OK, this is the tricky one. There’s no quick fix for this and a quiet mind requires sacrifice. There’s no way around that. I think the first sacrifice is the biggest: my expectations. This is what I mean: do I expect interior silence to make me so serene that I float through life untroubled, undisturbed? […]

All December weekends are available in the Retreat House. Come visit and quiet your heart before preparing for the holidays. Contact Carol, Monday through Friday, at 540-955-4383 or at information@hcava.org

We received this email from Jim Polito, one of our Monastic Immersion Weekend participants and pass it on to our readers.  I think Jim’s sentiments were felt by everybody… Good morning: I just wanted to say thanks, and express my appreciation and gratitude for the great weekend at Holy Cross Abbey. I did not think […]

The Sunday liturgy takes precedence over the Memorial of St. Jerome who is worth recalling today since he devoted his entire life to the study of Holy Scripture. He translated the Bible from the original languages into Latin so that it could be accessible to everyone in his culture in an as accurate a form as was humanly possible. […]

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

As the participants in our Monastic Immersion Weekend joined the monks in choir this morning I think we all had the same immediate thought:  ‘oh that we had 23 men in choir again!’  Our community is small so our Monastic Immersion Weekend participants were a wonderful addition for Vigils and Lauds this morning. The MIW […]

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 […]