ABBEY NEWS
Renovation Project Visual Tour
An interesting and informative update on our renovation project from our local fund raiser: Thanks to the generosity of an architectural design company, we can show renderings of the gatehouse plans. Thanks to the people who have chosen to partner with us in this project, the new gatehouse store entrance will divert the heavy traffic away from the reception area near the church. Once the renovation of the gatehouse Phase One is completed, people coming to the abbey in search of a quiet place will find it. This change will provide an oasis of silence and solitude for those preparing to go to confession or to receive spiritual direction.
The newest features of the page are a video of the Future Merton Hall and a New Gatehouse Tour. They can be found about half way down the page. For either tour click the YouTube link in the lower right hand of each photo and then click one of the arrows in the upper left hand of each one for an all around preview of coming attractions.
To access the page go to Abbey Donations Projects.
Contemplative Walk
Finally that record breaking heat wave that plagued much of the East coast lifted recently providing glorious mid-summer weather for a quiet, contemplative walk on a beautiful, July day.
Lectio Notebook
Bernard’s (St. Bernard of Clairvaux) reflections on the Song of Songs make it clear that there was nothing more important to him than the pursuit of spiritual union with God. However, we saw that even in writing about the delights of contemplation, Bernard was not unaware of the realities and demands of ordinary existence.
He recognized that contemplation and action are both essential elements of the spiritual life and, indeed, complement one another. To put it in more contemporary language, he was quite interested in the integration of the spiritual and the practical.
Bernard of Clairvaux: Essential Writings
Dennis E. Tamburello, O.F.M.
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