Please continue your prayers for Br. Barnabas as he makes his way to God. Brother is no longer conscious and is in palliative care, following his own advanced directive. Abbot Robert and Br. Efrain went to Washington, DC to be with him. Fr. Robert anointed Br. Barnabas and they prayed at his bedside. We will keep you informed of further developments.
Trinity Sunday, 15 June, 2014
The community mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. Vincent Collins presiding and preaching.
Homily for Pentecost Sunday
Readings: Acts 2:1-11; I Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23 Have you noticed how fascinated we are by disaster movies? It doesn’t matter whether they are fictional, like Godzila, or historical, like Titanic. The tension, the action and the CGI entrance us, but I believe we’re caught by something deeper. In the end there are the […]
Abbot Robert’s Homily for Br. Stephen’s Funeral
To each of you here today at this Mass for our Brother Stephen, to you who are Brother Stephen’s family–and those who cannot be here with you; to you Betty and Sister Rosemary, Brother Stephen’s two sisters, and to E.J. and Berta, to Frank and Marian and your families, I offer you the sympathy and […]
Pentecost, Sunday, 8 June, 2014
The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. James presiding and preaching.
Prayers For Br. Barnabas
Please remember in your prayers Br. Barnabas whose health has taken a bad turn. Br. Barnabas and the community have been aware for a few week of his precarious condition and he has been in a good frame of mind, ready to accept whatever comes. A couple of Sundays ago, when Abbot Robert and Br. […]
A Word From The Cistercian Fathers For June
Persevere in the obedience you have undertaken that through humility you may ascend to sublimity. This is the way, and apart from it there is no other. Anyone who goes another way falls down instead of going up, because humility alone exalts and alone leads to life. Christ, in his divine nature, had no way […]
Br. Stephen Maguire 10 October, 1929-27 May, 2014
Brother Stephen was born and baptized William Joseph Maguire, Jr., the second of six children born to Martha Kelly Maguire and William J. Maguire. A few years after his birth in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the family moved to Northern Virginia. Br. Stephen grew up in Falls Church. When he was the Abbey’s Bakery Manager, I remember him […]
The Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension, 1 June, 2014
The community Mass is celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. Vincent Collins presiding and preaching. It is the First Sunday of the month and the Monthly Eucharistic Adoration will begin at 4:00 PM; all are invited to join us.
Br. Stephen’s Funeral: Monday 2 June
Br. Stephen Maguire’s funeral will be celebrated Monday, 2 June, 2014. At 8:30 AM his body will be received by the monastic community into the Abbey church. Then the praying of the Psalter will be begun by the monastic community. Friends and family may join the monks in praying the Psalter; there will be a sign up […]