…bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Blessed feast of our Mother among the saints, Scholastica Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate. One day […]
January 21 is the Feast of Saint Meinrad. Still in the early days of 2021 I am mindful that we need his intercession as we in our country chart a renewed course of charity and hospitality! Prayers for the monks and oblates of the Archabbey of St Meinrad.
In one week we have two diamonds in the crown of Benedictine (Cistercian) sanctity: St Gertrude and today, St Mechtild of Magdeburg (c.1210 – 1280). The witness of St Mechtild is striking because it conveys a personal experience with the Lord. Far being abstract and vague, Mechtild relates her experience of the love she and […]
A blessed feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Order! We have the opportunity today to celebrate In Festo Omnium Sanctorum Ordinis S.P.N. Benedicti…who fought the good fight under the Rule of St Benedict. Let’s reflect on the supreme importance of the monastic vocation, past and present. Do we support our Benedictine monasteries? I am […]
Today is the liturgical memorial of Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923), priest, monk and abbot. Born in Dublin, served as curate in Dundrum, Ireland. Entered the Abbey of Maredsous, Belgium, 1886. Elected as abbot, he received his abbatial blessing in 1909. Marmion’s spiritual writings were among the most influential of the 20th Century. His writings are […]
Today is the summer feast of the Holy Patriarch Benedict. It is a day to heed the advice of Benedict: seek the Lord and listen to him. It is also a day to celebrate the feast with beer made by monks. Benedict’s vision for monastic life is that the monk/nun live in community. One’s life […]
On the Monks of Tibhirne (in French). “Sept frères pour l’éternité – Les moines de Tibhirine” was produced by Net for God who are part of the ecclesial movement, Chemin Neuf Community. It is well done and informative.
Saint Benedict is a spiritual master who zeros-in on the key spiritual teaching of Christianity: nothing is preferred to the love of Christ. We do this by making a total gift of self, by a life of humility and forgetting self thus putting on the new person. Saint Bernard’s only sermon Benedict says: “His holiness […]
Today is the liturgical commemoration of Saint Frances of Rome, patron saint of the Oblates who live the Rule of Saint Benedict and who strive to serve. She died in 1440. Along with Frances, we have King Saint Henry, as co-patron saints of the Benedictine oblates. Frances is also revered as the patron saint of […]
Our venerable mother, Scholastica, the twin sister of the holy Benedict. Scholastica guided a community of nuns near Monte Cassino, where her brother, Benedict, organized his community of monks. When she died, sometime around the year 543, the nuns and monks carried her body to Monte Cassino, and Benedict laid her in the tomb which […]