This post continues a guide to reading the encyclical, picking up at Chapter Three. Chapter Three: The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis. In a challenging Encyclical, this may be a big hurdle for many Americans. If you follow the European press on this topic, you’ll find the explanation to European readers again and again, “…in the […]
September MIW Open Now to Women Too
Because there have been five cancellations for the MIW and for the first time we don’t have a waiting list, the brothers have agreed to open the September 11-13, 2015 MIW to women also to participate.. Usually we have a men/women MIW in the Spring and a men’s in September. But with so many open […]
Laudato, Si, Part Four: Organization of the Text
This post will not be conceptual, as have been the previous posts on Pope Francis’ Encyclical, but more organizational. In what sense.? Given that the conventional printed format, the text runs some 177 pages. The average reader may find it daunting to read it straight through. It could help to focus on what interests you the […]
MIW almost full-scholarship offered
We actually call each Monastic Immersion Weekend group a ‘class’ since we only have two MIWs a year. We also say, after you attend that you have been ‘crossed’ because you receive a new Holy Cross Abbey crucifix from the Abbot your first night here in a fairly moving ceremony at the high altar in […]
How the Special Afternoon Event on 1 August Unfolded
As had been announced last week, Holy Cross Abbey held a special reception to introduce friends of the Abbey to the Film Project, Saving Grace, Saving Place, beginning with a Mass at 2:30 PM. Abbot Robert Barnes celebrated the Mass with Fr. Maurice concelebrating and Br. Efrain serving as acolyte. Abbot Robert welcomed our guests–42 had […]
“Saving Grace, Saving Place”, a special event at Holy Cross Abbey
Saturday afternoon, 1 August at 2:30 PM, a Mass will be offered by Abbot Robert Barnes for guests interested in supporting the film-in-progress, Saving Grace, Saving Place. The film by filmmaker and producers, George Patterson and Deidra Dain traces the Abbey’s commitment to sustainable stewardship of the environment. The Mass will be followed by a […]
The Hierarchical Churches and the Environment: Laudato Si, Part Four
Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, did not come out of a vacuum. As I’d noted in the first post, clear references to our relationship to and responsibility for the condition of the natural world first appear in the Papal teaching of Pope Paul VI; Pope John Paul II certainly referred explicitly to our environmental responsibilities and the […]
Laudato Si; Points of View. Part Three
It has not been unknown in regard to the Church’s social teaching, that people can salute or even admire the ideals involved and yet have the reservation that, it’s all well and good but, really, isn’t it a bit ingenuous? That is to say, it doesn’t seem practical to most people, though we could applaud […]
Abbey Computer Problems
Ah the beauty of modern technology. It lets us update you on the activity of the abbey… it lets us communicate with you via email rather than snail mail… it even lets us show you beautiful pictures of the monastery! When it’s working that is… We are experiencing some serious connection issues with the internet so […]
Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment, Part Two
It was probably in 2007 when Dr. Andy Hoffmann of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment first visited our community at Holy Cross Abbey. Andy Hoffmann happens to be a practicing Roman Catholic as well as an environmentalist. Addressing the community, he spoke in a conversational manner giving us a […]