Before considering aspects of work opened up by other chapters of St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries, I would like to underline a conclusion that we might already draw. In the previous post, I suggested that owning our limits could lead us to a breakthrough in our experience of work. Such a graced moment could even […]
Work in the Benedictine Tradition, Part Two
Conductor extraodinaire, Karl Bohm used to relate an anecdote from his days as a young conductor when he tried both to communicate and experience the transcendent beauty of the music. He had the good fortune to work with the ageing composer Richard Strauss who asked him, “Do you really think Wagner composed the Liebestod in a […]
Work and Prayer in the Benedictine Tradition, Part One
At the last Monastic Immersion Weekend, a group of about eighteen of us sat down to consider the challenge of our work from the perspective of prayer. We admittedly live in a society that is very interested in spirituality; as a result people who are also committed a religion are usually well versed in that particular tradition of prayer. I […]
Bringing It Home
In Chapter 38 of his Rule, Saint Benedict stipulates, The meals of the brethren should not be without reading. And so, at the midday meal we eat in silence as one of the monks reads to us. usually there is a substantial book, alternating spiritual subjects with history or biography; it’s not unusual for us […]
“This Monastic Immersion Weekend Changed My Life”
This is the theme of an email I received from a Monastic Immersion Weekend guest this morning. The MIW ‘changed his life’ and I think changed a lot of lives. This was a special retreat for 16 men living with the monks for three and a half days, praying with them, listening to them in conferences, […]
Sixteen Men to Immerse in Monastic Life
Thursday will see a diverse group of sixteen men come to the Abbey for our fifth Monastic Immersion Weekend. MIWs offer men and women an opportunity to live in community-both the community of those attending the retreat and the monastic community-while providing ample time for silence, solitude and prayer. Retreat can be structured in many different […]
Benedictine Hospitality
When I use the term Benedictine, in reference to hospitality, I’m indicating hospitality according to St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries. It’s a species of hospitality anyone should be able to expect from Camaldolese and Cistercian as well as from Benedictine communities. We all follow the Rule, are informed and shaped by the Rule with it’s demands and […]
Abbot Robert’s Homily for the 19th Sunday of the Year
Readings: I Kings 19:9, 11-13; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33 The Scripture Readings for today’s Mass give us one of those wonderful opportunities to choose from a wealth of riches. The Gospel of Jesus walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee occurs in three of the Gospel accounts–of Matthew, Mark and John–right after the […]
Soul and Psyche
Among the works of the 12th century Cistercian authors, I wonder how often the treatises entitled On the Soul (De anima) are read by the average reader of Cistercian authors? I could equally ask how average is any reader who would read the works of the 12 century Cistercian authors! But such readers exist and […]
Considerations on 150 Years at Cool Spring
Last Friday evening I was on my way to the retreat house, aware that there would be visitors on the property to see the Civil War battlefield–from a distance. They were not to intrude upon the farming operations that have transformed the battlefield from a place of violence and death to new growth that nourishes. And […]