Category: Year of the Priest 2009–2010

An Irish Priest for Priests

August 16, 2017

August 16th, 1917: The Anniversary of Father William Doyle, S.J. When Father Willie Doyle entered my life, something happened. It was the beginning of one...

By Thy Precious Blood, O Jesus

July 1, 2017

Like most chaplets or repetitive prayers, this Offering of the Precious Blood for Priests is meant to be prayed quietly and gently as a way...

The Maternal Heart of Mary

December 16, 2016

The Gospel of the Ember Friday in Advent (Luke 1:37–47) evokes the mystery of the Maternal Heart of Mary: “And whence is this to me,...

Blessed Columba Marmion: In Die Natalis

January 30, 2016

Several years ago, on a visit to the Irish College in Rome where the ever gracious Father Bernard Healy, then a student there, I was...

Homily at First Vespers of SS. Peter and Paul

June 28, 2015

This is the homily that I preached in 2009 at First Vespers of Saints Peter and Paul in the Cathedral of the Holy Family in...

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.