and preaching.
Fr. James’ Homily for the 28th Sunday, Year B
Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:2-13; Mark 10:17-30 There’s a kind of familiarity with the Gospel that deadens the impact. I’d grown up calling this narrative “the Rich Young Man”–and even our Bible translations use that term. But in Mark’s Gospel, it’s the punch line. It’s only when the man turns away sad that we’re told he […]
Laudato Si’: Part Nine
This is probably my final post on the Encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home. I do realize that I may have worn our my welcome a few posts back. And then, with Pope Francis long ago arrived at and departed from these shores, I must seem to be beating a dead horse. Worse still, […]
11 October, 2015, the 28th Sunday, Year B
Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30 The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. James Orthmann presiding and preaching.
Abbot Robert’s Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday, Year B
Readings: Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16 This is perhaps not the sort of Gospel that a monk should presume to speak about to married people. You would likely be much better suited to share your thoughts with each other at home. I will do better to speak to my brothers this morning about what can […]
A Word from the Cistercian Fathers for October
He set love in order in me. Utterly necessary. Zeal without knowledge is insupportable. Therefore where zeal is enthusiastic, there discretion, that moderator of love, is especially necessary. Because zeal without knowledge always lacks efficacy, is wanting in usefulness and, all too often, is harmful. And so the more eager the zeal, the more vigorous […]