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 […]

The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Abbot Robert Barnes presiding and preaching. It is a non-work day and we follow the Sunday schedule. All communion will be distributed from the main altar. The relic of the True Cross will be exposed for veneration from the First Vespers of the Feast on Thursday, […]

This Friday we celebrate the patronal Feast of our monastery, the Exaltation or Triumph of the Holy Cross. Blessed John Henry Newman said that the mystery of the cross of Christ is the heart of our religion. As with so much of Jesus’ teaching and life, the cross is a paradox to our human perception. […]

Follow Christ even as he ascends the cross and is lifted up from the earth that you may position yourself not only above yourself but, also, above the entire world, on the summit of your mind, looking down at all the things that are on the earth; and looking down, too, as it was written: […]

One topic requested from the post It’s Your Call was finding silence in our busy and overactive society. I find this question is often raised by visitors to our Guest House, too. In some ways it’s very hard for a monk to answer this question because we live in an environment with a schedule and […]