Category: Christmastide

The Very Little One

December 30, 2015

This morning’s Second Reading at Vigils was from the wonderful Christmas Sermons of Blessed Guerric of Igny (+1157), one of the Four Evangelists of the...

With Saint John: into the love of things invisible

December 27, 2015

Saint John by Sir Ninian Comper, Lady Chapel of Downside Abbey Church. Thanks to the ever gracious Father Lawrence, O.P. for the use of his...

To the Infant Christ

December 20, 2015

Over the centuries, souls have been drawn irresistibly to the mystery of the Infant Christ. Among these was the great Pierre Cardinal de Bérulle, the...

And in the mouth a honey zest

January 3, 2015

Of all the English translations of Jesu, Dulcis Memoria that I have read and prayed, the one done by Gerard Manley Hopkins remains my favourite....

Radiant Beams from Thy Holy Face

December 31, 2014

This painting by Bernardino Luini (1480–1532) shows Saint Katherine of Alexandria and Saint Barbara, Virgin Martyrs, in the company of the Infant Christ and His...

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.