It is with sadness (and yet also with joy born of faith), that we make known the sudden passing, (yesterday, August 24) of our Father Maurice Flood. After more than 64 years of monastic life, and one month short of his 86th birthday, Fr. Maurice could make his own those immortal words of Saint Paul: […]

‘And the Virgin’s name was Mary.’  Let us now say a few words about this name, which means ‘star of the sea’ and is so becoming to the Virgin Mother.  Surely she is very fittingly likened to a star.  The star sends forth its ray without harm to itself.  In the same way the Virgin […]

O Wisdom, reaching mightily from end to end in establishing and controlling things, and arranging all things sweetly by enriching the affections and setting them in order!  Guide our actions as your eternal truth requires, that each of us may confidently boast in you and say: ‘he set love in order in me.’  For you […]

That the faith is shadowy is a blessing, it tempers the light to the eye’s weakness and prepares the eye for the light; for it is written:  “He cleansed their hearts by faith.”  Faith therefore does not quench the light but protects it.  Whatever it may be that the angel sees, is preserved for me […]

In this wretched and toilsome life, it is essential that Martha be present in our house—that is to say, that our soul attend to physical activities.  For as long as we have a need to eat and drink, we have a need to labor.  As long as we are tempted by physical delights, we have […]

My Lord Jesus was silent before the scribes and Pharisees when they accused him, silent before his judges when they questioned him, silent before those who punished him with torture and crucifixion.    Even today, he is silent before the wicked and shameless men who challenge him every day and every hour.  If this is so, […]

Truly, Lord, you are become our refuge; I have fled to you, teach me your will and make me do it.  You have had compassion on the people that followed you into the wilderness.  You have had pity and have provided food, lest they faint by the way.  I have begun to follow you, my […]

The Father has different arrangements for each.  For we did not choose him but he chose us and appointed places for us; and in the place of each one’s appointment there he is too.  Thus one repentant woman was allotted a place at the feet of the Lord Jesus, another—if she really is another—found fulfillment for her […]

“Arise, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for your Light has come.”  This present day of lights has been enlightened for us and consecrated by the Light of Light.  He has lain hidden and unknown, but today he has vouchsafed to reveal himself to the world for the enlightenment of all nations.  For today he revealed himself to […]

Although he came to us as a little child, what he brought is not little, what he conferred on us is not little.  If you ask what he brought: first of all he  brought mercy, according to which, as the Apostle testifies, he saved us.  Nor does this benefit only those he found when he […]