Homilies of Father Abbot

Emitte spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae.  Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. [1]

On this glorious feast of Pentecost the Holy Church makes repeated use of a verse from Psalm 103, one that is full of mystery.  We find it in the Alleluia verse and throughout the Divine office:  “Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.”  In the Latin version we use habitually the meaning is rather more dynamic: “Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created.” It is an appeal.

As we know from the book of Genesis, at the very beginning of time, when God created the Heaven and the […]

Ye men of Galilee, why wonder you, looking up to heaven? Alleluia.

When angels ask questions—especially of human beings—they do not engage in idle chatter, but open their ‘lips,” so to speak, only in order to communicate something of great importance on behalf of the divine majesty.  As we read in the Book of Judges, when an angel had announced to Manue and his wife that the latter would give birth to a son, which is to say to Samson, Manue asked him his name. “Why askest thou my name,” replied the angelic messenger, “which is wonderful?”[1] On Easter morning, to take another example, when the holy women encountered two angels at the empty tomb, they were asked quite directly, “Why seek you the living with the dead?”  The question of these […]

[Due to Holy Week and the Easter Octave, The Feast of the Annunciation was moved in 2016 to April 4th.]

Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: for the King hath greatly desired thy beauty (Ps. 44)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,
And you in particular, who are about to pronounce your simple monastic vows,

Many are the announcements, the proclamations of God’s purposes recorded in Holy Scripture.  The prophets of both the Old and New Testaments were the heralds of God’s designs for the world, from the days of Adam to the end of all things, as we read about them in the pages of the Apocalypse of Saint John.  Mighty were these men, men such as Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.  Larger than life is […]

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

From the earliest times of our Christian era, the faithful have placed a particular importance on the day we call “Sunday,” the Lord’s day, Dies Dominica.  Sunday is both the first day of the week and the “eighth day,” so to speak: a symbol of creation in time and a symbol of eternity.  Whereas seven signifies, in the symbolic language of the bible, perfection, as with the Sabbath day of the Law of Moses, God’s day of rest after creating the world, eight means perfection taken to a higher plane, perfection that opens up into eternity.  Today, not only are we celebrating Sunday, the eighth day, but today is also the eighth day of the Octave of Easter, the eighth day of the eighth day.  […]

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 […]

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 three-day liturgical reenactment of the saving Sacrifice Christ accomplished upon earth in order to redeem us from the power of Prince of this world.  We must be attentive to every gesture, to every word, for this sacred […]

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,

As it moved toward the fullness of time human history was driven by three major currents: that of the Romans in terms of the greatest political empire ever to be realized (we see this in the Gospel, as Joseph and Mary must travel to Bethlehem to participate in the census mandated by the Romans); that of the Greeks in regard to the highest intellectual achievements in literature, philosophy, and the arts; and, finally, that of the prophetic tradition of the Jews, to whom was entrusted the revelation […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

My very dear sons,

If, in her Immaculate Conception, the mercy of God anticipated the work of salvation by preserving Mary from all sin; if, at the Annunciation, Divine Mercy was announced, by Divine embassy, as a reality already coming into the world; here, in the Stable of Bethlehem we have the long awaited arrival of Divine Mercy in person, le fait accompli, although presented in a rather informal and initially unimpressive manner, that is to say in the diminutive person of the Word Incarnate speaking only, as yet, in the ill-defined forms of “baby talk.” Misericordia praesens, misericordia vagiens.

Even the Donkey and the Ox, gazing silently upon the scene, seem mildly astonished. The world expected a King, that is to say a “kingly” sovereign […]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My Very Dear Sons,
Today begins, in the Roman Catholic Church, an Extraordinary Jubilee dedicated to Divine Mercy. This is no trifling event. There is nothing the world so needs at present, there is nothing each one of us so needs so urgently, as this mercy that God would give us. As the Holy Father explained in his Bull of Indiction:

We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers […]

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? 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 so many […]