Tim wrote inquiring what makes the days of retreat different from any other monastic day since the monks don’t go away for the retreat? To keep the monastery in operation, everyone has some contribution to the work: cooking for one day of the retreat, helping with computer problems, putting out the trash, etc. It’s not […]

As was posted earlier, Fr. Matthew Flynn from our mother house in Spencer is directing our community retreat. Fr. Matthew is well known to this community. In 1988 he underwent open-heart surgery at NIH; as part of an experimental group, he had to return regularly for follow up since 1989. While in the area, our Abbey […]

An uncharacteristically mild winter in the northern Shenandoah Valley has fostered an early commencement for Holy Cross Abbey’s newest enterprise, naturally grown fruits and vegetables along the monastery’s nearly two-miles of Shenandoah River bottomlands. Holy Cross Abbey is teaming with nearby Great Country Farms to supply 2,000 community supported agriculture customers with fresh produce in […]

Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia has demonstrated its commitment to metal recycling in a big way. In February, 2012 the community of Trappist monks joined forces with Superior Silos, a Mennonite firm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to dis-assemble two Harvest-Store silos no longer used by the monks for re-assembly and use at a Mennonite farm […]

In May, 1977, a friend of mine drove me from Washington, DC to Berryville to begin my postulancy. Fr. Andrew Gries, who would be my Novice Director, showed my guest around and. among other things, pointed out a hermitage for monthly retreat days. As we were making our goodbyes, me friend noted, “This Abbey is […]

The monastic community of Our Lady of the Holy Cross will be on retreat from Sunday evening, 26 February through Thursday evening, 1 March. Fr. Matthew Flynn, OCSO, a monk of our Mother House in Spencer, Massachusetts, will be our Retreat Master. During the retreat, all usual business will be suspended.    

The community mass will becelebrated at 11:00 AM. Fr. Vincent Collins will be the Principal celebrant and Homilist.

An excellent form of Lenten Reading is to choose one of the books of Scripture. But we sometimes need a little help to undesrtand what we’re reading. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini published a number of helpful, prayerful and very short books often based on retreat conferences this Jesuit Scripture Scholar had given. All the titles listed here are available […]

Mass with the blessing and distribution of ashes will be celebrated at 7:00 AM, Wednesday, 22 February, 2012. Abbot Robert Barnes will preside. On Ash Wednesday, following the Constitutions of the Order, the monastic community fasts on bread and water (in the houses of our Order in Asia or Africa, the local equivalent of bread […]

“How can I begin reading the Cistercian fathers?” That people ask this question in the first place demonstrates that we are aware that we’re approaching a different kind of reading material. Is the content complicated, opaque? Is the style elaborate and archaic? Is their world-view too different from ours to make sense to a contemporary […]