Abbey News

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Round One
Although we continue having wonderfully mild autumn weather these days the first bout of flu or just bad colds is making the rounds already. A couple of the brethren have been out of commission for a few days while coughs and sneezes can be heard here and there. Here's hoping round one is short-lived and will soon be over.

Local Critters

Among the benefits of trying to live quietly and peacefully in the country is the taming of some of the local wild creatures sharing our turf. Chipmunks and squirrels, for example, run all about the place with abandon even at times taking to peeking into one's window. Or, if one is really trusting and a bit hungry, unabashedly eating up our marigolds right outside one's window as this fellow was caught doing the other day.

Other wild life running about the place, though fortunately include wild turkey, deer, racoon, fox, woodchuck, Canadian geese, skunk, possum. Often in the quiet of the early morning hours after vigils one can hear what might be called the chorus of the coyote a way off in the distant woods. As long as they keep their distance we shall gladly keep ours.

Thanksgiving Week Schedule
The changes in Mass times for the week of Thanksgiving have been posted on our Liturgical Schedule page.

Speaking of Thanksgiving reminds us that Advent can't be far away. Actually only three weeks away! If you are casting about for some Advent - Christmas reading this year you might want to check out the listings in our on-line bookstore for Advent/Christmas. Liguori Publications has added three new titles to their popular Advent/Christmas series that may be of interest to some.

Benedictine Harvest
It is the time of year to celebrate harvests of various sorts. Liturgically we recently celebrated the abundant harvest festival of All Saints. Not satisfied with that, Tuesday of this week we Benedictines will be holding our own harvest celebration, that of All Saints of the Benedictine Order. All of the sainted men and women who followed the Rule of St. Benedict were included in All Saints Day, of course, but this special Benedictine day gives us all the opportunity to give special honor to our Benedictine sisters and brothers who have made the grade, to learn from the example of their lives and ask for their help along our way. We'll be doing all this in the liturgy, in the refectory and, of all things, in the bakery!

I would like to emphasize one typical aspect of Saint Benedict's spirituality. Benedict, unlike other great monastic missionaries of his time, did not found a monastic institution whose principal aim was the evangelization of the barbarian peoples; he pointed out to his followers the search for God as the fundamental and, indeed, one and only aim of life: to seek God.

He knew, however, that when the believer enters into a profound relationship with God, he cannot be content with a mediocre life under the banner of a minimalistic ethic and a superficial religiosity. In this light one can understand better the expression that Benedict borrowed from Saint Cyprian and summed up in his Rule, the monks' program of life: prefer nothing to the love of Christ (RB 4:21).

Holiness consists of this, a sound proposal for every Christian that has become a real and urgent pastoral need in our time, when we feel the need to anchor life and history to sound spiritual references. Mary Most Holy is a sublime and perfect model of holiness who lived in constant and profound communion with Christ.

Let us invoke her intercession, together with Saint Benedict's, so that in our time too the Lord will multiply men and women who, through witnessing to an enlightened faith in their lives, may be the salt of the earth and the light of the world in this new millennium.

Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI