I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  Ours was simple yet sincere and joyful. The Gospel reading this morning at Mass was the story of Simeon meeting the infant Jesus with Mary and Joseph in the Temple.  Simeon’s prayer has become one of the great canticles of the Church Lord, now let your servant go [...]

I can’t believe Christmas is just a week away!  I thought maybe you all might like to hear about Christmas in the monastery.  We are putting up our Christmas creche and trees today.  ( I say “we” but a couple of our workmen are really doing most of the work).  We have been using artificial trees for [...]

It is hard to believe that Advent is upon us.  Sadly, in our culture, there is no space for Advent.  We seem to start celebrating Christmas right after Thanksgiving.  Here at the monastery, we don’t start singing carols or decorating for Christmas until after December 17th.  It is important for us not to lose the sense [...]