Chaplet Of The Blessed Sacrament
Spiritual Communion has taken on a new meaning for so many Catholics in the present lockdown. If access to the Holy Mass is denied, it is possible at every moment to receive the Lord spiritually and be blessed with an abundance of Divine Grace. With this in mind, a friend of the monastery has handcrafted […]
Of Putting Wood In Bread
Temple Tuesday “Let’s put wood in his bread” When the enemies of Jeremiah devised this cruel way of tormenting the prophet, they did not realise how they were prophesying the New Covenant. Putting wood in someone’s bread is a way of poisoning him and making life impossible. So they did to Jeremiah, so they did […]
Waiting In Silence
Palm Sunday “It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God” On this Sunday of the Palms, our Holy Mother Church invites us to remember that it is through suffering and death that we attain to the resurrection. The tone is by the collect of the Mass in which, after recalling that […]
About Not Going Back
Fig Monday “I have not gone back” The voice of the prophet Isaiah which we heard in today’s epistle reveals to us the dispositions of soul of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the eve of His passion. We can see here the struggle between the feebleness of His human nature, reluctant to undertake the labour […]
To Live Is Christ And To Die Is Gain
Passion Sunday “ For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” With this Sunday the Church enters into Passion tide, that time of the year when our gaze is focused on the salvific sufferings of Our Blessed Lord. We are draped in colours of penance, we have veiled our statues and our […]
Penance Kindly But Severe
Throughout Lent, the monastic office of Lauds gives us a beautiful hymn whose first words are “Jam Christe sol iustitiae”. Its second and third stanzas give us a lot to think about especially with the present worldwide crisis upon us: Thou Who dost give the accepted time, Give too a heart that mourns for crime, […]
I Myself Will Come
Annunciation The Lord spoke thus to the Prophet Ezechiel: Behold I myself will seek my sheep, and will visit them. As the shepherd visiteth his flock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered, so will I visit my sheep, and will deliver them out of all […]
Of Contagion And Joy
Laetare Sunday “ Rejoice, you who were sad” How can we rejoice with the news that reaches us every day of more deaths, more infections, cancelled Masses, closed borders, crashing economy, etc? Is it really possible to rejoice in this situation? The Church’s answer is an emphatic and resounding YES! It is also a command. […]
Lessons From St Benedict
St Benedict “ God loves a cheerful giver” On this day on which we celebrate the the passing of our Holy Father St Benedict to eternal life, I propose to ask our glorious Patriarch for three graces linked with three aspects of his life. First of all, St Benedict, from a very young age – […]