Category: Advent 2019

23 December, O EMMANUEL

December 23, 2019

Behold the Bread of Angels Sent Murillo’s painting of the Infant Christ distributing bread to pilgrims is an invitation to consider the mystery of the...

22 December, O REX GENTIUM

December 22, 2019

The connection between this O Antiphon and the “Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization,” published twelve years ago (3 December 2007) by the Congregation...

21 December, O ORIENS

December 21, 2019

O DAYSPRING (Zech 6:12; Lk 1:78), Splendor of Eternal Light (Heb 1:3), and Sun of Justice (Mal 4:2): Come, and enlighten those that sit in...

20 December, O CLAVIS DAVID

December 20, 2019

To illustrate the antiphon O Clavis David, I chose Bartolomeo Bermejo’s magnificent painting of the Harrowing of Hell. It depicts the Risen Christ descending into...

19 December, O RADIX IESSE

December 19, 2019

I could have chosen one of the many medieval images of the Tree of Jesse to illustrate this O Antiphon, but instead I chose this...

Situated amidst pasture land and forest in the eastern reaches of County Meath, Silverstream Priory was founded in 2012 at the invitation of the Most Reverend Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, and canonically erected as an autonomous monastery of diocesan right on 25 February 2017. The property belonged, from the early 15th century, to the Preston family, premier Viscounts of Ireland and Lords of Gormanston. In 1843 Thomas Preston (1817-1903), son of Jenico Preston, the 12th Viscount (1775-1860), built what today is Silverstream Priory. Silverstream Priory is a providential realisation of the cherished project of Abbot Celestino Maria Colombo, O.S.B. (1874–1935), who, following the impetus given by Catherine–Mectilde de Bar in the 17th century, sought to establish a house of Benedictine monks committed to ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. The community of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the Divine Office in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the “Usus Antiquior” of the Roman Rite. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream keep at heart the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably the development of the land and gardens, hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, scholarly work, and publishing.