The Saviour’s coming is indispensable; indispensable is Christ’s presence for people overwhelmed as we are. If only he will so come that, by his superabundant condescension dwelling in us by faith, he may illumine our blindness, help our weakness as he stays with us and protect and defend our frailty as he stands alongside us! For […]

As indicated elsewhere, the First Christmas Mass will be celebrated at 8:30 PM on the evening of Monday, 24 December. This Mass is integrated with the Office of Vigils, employing the proper Readings for the Mass; Abbot Robert Barnes will preside and preach. On Christmas Day. Lauds will be celebrated at 8:00 AM (rather than […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 A.M.; Fr. Vincent Collins will preside and preach

A frequently asked question, this time of year, is, “What is the time of the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass?” We know what you mean; the Missal calls it the First Mass of Christmas and it was traditionally celebrated at midnight, growing out of a Vigils for the Solemnity of the Lord’s Nativity. For a number of […]

The community was thrilled to have Cardinal Theodore McCarrick take his retreat at Our Lady of the Holy Cross Abbey last week.  Here’s some information on the Archbishop: In 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed him the first bishop of Metuchen, a newly established diocese in New Jersey, and in 1986, he was named archbishop […]

A number of Guests to the Sunday Mass asked that this homily be posted on the website. Just on the eve of this Third Sunday of Advent, our nation has witnessed the horrific slaughter in Newton, Connecticut, taking almost thirty lives, most of them children. At the same time 400 hundred of our troops are […]

The final week of Advent is marked by the Solemn Antiphons for the Magnificat at Vespers. They are also know as the “O Antiphons” because each begins with the exclamation “O” as it calls upon the incarnate Lord by one of this titles taken largely from Jewish Prophecy. These antiphons emerged from the “imperial” ceremonial of Charlemagne’s […]

As we are about to celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent which urges us to rejoice–rejoice at the Lord’s coming, I look around at our nation and world and… Please join us in prayer, as we at the Abbey join you in your prayer, for the victims and their families of the horrific shooting in Newton, […]

The community Mass will be clebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. James Orthmann presiding and preaching.

OK, admit it…when we say fruitcake you think of Aunt Martha (I think I called her Edna last year)…and that doorstop of a cake she pulled out each Christmas.  Our fruitcakes ARE NOT Aunt Martha’s and you and your friends and family will love them!  They are simple and useful gifts (enough ties already) and […]