A superficial observation of daily monastic life might well give the impression that we are guilty of the very thing that Jesus is warning against in his description of the behaviors of the people in the time of Noah. As monks we go about our very ordinary daily tasks in much the same way as […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Thanksgiving
We read in the Book of Deuteronomy: When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget your God, […]
Thanksgiving Thursday
Abbot Joseph and the Community wish you all a very blessed Thanksgiving and thank you for your kind good wishes for this special day of the year. Please be aware that Holy Mass on Thanksgiving Day will be celebrated at 10.00 a.m. and we will be following the basic Sunday Schedule. Also, note that the […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Christ the King
What is the relevance of the title, Christ the King of the Universe? What’s the point of kings in this day and age, after their dominions have been overthrown or their sovereignty limited by constitutional constraints? Of course, the archetypal force of kingship still parades through our dreams and legends or even in our […]
Saturday of the 33rd Week
The choices of every moment and the actions of every day, are gradually forming the attitude and state of mind with which we will face death. King Antiochus ends his life in misery and regret for all the evils he set in motion and this stands in sharp contrast to someone like the saintly Simeon […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the 33rd Sunday
If you have found this morning’s gospel confusing and disorienting, you are not alone. Things that seem stable and immovable (like the great temple) will become a pile of rubble; wars and insurrections and mass civil unrest do not signal the end of time; earthquakes, plagues, and famines, for their part, add to the confusion […]
A Word from a Cistercian Mother
My king and my God – God, love and joy – my soul and my heart are jubilant to you. My heart desires to greet, praise, magnify, and bless you, life of my soul, my God – God living and true, fountain of sempiternal light … And with what will I reward you, my […]
Thursday of the 31st Week
The Good Shepherd who goes in search of the stray sheep while leaving the other ninety-nine in the desert is a good image for ourselves in seeking out and reclaiming aspects of our true identity lost or severely impaired by enslavement to sin. This is a difficult and painful process and we would prefer to […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the 31st Sunday
Celtic spirituality has long cultivated the belief in so-called “thin places” where the veil separating heaven and earth, time and eternity, is thin and where the experience of the sacred and the divine is heightened. Places of Christian pilgrimage and shrines are among the more commonly recognized “thin places.” Monasteries and their immediate environs are […]
Fr. James’ Homily for All Saints
With a predictable regularity guests at our Retreat House ask me whether we are living in the end times. Although I realize this has been a perennial preoccupation and fear in every era, I am in no position to know. I always repeat what Jesus himself said: only the Father knows. Even without […]