Readings: Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16 Today we begin Chapter Ten of Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus begins to travel to Jerusalem. For Mark, the holy city represents the unwillingness to believe Jesus; to the religious leaders of this city, Jesus is the hick from Galilee. Acknowledging the opposition, Jesus initiates an extensive teaching on […]
Monthly Eucharistic Adoration, now and hour earlier, an hour longer
Today is the First Sunday of October and from today the monthly Eucharistic Adoration will begin an hour earlier at 3:00 PM. As always, it will continue through Vespers (5:30 PM), followed by Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. All are invited to join us.
Friday of the 26th Week of the Year
Saints whose lives were filled with direct and frequent experiences of the divine, along with an abundance of supernatural encounters with angels and saints, can evoke a holy envy in those whose spiritual lives seem to be one long, obscure, and arid journey in the darkness. However, if this describes you, Jesus makes a point […]
Reflection for Thursday of the 26th Week, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, 4 October, 2018
Readings: Job 19:21-27; Luke 10:1-12 On one hand, Jesus’ instructions to the seventy-two disciples he is sending out ahead of him are very freeing. On the other hand, he does not pretend that they’ll evade rejection by following his directives. That’s part and parcel of being a disciple of Jesus; the Gospel is hardly a […]
Wednesday of the 26th Week of the Year
It’s interesting that in today’s gospel Jesus challenges two of three potential disciples to greater self-giving, while cautioning the third to curb his enthusiasm. In each case, Jesus was looking into each person’s heart and seeing what each person was as yet unable to see. In the first he saw the still untested zeal and […]
A Word from the Cistercian Fathers for October
Not all those who have faith in some way have sufficient fervor and vigor in faith to be willing to relinquish everything. Many, indeed, are unwilling to renounce even the things that are unlawful! For this reason, it is not inappropriate to compare the Kingdom of heaven–that is, the Church–to a net. Once it has […]
Reflection for Monday of the 26th Week, Memorial of St. Therese of Lisieux, 1 October, 2018
Readings: Job 1:6-22; Luke 9:46-50 The doctrine of spiritual childhood is certainly fundamental to Therese’s thinking, though I wonder whether it suffers an imbalance because her memory was perpetuated by her older sisters who preceded her and outlived her in the same Carmel. In a sense, to them, so remained the “Baby.” Like myself, you […]
Reflection for the Feast of Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, 29 September, 2018
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; John 1:47-51 Today’s Gospel refers us to Jacob’s encounter with God in his dream at Bethel–a place-name meaning House of God. It’s a worthy reference for the ministry of angels. In our liturgical tradition, we have blessings for persons, objects and places–which is logical enough. But in this tradition, the altar or […]
Friday of the 25th Week of the Year
Impermanence and change are the inevitable consequences of being bound by space and time. In our fallen state, birth must eventually surrender to death; times of joy and mirth must yield to those of mourning and sorrow; and progress and building up all too often precede disintegration, and collapse. Inner peace in the face of […]
Rooms Available in the Retreat House this weekend, 28-30 September
This is a great opportunity to make a retreat at Holy Cross Abbey while the mild temperatures prevail. We’ve suddenly had five cancellations this weekend from what would have been a full house. So five of you out there now have the possibility for a refreshing weekend retreat. Just call Carol Hensley at 540-955-4383 or […]