A Torch Lifted High
A Translation and a Commentary In July 2011 I translated this extraordinary page from the writings of Catherine de Bar, Mother Mectilde du Saint-Sacrement (1614-1698),...
Cum transieris per aquas, tecum ero
When Thou Passest through the Waters Saint Maurus, together with Saint Placid, is honoured as one of the first disciples of our father Saint Benedict....
Abandonment and the Grace of Pentecost
In this conference, Mother Mectilde instructs us on the feast and grace of Pentecost. I first translated this text in 2011. God’s Gift to Us...
The Desert of the Most Holy Sacrament
This painting of Christ in the wilderness is the work of Alessandro Bonvicino (1498–1554), know as the Moretto da Brescia. It is found in the...
Act of Reparation in Advent
Laudetur sacrosanctum et augustissimum Sacramentum in aeternum. My God and my Saviour, Jesus, true God and true Man, worthy Victim of the Most High, Living...
More About Lectio Divina
I realized, after I spoke to the fine priests of the Archdiocese of Armagh on Monday evening last, that there was much more that I...
To be nothing and to await all from God
This text of Mother Mectilde is very fitting for today’s feast of Saint John Cassian. My own commentary is in italics. The image of Mother...
Tunc dixit: Ecce venio
CHAPTER XXXIII. Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own 11 Mar. 11 July. 10 Nov. The vice of private ownership is above all...
In a Life that is All Hidden
Tomorrow is the 374th anniversary of the profession of Catherine de Bar under the Rule of Saint Benedict. It was the feast of the Translation...
Mectildian Jubilee Year: 1614—2014
Ten Reasons Why the Mectildian Jubilee Year Is Significant for the Whole Church 1. Catherine Mectilde de Bar, born at Saint–Dié in Lorraine (France) on...
Let their healing redound to the glory of God
People burdened with sufferings of all sorts often come to the monastery to ask for our prayers. I often recommend enrolling the sick, the burdened,...
750th Anniversary of the Institution of the Feast of Corpus Domini
In preparation for the festival of Corpus Christi, it is fitting to re–read Pope Benedict’s discourse on Saint Juliana and the origins of the feast....
In pace locus eius
Peace Within In writing this morning to a young man, a friend of the priory, I was inspired to translate for him a text of...
Recognise the gift of God
On 28 April, 1695, Mother Mectilde, being at the customary recreation of a Thursday evening, began, all of a sudden, to speak to her daughters,...
Lose yourself in His adorable, divine immensity
Oh, I love to reflect on the presence of God in a soul! To think that we are immersed in God, that we are in...
Coming to fulfil what is written of me
The Annunciation in the Mectildian Jubilee Year By a wonderful and mysterious disposition of Divine Providence, Mother Mectilde de Bar received permission for the first...
The only spotless priest without sin
The Proper Mass of the Feast of Reparation for Offenses Committed Against the Most Holy Sacrament (Thursday after Sexagesima) contains the following beautiful Preface: It...
Neither divine consolation nor human
“The bother and troubles that your charge give you are the bother and troubles of obedience. If you bear them with a little bit of...
Into the silence of God
The Mectildian Jubilee Year (1614–2014) continues to provide me with an opportunity to share something of the immense treasure of her spiritual doctrine with the...
The Way of the Pilgrim
Pilgrimage and Enclosure When one thinks of the Benedictine ideal, one imagines monks behind their enclosure walls, buried deep in a kind of unshakeable stability....