Letter to a Novice Oblate (IV)

6 February 2012
This fresco in Monte Oliveto Maggiore depicts a youthful Saint Benedict receiving the monastic habit from the monk Romanus. My very dear Novice Oblate, Questions...

Letter to a Novice Oblate (III)

6 February 2012
Here, in a fresco at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi depicts Saint Benedict dining with his monks. I am fond of this particular fresco...

Second Letter to Wilfrid on Prayer

3 February 2012
My dear Wilfrid, Discouragement: the Worst Enemy First of all, thank you for being honest with me about your ongoing difficulties in quiet prayer. You...

Letter to a Novice Oblate (II)

31 January 2012
My dear daughter in Christ, Praying at Home Recently, you asked me how you, as wife and mother, with children to look after from morning...

Letter to a Novice Oblate (I)

25 January 2012
This is the first of a series of letters that I will be writing to the Oblates of the Monastery of Our Lady of the...

Conversion: Saint Paul’s and Ours

25 January 2012
Image: A detail from the incomparable Caravaggio’s Conversion of Saint Paul. A Divine Inbreaking For Benedictines who make a vow of conversion — conversatio morum...

Reception of Oblate Novices

15 January 2012
Today, on the Second Sunday after Epiphany, and the feast of Saints Maurus and Placid, I received three men and four women into the year...

First Letter to Wilfrid on Prayer

14 January 2012
My dear Wilfrid, You were trusting enough, and humble enough to share with me something of the difficulties you experience in the prayer of adoration....

God’s bounty toward us has been multiplied

11 January 2012
The Lectionary used at Matins is that edited by Stephen Mark Holmes for Pluscarden Abbey. Today’s readings are especially lovely. The responsories are proper to...

Saint Paul, the First Hermit

10 January 2012
Planted in the House of the Lord Today, in our Benedictine calendar, we commemorate Saint Paul the First Hermit (+343). The Introit of the Mass,...

The Triumph of Grace

8 January 2012
A few years ago, while in France I read a biography of Dom Vital Léhodey, entitled Frère Vital, ou le triomphe de la grâce, written...

Times of Holy Mass

4 January 2012
Dear friends, On Friday, 6 January 2012, Feast of the Epiphany, Holy Mass at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle will be at...

Drinking to the Love of Saint John

27 December 2011
There are several forms for the traditional blessing of wine on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist. Father Weller’s Roman Ritual in three volumes...

Daily Mass Time to Change

12 December 2011
Beginning Wednesday, 14 December 2011, our daily weekday Mass (Monday through Saturday) will be at 8:15 a.m., immediately following Lauds. Our Sunday Mass will continue...

Iterum dico, gaudete!

11 December 2011
This is our new rose-coloured set of vestments, made by Brother Augustine Kelly, O.F.M., Conv. The photo was taken in our sacristy immediately after Holy...

Saint Ambrose and the Face of Christ

7 December 2011
Seek the Face of Christ Saint Ambrose invites us to seek the Face of Christ in his mysteries, that is to say, in the Sacred...

Saint Barbara and Her Three Windows

3 December 2011
Saints in Advent We celebrate the Holy Mysteries on December 4th in the company of two saints, both of them lights from the East: Saint...