Thirteen men here at Holy Cross Abbey’s first Monastic Immersion Weekend got a chance to sit in the church guest pews in preparation for joining the Monastic Choir starting tomorrow for each of the Offices.  Men ranging in age from 31 to 70 have committed to two full days of monastic life with the monks. […]

As we approach our Monastic Immersion Weekend, one of the items left in each man’s room is the famous quote from Thomas Merton from Thoughts In Solitude.  While it certainly fits for men discerning a vocation, when you read it you’ll see it fits for every person: My Lord God, I have no idea where […]

This weekend 14 men will participate in our first Monastic Immersion Weekend.  Seven of them…count ’em, seven…have expressed interest in the monastic life and our Abbey.  If there was ever a time for our friend The Holy Spirit to ‘do his thing’ this weekend is it. And you can help the Holy Spirit and our […]

Again, I have no fool-proof suggestions to increase physical silence in your life. The success of any of these possibilities will depend on how badly you want more silence. On the other hand, “failed” attempts to increase physical silence can also be  instructive. They might define my actual challenges and fine-tune my strategies. Such frustrations […]

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

The best I can offer is thinking from my monastic perspective, especially as shaped by St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries. The fact that the Rule, as stated in an earlier post, teaches us about verbal silence, rather than a lack of noise, is significant. Verbal silence is relalted to the responsible use of words (words that […]

There are seven openings for this weekend, 21 through 23 September (Friday afternoon through Sunday noon) still available for our Retreat House. After all the dreadful we’ve been having it might be a relief to get away to high ground in a rural spot where weather and nature live together a little more harmoniously. To make a reservation […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. Vincent Collins preaching and presiding.

Thank you to everyone who offered their good wishes and prayers for the community on our patronal feast. Thank you to all of you who joined us either for Mass or to pray in our chapel or were with us for Benediction. Please know that you always have a place in our prayers.

Again, nothing I write here should be construed as anything but developing considerations; I only hope that they reflect something of experience and reality. You won’t find any solutions to your problems here or strategies with universal application. And anything I write has been impacted by two contributions already. Kurt’s post said that if we’re really serious […]