For the monk, detachment is another word for inner freedom. One of the paths to this detachment is asceticism. A common pitfall, however, is inadvertently reinforcing our sinful self-will with our ascetic practices. More than one novice has clung to his self-will by resisting the novicemaster’s efforts to curb his overzealous asceticism. A safer and […]
A Word from our Cistercian Fathers
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” I love you, O Lord, my strength; through you every hostile power yields to me, worm that I am, and the guile of the ancient Serpent is laughed to scorn by the angels you send to minister to us, so that his desire to hurt is […]
Friday of the 30th Week
Several authors in our present refectory book have alluded to the idea that human beings are what might be termed destructive intruders into nature’s harmony and that the earth would probably be a whole lot better off without us! Similarly, Christianity (in the view of some) is directly implicated in the misuse and exploitation of […]
Friday of the 29th Week
As more than one wise person has insisted, peace is about more than the absence of war or conflict. True peace is, among other things, inseparable from unity, that fruit of self-forgetting love. Living life detached and separated from one another may obviate conflict and engender a pseudo-peace, but this is usually little more than […]
Fr. James’ Homily for the 29th Sunday
Twenty-ninth Sunday, Year A, 18 October, 2020: Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b; Matthew 22:15-21 Saint Paul writes to the Romans: Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Paul writes as a Roman citizen, with […]
Friday of the 28th Week
Dualism, that old and recurring heresy that would pit the body against the soul—seeing the former as evil and the latter good—would seem to find support in Jesus insisting that we are not to fear those who kill the body, but after that can do no more. For, this could be made to imply that […]
A Word from our Cistercian Fathers
The day in which man/woman goes out to his/her own proper work symbolizes turning towards God in investigation and imitation, to knowing and loving God, and, not least, to delighting in such knowledge and love. Man/woman has been made in the image and likeness of God for the sake of this knowledge and love; and […]
Saturday of the 26th Week
In the process of growing to adulthood, some people are blessed with never losing their spiritual childlikeness. Those who do lose it, will need to regain it. This seems to have happened with Job who at the end of his long ordeal proclaims: I have dealt with things I do not understand, which I cannot […]
New openings at Retreat House
UPDATE: We now have openings for MON through FRI, 12-16 October and FRI through SUN, 16-18 October. Interested parties may make a reservation by contacting Carol Hensley by phone at 540-955-4383 or by email at information@hcava.org.
Saint Michael and All the Angels
Various authors in our present refectory book have been approaching the complex issue of the interaction between time and eternity. Although, as Christians, we regularly speak of the end of time, this does not necessarily mean that time will cease—unless, of course, God were to allow his wondrous creation to slip back into nothingness. How […]