People still ask Trappists about the “vow of silence”. For example, “Since Vatican II, do you still take a vow of silence?” In fact there never was a vow of silence and maintaining perpetual silence could not constitute approriate matter for a public vow. Silence is a monastic value, not a purely Trappist trimming on the […]

Obviously, monks and nuns do not live in a different world from you. The fact that you can read this blog means I am using a computer, I send and receive email and I have the same instantaneous access to information that you do. If we didn’t, how would we communicate with you or understand […]

Retreatants at Holy Cross Abbey will recognize Fr. Edmund as the confessor available to them at the Abbey. Here are some of his reflections on the virtue of HOPE from a recent homily. Jospeh Pieper in is book, On Hope, states that, “The virtue of hope is preeminently the virtue of the status viatoris-the pilgrim on […]

I imagine to some, Sustainability, taking responsiblity for the environment and our limited resources, can seem like a fad. If you think about it, sustainable practices, recycling, renewing certain sources of our energy was how we all once lived. After the agricultural revolution in Europe during the eighteenth century, which improved production and may have […]

When I first entered the community, I was drawn by the simplicity of the life and the simplicity of the surroundings: the church where we worship as a community is free of distracting decoration, for example. This spoke to me of a deep spirituality beyond words and symbols, without physical images that can replace the […]