Category: Essays

Fathers, Sons, and Brothers

August 19, 2016

19 Apr. 19 Aug. 19 Dec. Let the younger brethren, then, reverence their elders, and the elder love the younger. In calling each other by...

Mary Always Present in the Church

November 22, 2015

Again and Again It seems to me that with every passing year, the Gospel of the First Sunday of Advent (Luke 14:26–33) becomes more actual,...

Ballasts in Peter’s storm–tossed bark

November 20, 2014

Maria Fortunata Viti: A Nearly–Forgotten Benedictine Blessed Today is the feast of a now nearly–forgotten Benedictine Blessed: Maria Fortunata Viti. Back in October 1967, at...

Do what you can, and ask for what you cannot

November 16, 2014

A Pastoral Query Answered There was in the October 22, 2014 Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to a French priest’s...

Liturgy, Doctrine, and Discipline: the Right Order

November 7, 2014

Speaking in Vienna this week, His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke said, “The Church’s discipline can never be other than true to her doctrine.” 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.