Readings: Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 The Community Mass will be celebrated at 10:00 AM, Abbot Joseph Wittstock presiding and preaching. Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament begins immediately after Communion. Members of the community will keep watch in the church in 30 minute periods from Mass though Vespers (5:30 PM). Vespers will […]
Wednesday of the 8th Week of the Year
Bitter zeal and good zeal (as outlined by Saint Benedict) are often preceded by a third which, we might term “untested zeal.” James and John exemplify this zeal with their brash insistence that they were able to receive the baptism with which Jesus was to be baptized and drink the chalice he was to drink. […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Trinity Sunday
Readings: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20 Since Advent we’ve been celebrating events from the life of Christ. This Sunday, it’s as if we’re looking beyond that personal history to the background of eternity against which those scenes are played out. It might be better to describe what we celebrate today as the foundation […]
Thursday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time
Dualism and the unfortunate splitting of the soul and the body can take two forms. Typically, dualism has pitted the soul against the body with the latter considered evil—along with all of physical reality. Contemporary culture, however, tends towards the opposite, with the body and all that is physical treated as ultimate goods and the […]
Blessing of the Bells
On Ascension Sunday morning the heavy rain stopped, opportunely, just ten minutes before we were to bless our new bells. They are the generous gift of Br. David Schlatter OFM and formed part of a larger set of bells used at 9/11 commemoration services. Although the bells have been in use since late January we […]
Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church
Readings: Acts 1:12-14; John 19:25-27 In mid-March, Pope Francis announced a new Memorial to be celebrated the Monday after Pentecost: Mary, the Mother of the Church. The Gospel tells us: Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his […]
Blessing the Bells
Sunday, 13 May, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord–and Mother’s Day–Abbot Joseph blessed the bells that have been presiding over our front lawn. As any visitor to the Abbey realizes, they have been there for several months and in use, but we were waiting for suitable weather for an outdoor ceremony–remember how cruel […]
Brother Richard’s Clothing
The glorious feast of the Ascension was the happy occasion of our Brother Richard’s clothing in the Cistercian Habit. He joins Brothers Mark and John in the novitiate for two further years of preparation for first vows. The reception of the habit is usually a moment of special grace, not only for the novice, but […]
Wednesday of the 7th Week of Easter
There are occasions when, as monks, we look back nostalgically to earlier and seemingly holier and more ideal periods of monastic life in particular and the church in general. Saint Paul’s warning to the presbyters of Ephesus about savage wolves who will pervert the truth and who will come from among their own members […]
Abbot Joseph’s homily for the Ascension
Not too many miles from here, the Wright Brothers realized a long-cherished dream—that of taking flight and, however briefly, severing the heavy gravitational forces binding us to the earth. Space travel and the desire to explore distant galaxies is a further expression of this fundamental human longing to transcend the limits of earthly existence. Spiritually, […]