It won’t come as a surprise to some of you who are reading this that there are things we do, physical things, that seem to quiet us. Those of you who practice hatha yoga are aware of how quiet your mind becomes when you concentrate on your balance or breathing as you move through an asana. Some […]

The community has just announced two new MIWs for 2013, and has increased their length from a weekend to a full week!  One week is for those men discerning a monastic vocation and one is for women and men interested in totally immersing themselves in the life of the Cistercian Community of Our Lady of […]

Mepkin Abbey, Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, has re-elcted Abbot Stan Gumula for a second, six-year term on Saturday, 3 November, 2012. Congratulations to Abbot Stan and the Mepkin Community on their choice and may all our readers join us in supporting them with our prayers. Mepkin Abbey was founded by Gethsemani on the property of the […]

From Monday, 5 November through Friday, 9 November, six superiors or our Eastern Monastery will meet at the Abbey’s Retreat House for Pastoral Sharing. What is Pastoral Sharing? It is the opportunity for those in leadership to meet, talk about the challenges, the state of their community, what has worked, what could be done better […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching. Being the First Sunday of the Month, Eucharistic Adoration will begin at 4:00 PM and continue through Vespers. Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament will begin around 5:50 PM. All are invited to join us.

The community Mass will be celebrated at 7:00 AM; Fr. Vincent will preside. At 2:00 PM, weather permitting, we will celebrate Midday Prayer in the monastic cemetery (not at Cool Spring Natural Cemetery) to the east of the Abbey. This celebration commemorates all our deceased monks, interceding for their eternal life. All are invited to attend. Should weather prove […]

One who seeks access to the interior of the home, goes around to the intimate friends or members of the household to attain what he desires. In the present instance, who might these persons be? In my opinion they are the holy angels who wait on us as we pray, who offer to God the […]

If you are a regular reader of our web site you have been following the exploits of 12 men who spent a full two days immersed in the monastic community (5 of whom are candidates for monastic life).  You also know we have been asked by others to conduct an MIW for anyone interested in […]

This morning, Abbot Robert Branes delivered the following exhortation to Fr. Vincent Collins before he renewed his monastic profession. You celebrate today, Father Vincent, the first profession of your monastic vows made on October 28, 1962, as a Cistercian monk at Our Lady of Calvary Abbey in New Brunswick, Canada. Today is your Jubilee of […]

Soren Johnson emailed this quote from the recent Synod on Evangelization to the Abbey: …we wish to indicate to all the faithful [an] expression of the life of faith which seem particularly important to us for witnessing to it in the New Evangelization. The first is constituted by the gift and experience of contemplation. A testimony […]