Homilies of Father Abbot

And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him (Mt. 2).

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

On the feast of the Epiphany we remember three mysteries of the Faith, all having to do with Christ’s manifestation to the world: the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the Wedding Feast of Cana where Jesus performed His first public miracle, turning the water into wine. Of these three mysteries it is the visit of the Magi, the first panel of this mystical triptych, which we contemplate in particular on this 6th day of January, the other two scenes being commemorated in days and weeks to come.

The Sovereign Pontiffs, including the current one, have been […]

[The wise man] will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him, and he will pray in the sight of the most High. He will open his mouth in prayer, and will make supplication for his sins. For if it shall please the great Lord, he will fill him with the spirit of understanding: And he will pour forth the words of his wisdom as showers, and in his prayer, he will confess to the Lord. And he shall direct his counsel, and his knowledge, and in his secrets shall he meditate. (Eccli. 39:6-10)

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

There is, perhaps, no power upon the earth that more forcefully pushes back the darkness and sadness of earthly mortality than the light of true wisdom, […]

At that time, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to pass…(Lk. 2)

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

In order really to “see this Word” with the shepherds and to understand Christmas, we have to go way back, beyond the present age of the world, before any material universe known to modern science, even outside the frontiers of time itself. It all began with a great notion that God conceived of, His own concept or Word, the child of His thought, the Second Person of the Trinity. This Divine Word of God within Himself was so good that from it—and from the Father—a Divine Love proceeded. That love is the Holy Spirit or the “Holy […]

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

What in God’s creation could be simpler and purer than the Immaculate Conception? What image might we choose to express this mystery by means of a comparison in order to evoke the utter whiteness of this unique grace accorded to the Virgin Mother of God? It would have to be something like the imagery of today’s liturgical texts, which speak of garments white as snow, of a face like the sun, of the lily, or of the dove… And yet the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, this utterly simple reality, has encountered over the centuries many vicissitudes. It was the object of intense debates before it was clearly defined by the Magisterium of the Church as being part of divinely revealed Truth.

Dom Prosper […]

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

Today’s feast, by means of its liturgical texts, transports us into the courts of the heavenly Jerusalem, where all the Saints, those who have fought the good fight on earth, enjoy evermore the fruits of their victory over sin and death. They praise God and the Lamb, that is to say Our Lord, as He appears in the Apocalypse of Saint John, knowing their victories derive, in fact, from Christ’s own Passion, Death and Resurrection. “And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing as if slain…” (Apoc. 5:6). The Saints are truly this “cloud of witnesses” the Epistle to the Hebrews mentions (12:1), who encourage us […]

Signum magnum apparuit in caelo, A great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (Revelations 12:1)

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

Never was there mere creature—be it Cherub or prominent member of the choir of Seraphim—more gracious than the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her beauty transcends the canons of art, surpasses the greatest exemplars of human loveliness known to history. The Church contemplates this truth on today’s feast of the Assumption, as we commemorate that sublime moment, when, being lifted body and soul into the glory of Heaven, Mary’s beauty found its ultimate consummation. Today’s Introit, taken from the Book of the Apocalypse, powerfully underlines the mystery. She is wrapped in the […]

Ecce nos reliquimus omnia, et secuti sumus te…Behold, we have left all things and have followed Thee; what therefore shall we have? (Matthew 19:27)

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

It is striking how, in today’s reading from the Gospel, the emphasis is all on the idea of leaving behind the world. Saint Peter seems quite happy about the fact that he and the other apostles had abandoned all their possessions–even their families–in order to follow the Lord. Christ Himself, far from disapproving of such an attitude, confirms it and blesses it saying in solemn fashion:

Amen I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His Glory, you also shall sit on […]

All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

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

It has not escaped the notice of Christians down through the ages that after the Ascension, when the Apostles returned to the Upper Room in Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Ghost, the holy women that had followed the Lord during His public ministry were also present, and among them the Blessed and Ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

Saint Peter is the uncontested leader of the Apostles and followers of Christ, and yet, in many icons and other artistic representations of the scene of the Pentecost, it is the figure of Mary that holds the center position. Thus, she […]

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

When Our Lord “lost foot,” so to speak, on the hill overlooking Jerusalem, disappearing upwards into the clouds of Heaven, He took a great deal more than His sacred and resurrected Body: He ascended with our own humanity in some sense, being Himself a summary and exemplar of the human nature, now restored and perfected beyond anything men of former ages ever dreamt of. He took us—or at any rate what is the best of us—with Him in hope. He did not drag our sins along to the place above, but whatever was found to be noble, pure, genuine, beneficial—whatever is holy in the history of mankind—this He carried to Paradise.

Inversely, here below, since the moment of the Ascension, the world has never been quite […]

At that time: Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James and Salome…entering into the sepulcher saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe…who saith to them: Be not afraid; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he is risen, he is not here…

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

Ever since a certain Easter morning, when the unthinkable, the unspeakable, the unimaginable victory of life over death and of light over darkness occurred, Christians have looked to the place from which the Risen Christ escaped in radiant glory, as a symbol and proof of the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Although we all too often forget the lesson of God’s wisdom and power, falling back on human remedies for our woes; […]