Ante te omne desiderium meum

Wednesday, 28 September 2016

28 Jan. 29 May. 28 Sept.

We are, indeed, forbidden to do our own will by Scripture, which saith to us: turn away from thine own will. And so too we beg of God in prayer that His will may be done in us. Rightly therefore are we taught not to do our own will, if we take heed to the warning of Scripture: “There are ways which to men seem right, but the ends thereof lead to the depths of hell”; or, again, when we tremble at what is said of the careless: “They are corrupt and have become abominable in their pleasures.” And in regard to the desires of the flesh, we must believe that God is always present to us, as the prophet saith to the Lord: “O Lord, all my desire is before Thee.”

Fallen man is fiercely attached to his own will. The inclination to prefer one’s own will even to the commandments of God is part of the sad inheritance passed down to us by old Adam. It is the echo in us of the

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In the light of Thy countenance

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

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27 Jan. 28 May. 27 Sept.

Let him consider that he is always beheld from heaven by God, and that his actions are everywhere seen by the eye of the Divine Majesty, and are every hour reported to Him by His angels. This the prophet telleth us, when he sheweth how God is ever present in our thoughts, saying: “God searcheth the heart and the reins.” And again “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men.” And he also saith: “Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off”; and “The thought of man shall confess to Thee.” In order, therefore, that he may be on his guard against evil thoughts, let the humble brother say ever in his heart: “Then shall I be unspotted before Him, if I shall have kept me from mine iniquity.”

Tomorrow we shall enter into the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel; a few days later we shall keep the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. It is fitting, then, to review Saint Benedict’s references to the angels in the Holy Rule. First, in Chapter VII, we see

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The first degree of humility

Monday, 26 September 2016

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26 Jan. 27 May. 26 Sept.

The first degree of humility, then, is that a man, always keeping the fear of God before his eyes, avoid all forgetfulness; and that he be ever mindful of all that God hath commanded, bethinking himself that those who despise God will be consumed in hell for their sins, and that life everlasting is prepared for them that fear Him. And keeping himself at all times from sin and vice, whether of the thoughts, the tongue, the hands, the feet, or his own will, let him thus hasten to cut off the desires of the flesh.

The first degree of humility is to keep oneself in the presence of God. Psalm 90, prayed at Compline, sings of the all–enveloping presence of God. The monk who is content to live beneath the gaze of God finds in it his defence, his refuge, and his stronghold.

Content if thou be to live with the most High for thy defence, under his Almighty shadow abiding still, him thy refuge, him thy stronghold thou mayst call, thy own

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Salus Populi Ego Sum

Sunday, 25 September 2016

Saints Cosmas and Damian
The Roman stational church of today’s Mass is the Basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian. The liturgy is already preparing us for the feast of the beloved Physician Martyrs on Tuesday next, September 27th. The Introit of today’s Mass is linked to the stational church. The same Introit is sung on the Thursday after the Third Sunday of Lent in the same stational church of Saints Cosmas and Damian.

Who were Cosmas and Damian? Tradition has it that they were twin brothers martyred in the third century, Arabs by race, and physicians, practicing their profession without claiming payment from their patients. Hence they were known as the “moneyless” or “unmercenary” physicians. Their knowledge of medicine was, according to tradition, perfected by their faith in Christ. Saints Cosmas and Damian were known to heal, by the power of Christ, cases of disease which others had pronounced hopeless. Ultimately, Cosmas and Damian gave their lives in witness to the Divine Physician Christ. They were first honoured in the East, and by the sixth century they had their own

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His look was as it were hidden

Sunday, 25 September 2016

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CHAPTER VII. Of Humility
25 Jan. 26 May. 25 Sept.

The Holy Scripture crieth out to us, brethren, saying: “Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he who humbleth himself shall be exalted.” In saying this, it teacheth us that all exaltation is a kind of pride, against which the prophet sheweth himself to be on his guard when he saith: “Lord, my heart is not exalted nor mine eyes lifted up; nor have I walked in great things, nor in wonders above me.” For why? “If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul: like a child that is weaned from his mother, so wilt Thou requite my soul.” Whence, brethren, if we wish to arrive at the highest point of humility, and speedily to reach that heavenly exaltation to which we can only ascend by the humility of this present life, we must by our ever-ascending actions erect such a ladder as that which Jacob beheld in his dream, by which the angels appeared to him descending and ascending. This descent and

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About the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration

Silverstream Priory, founded in 2012 in Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland is a house of monks living under the Rule of Saint Benedict, under the patronage of Our Lady of the Cenacle. Each Benedictine monastery is an autonomous family characterised by a unique spirit. The monks of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the "Opus Dei" (Work of God, the sacred Liturgy) in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the "Usus Antiquior" (Extraordinary Form) of the Roman Rite. As Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration, they aspire to assure ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream offer their life for the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, and a publishing house, the Cenacle Press.

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