As recent posts and comments have brought home, Mary is not a low-profile member of Roman Catholic piety. Although the traditions, expressions and theological considerations may differ, devotion to Mary characterizes both the Latin West and the Eastern Orthodox Liturgies. Certainly the Reformers of the Sixteenth Centuries reacted against the exaggerated Marian devotion, even mariolotry, of the late Middle […]

It was gratifying that the Post on Advent Reading and Evangelization provoked a few–and varied–comments. Gratifying because the state of Catholic practice means enough to provoke discussion. The Posts do not seek to provoke controversy–one possible stratagem to promote readership–but I do welcome varying points of view. The reactions made clear to me that several […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM,  Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching.

Fr. Malachy returned home from the hospital Thursday evening with a new schedule of meds. He had been suffering from the inevitable complications of growing old. Your prayers and thoughts and comments are all deeply appreciated.

We practice “refectory reading” during our midday meal, the main meal of the monastic day. St. Benedict specifies that the monks should eat in silence and one of the monks should read to the community while they are eating. Often, we are listening to a work of history or biography–monastic biography, for example–a book about […]

First Vespers of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated on Friday evening at 5:30 PM. Mary Immaculate is the Patroness of the United States; the community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM on Saturday, Fr. James Orthmann presiding and preaching.

The path on which we must meet with salvation and the Savior, just as it must not be darkened through ignorance of the truth, so it should not be slippery from inconstancy at work. Yet like Balaam, who fell down with his eyes open, so we too see with wide-open eyes because of knowledge while we fall from […]

Please keep Fr. Malachy in your prayers; he had to be taken to the emergency room on Friday evening and was admitted to Winchester Medical Center for observation. Fr. Malachy celebrated his eightieth birthday a few years ago and has been suffering all the limitations of his age.

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. Vincent Collins presiding and preaching. Because it is the First Sunday of the Month, Eucharist Adoration will begin at 4:00 PM and continue through Vespers. Vespers will conclude with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. All are invited to begin this Advent with us for […]