Homilies of Father Abbot

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum…I arose, and am still with thee, Alleluia (Introit).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

Some thoughts are too rich be contained within the narrow confines of human words. Some events too are beyond our telling, exceeding even the language of angels. The happenings of Easter morning belong to this category. Gone now are the great discourses that gripped the Apostles’ attention during the Last Supper—especially Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer; ended are the impassioned speeches that our Lord’s enemies multiplied like so many dark clouds before Pilate and Herod on Good Friday. All here, on this morning of Christ’s rising from the dead, is brief and pointing to things outside the realm of normal human existence. The Lord has truly passed “to the other side of […]

Before the festival day of the pasch, Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end (Jn 13:1)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

Spiritually gathered together with the Lord and His Apostles in the Upper Room of Jerusalem, we begin this evening the celebration of the Passion of Christ. There could not be a more solemn moment: Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday, opens the Sacrum Triduum, the threeday liturgical reenactment of the saving Sacrifice Christ accomplished upon earth in order to redeem us from the power of the Prince of this world. We must be attentive to every gesture, to every word, for this sacred drama speaks of […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My Very Dear Sons,

It seems that despite of—or perhaps because of—His Divine majesty and absolute transcendence over all created realities, in relationship precisely to that work of His we call Creation, God retains a sort of child-like attitude, which for lack of a better word we might call “playfulness”. “I was with Him,” says Divine Wisdom, “forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times; playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men” (Prov. 8: 30-31). Despite the tragedy that marks, first the angelic world in Satan’s rebellion, and then this lower world, beginning with the sin of Adam and Eve, throughout the dramatic story we call the History, characterized by so many ups and downs, […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My Very Dear Sons,

As we have two feasts of Our Blessed Father Saint Benedict every year, there is no need today to multiply words and to produce a long homily. Saint Benedict was a man of few but extremely well chosen words. His silence speaks as eloquently as the words he wrote and uttered. We will do well to imitate on this feast that falls during Lent.

At Easter we will celebrate the passing of Our Lord, the Savior of the World, the Messiah, who passes out of the earthly phase of His existence. This will be Christ’s transitus or excessus (in Greek: exodus) as is said in the Gospel relative to His transfiguration.

And behold two men were talking with him. And they were […]

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very Dear Sons,

Earlier today in Rome, the Holy Father closed the Holy Door, ending the Jubilee Year… Tomorrow a different door will open, that of the extraordinary consistory of Cardinals, during with our new Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, will lay out his plans for his pontificate. We must pray for the success of this great meeting and for the direction Pope Leo will give to Holy Church going forward.

As it moved toward the fullness of time, human history was driven by three major currents: that of the Romans with […]

And Joseph went up from Galilee…into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child (Lk. 2).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

It seems that the custom of celebrating three Masses at Christmas originated in Palestine, in the very country where the Holy Family lived. In the fourth century a first Mass was said at Bethlehem, in the very early hours; a second Mass was then celebrated around dawn in the greater church of Jerusalem; finally, a third holy Mass was celebrated about midday in the famous church of the Resurrection, the Anastasis. In Rome, a similar custom prevailed: the first Mass was said at midnight before […]

Trahe nos, Virgo Immaculata; Draw us, O Virgin Immaculate; we will run after thee to the fragrance of thy ointments. (Fifth Antiphon; cf. Cant. 1:3)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My Very Dear Sons,

Beginning already in the earliest centuries of the Church, a debate arose as to the universal nature of original sin and its effects on the great friends of God such as Saint John the Baptist or Saint Joseph. Were they touched by this hereditary harm? Our Lord affirmed that “no one born of woman” was greater than Saint John (Mt. 11:11). Could he have been affected by the ugliness of original sin? But the question that caused the most discussion was relative to what part sin may have had in the body and soul of the Blessed Virgin […]

Post haec vidi turbam magnam…After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Apoc. 7:9).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

“A certain man running up and kneeling before [Jesus], asked him: Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting? Why callest thou me good? Replied the Lord. None is good but one, that is God” (Mk. 10: 17-18). How is it that, while Our Lord thus affirms that God alone is good, Saint John in the Apocalypse, shows a multitude of human beings, so great that no one could number it, standing like […]

Signum magnum apparuit in caelo…A great sign appeared in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Apoc. 12:1.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

Because we live in a place of spiritual darkness or, more exactly, of spiritual twilight (that half-light of Faith, as opposed to the vision), because the final truth concerning God and His Church has not yet appeared to our mortal eyes or to the eyes of our souls in its full splendor, because we struggle through life not knowing all there is to know about ourselves or about the world, having only a partial understanding–because of all of this–God sends us signs in order to help us keep on the road […]

Panem Angelorum manducavit homo, Man has eaten of the Bread of Angels, Alleluia.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

Truly today’s feast is a magnificent feast, because we honor, not only a Sacrament of the Church, but the Blessed Sacrament itself, containing something even more considerable than the grace of God—which is quite extraordinary already—,God Himself, that is to say the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man. It is no wonder this most Holy Host is likened to the Bread of Angels and reminds us of the Manna that God rained down on the People of God, during their forty years of wanderings in the desert under the direction of Moses.

Why is it, though, that we partake so often […]