The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. James presiding and preaching. It is the First Sunday of the month and the community Eucharistic Adoration will begin at 4:00 PM and concluded, after Vespers, with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. All are invited to join us.
A Word from the Cistercian Fathers for July
Faith cannot be deceived. With power to understand invisible truths, faith does not know the poverty of the senses; it transcends even the limits of human reason, the capacity of nature, the bounds of experience. Why do you ask the eye to do what it is not equipped to do? And why does the hand […]
Abbot Robert’s Homily for Corpus Christi
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; I Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58 Do I believe what the Gospels say? Can I really believe that Jesus did all the Gospel writers say that he did? Did Jesus cure sick people, give them their sight, heal their bodies, bring the dead back to life? Did these things really happen? We […]
Abbot Robert’s Homily for Br. Barnabas’ Funeral
Although Brother Barnabas’s family are not able to be with us today to celebrate God taking Brother Barnabas to himself, his family is conscious that this monastic family is here with him. What to the eyes of this world seems an ending and a loss, for those who live in Christ this is the blessed assurance […]
The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, 22 June, 2014
The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching. Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament will begin right after communion and continue through Vespers, concluding with Benediction. From Mass until Vespers, the monks will be keeping watch in 30 minute periods of adoration. Out neighbors and friends are invited […]
Update on Gift Shop Hours
At this time the community, as you may have gathered from recent posts, is planning for the future. This requires a number of community meetings to discern directions and sift out strategies. As a result the Gift Shop will be closed every Wednesday, our best day in the week for meeting, until other arrangements can be made.
The Holy Trinity And Our Life in Christ
Being united to God is essential to becoming fully the person God intends each of us to be and the only way to be holy. The Church Fathers understood this well and St. Augustine, for example, referred to the capax dei, to the human capacity for God. The Greek Fathers, in particular, referred to the restoration […]
Br. Barnabas Brownsey, 5 January, 1934 to 16 June, 2014
Lawrence Joseph Brownsey, the future Br. Barnabas, was born to Lawrence and Mary Kathleen Brownsey in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 5 January, 1934. The Depression was gripping the country and even when he was old enough to remember, he recalled his mother helping to support the family as a cook to the well to do in the environs […]
Br. Barnabas Funeral and Burial
Br. Barnabas’ body will be received by the monastic community on Friday, 20 June, at 8:30 AM. The praying of the Psalter will commence immediately and continue until 1:55 PM. Friends and neighbors of the Abbey who are available that day are welcomed to join the monks praying the Psalms. The Mass of the Resurrection […]
Requiescat in Pace: Br. Barnabas
Br. Barnabas Brownsey died peacefully this morning around 3:40 AM. We were already at Vigils, completing the First Nocturn of Psalms. The community of Holy Cross Abbey and our employees appreciate the responses from all of you as well as the prayers and concern for his good passage from life. Details of the funeral and burial will be […]