One way to consider the role of work in Benedictine spirituality is to look up references to “work” mentioned in the Rule. The previous post considered how St. Benedict’s teaching in his time and circumstances was not necessarily the final word on work; what he has to say does not explicitly deal with creativity in […]

I believe in earlier posts, at least in passing, I’ve indicated that St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries would not solve all our problems. That’s not what it’s there for. And Saint Benedict, however wise and holy he was, had no insider’s secrets on life; like all of us, he had to learn the hard way and […]

In Fr. Edmund’s Treasurer’s Office at the Abbey, he used to display a few old framed photos. One was obviously his parents, John Joseph Flynn and Pauline C. Rempe Flynn. There was also a photo of a nun in the old habit standing on the steps of a brick building. “That’s my aunt, Sr. Edmund. […]

In what sense can we actually capture a sense of sacred to the work we do? Is there a fool-proof way to break down the dichotomy of work and prayer, as if they were opposed to one another? I’d be quick to guarantee that there is no fool-proof solution or technique to achieve anything! I’ve […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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, […]

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 […]