Category: Saint John Paul II

Saint John Paul II on Silence

April 10, 2018

Again and again, I return to Pope Saint John Paul II’s magnificent Apostolic Letter 2 May 1995, Orientale Lumen. When it was promulgated twenty–three years...

Divine Mercy and the Monastic Vocation

April 7, 2018

Disclaimer: The series of letters entitled “Correspondence on the Monastic Vocation”, while based on the real questions of a number of men in various places...

Quoniam in aeternum misericordia eius

December 21, 2015

His Lordship, Dr Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, opens the Door of Mercy in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, on the Fourth Sunday...

Mary shares the Church’s burden

October 17, 2015

Mary shares our human condition, but in complete openness to the grace of God. Not having known sin, she is able to have compassion on...

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.