Readings: Sirach 50: 20-24; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Luke 17:11-19  We have all been the recipients of gratitude as well as ingratitude and thus we know very well the different feelings aroused by both. Furthermore, we also know the distinctly different feelings evoked by our own experience of gratitude and ingratitude towards others who are our […]

The Retreat House will be closed for Christmas, giving our staff a much needed breather, but we have a special Pre-Holiday Mini Retreat to offer you from NOON, Monday, 19 December through 9:30 AM, Wednesday, 21 December. We are not providing lunch at noon but you can check in then and get an early start, […]

By now you have probably received your copy of the Fall / Winter newsletter.  In it is a story about the ongoing renovation of the chapel and includes an artists rendering of what it is to look like.  Here’s what it looks like now: As you can see on the left the builders have covered […]

I just received word from producer Deidra Dain that Picture Farmer Films’ documentary about the Abbey, Saving Grace, Saving Place will air Thursday 12 January, 2017 at 8:00 PM on WVPT. For locally there will be a Sneak Preview at The Barns of Rose Hill, Berryville, VA, on Saturday afternoon, 7 January, between 3:00 and 5:00 PM. […]

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-9; Matthew 3:1-12 The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM in the Chapter Room (temporary chapel), Abbot Joseph Wittstock presiding and preaching. It is the first Sunday of the month and the Monthly Eucharistic Adoration begins at 4:00 PM and concludes with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament after […]

We must keep watch by night over the flock of our thoughts and actions. Then whether the Lord comes in the first watch or in the second or in the third, he will find us prepared. The first watch is uprightness of action–trying to bring your life into line with the Rule you have vowed, […]

Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24: 37-44 …the flood came and carried them all away. That verse from today’s Gospel strikes me because it resembles a dream told me by a friend. She dreamt that a tsunami sept everything away , and that powerful sweep was the coming of Christ. The image is as frightening […]

Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24: 37-44 Sunday begins the new liturgical year; during the Sundays of Year A, the Gospel will concentrate on that according to Matthew. The community Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM, Fr. James presiding and preaching. SEATING IS LIMITED and Mass is provided primarily for our Guests in […]

This afternoon, Wednesday, 23 November, we celebrated the Anointing of the Infirm, the entire community together, after Midday Prayer. We were primarily celebrating the Sacrament now to mark Fr. Robert’s completion of ten radiation treatments over the past two weeks; the radiation was to deal with cancer cells in his brain. Three other members of the […]

I’ve noticed that many of our retreatants and visitors are very familiar with the idea of the True Self, versus the False Self as our awareness of spiritual realities develop over a lifetime. That category is probably most familiar to us from the later writings of Thomas Merton; from there the model has just proliferated […]