Br. Barnabas was well enough to move to the Rehab Center on Cork Street in Winchester. That’s very good news for him and for us. His balance problem will be explored there, as well as his long-standing problem with swallowing. Fr. Malachy’s gerontologist is aiming to move him to a rehab center when he’s well enough […]

The Gift Shop will be closed today due to illness in the community. Please check back here over the next few days for updates.

I’ve been told that we are experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of flu in history this month. I haven’t checked the data on that. I can add that it’s not flu afflicting us here, but also a round of colds. I can report that Br. Barnabas and Fr. Malachy are responding to treatment at Winchester medical […]

Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12 There was a time when today’s celebration was the major celebration of the Incarnation both in the East and the West. Why today, rather than Christmas? Because, following the St. Luke’s Gospel, on Christmas Day the birth of Christ is announced to Jewish shepherds, a sign of the […]

Br. Barnabas was not able to be moved to the Rehab Center on Cork Street, yesterday. Despite appearances of improvement, his pneumonia is still too serious. At the moment, he really doesn’t have the energy to receive visitors but he appreciates and requests a remembrance in your prayers. Yesterday was his 79th birthday.  Fr. Malachy, […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM; Fr. James Orthmann will preside and preach. Today’s celebration brings the Christmas Octave to a close, though the liturgical Christmas Season continues through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Sunday, 13 January). Because colds are spreading through the community, the Monthly Eucharistic Adoration is being transferred […]

Well, it’s that time again…time to examine our health, consider what we will do differently in our relationships, think about this year being a year of change etc. etc. …ah, the New Year.  The secular world asks us to consider these things and usually asks us to buy something to implement the changes.  Maybe it’s […]

Readings: Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21 We know what we mean when we say “the Mother of God.” Taken literally, those words would suggest someone who brought God into existence before time began. Certainly today’s Gospel tells a very different story, not before time but (so typical of St. Luke’s Gospel) in a very […]

Carol Hensley, a name you’ll know from this website and a person you’ll hopefully recognize from contact with the Abbey, passed on this poem to me for posting. It was composed by Debra Shultz, one of our guests at the Retreat House. I’ve attmpted posting verse in the past but “trashed” the attempts because the […]

Please remember Br. Barnabas Brownsey in your prayers. Brother Barnabas has been back and forth to doctors’ appointments over the past couple of weeks to get to the bottom of a problem with his balance. He has suffered a number of falls in the Abbey. As you may well know from your own experience, there’s […]