Letters to the Friends

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

Now that the “Alleluia” of Easter has broken the holy sadness of Lent and heralded the Savior’s victory over death—a victory over its very shadow—what more is there to say? How pleasant it would be to remain by the Empty Tomb and contemplate the eternal consequences of this victory in loving and contemplative silence. However, as with the holy women on Easter morning and the other disciples, there is felt a certain urgency to spread the news abroad that “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.” (Lk. 24:34)

At Clear Creek too, indeed, there is something to rejoice about, something more considerable even than the rebirth of nature in spring: the warmth and light of the Paschal mystery are augmented for us by the […]

“Although the life of a monk ought at all times to have about it a Lenten observance, yet since few have strength enough for this, we exhort all, at least during the days of Lent, to keep themselves in all purity of life, and to wash away during that holy season the negligences of other times.” Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 49

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

While most Catholics and Christians of every denomination look upon Lent as a rather unhappy time of restrictions and poorly held resolutions, the monk often discovers, or rediscovers, a hidden joy, even amid the penitential severities of the season.

Although Lent is not without its darkness, for the monk it is more like a kind of tunnel. It is a darkness emerging upon […]

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

It has been said that there is a vocation for places, just as there is a vocation for persons. Notre Dame de Fontgombault Abbey is certainly one such place. Its calling dates back to the high Middle Ages, to the heart of Catholic European history. To go to Fontgombault as a pilgrim is to return to the very sources of our civilization.

In fact, it all began with just that, with a source, a spring. Around the year 1000, a holy hermit named Gombaud moved into a cave along the banks of the Creuse River, by a spring that flowed our from the rocks. The place soon became known as the spring or “fountain of Gombaud,” Fontgombault. Other hermits came to join him. When the number of […]

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

It is customary for the monks to take a walk in the countryside on Thursdays, usually for about three hours. We sometimes remain within the limits of our own property; on other occasions, we follow the little roads that wind about the area or the paths that traverse the forest. In Advent and Lent, however, in order to do penance, we abstain from the Thursday walk, remaining at the monastery to perform manual labor or other tasks. One especially appreciates the walk right after Christmas, after being deprived of it during the preceding weeks.

This year, our Christmas-week promenade occurred on December 28, feast of the Holy Innocents. After the office of None, we met as usual in the only room big enough for us to gather, […]

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

Every Christian heart must grieve at the outset of Advent, before the seeming impossibility of living the spirit of the season, amid the hustle and bustle of buying and selling and the inevitable distractions of our material preparations for Christmas. If you like, come with me for just a moment into the inner sanctuary of monastic prayer. It will only take an instant. We will gaze into the crystal vision of God’s majesty, as mirrored in one of the masterpieces of the holy liturgy. In less than an instant, as if on angels’ wings, we will be drawn into the true spirit of Advent.

“O Rex Gentium… O King of nations, and their Desired, the Cornerstone Who dost make both one: come and save mankind […]

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

Many are the spiritual streams and rivers that have joined in a confluence of grace to produce our monastic foundation on the banks of Clear Creek in Oklahoma. I would like to evoke here one of the human instruments, one of the “conduits” of these living waters of wisdom and Divine love, who, perhaps more than any other, prepared the ways of God’s Providence.

Many of you are familiar with the story that began over thirty years ago at the University of Kansas, involving a wave of conversions to the Catholic faith and three professors, who shared a common vision of education, which was both steeped in tradition and overflowing with the youthful optimism of a new beginning. The goal of this “experiment in tradition” as it […]

“Amen, I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

The Age of Innocence

It is only natural that adults look down upon children: in terms of pounds and inches, they simply do not measure up; nor can they pretend to have even approached the moral stature we look for in a “complete” man or woman. Their childishness often embarrasses us. And yet the Gospel presents them as paradigms of the Kingdom: “Amen … unless you … become as little children …”

Monastic life strives to restore that innocent side of childhood to which the Gospel refers. In the struggle for the soul of modern man, amid the cultural shrapnel of […]

“Fuit vir vitae venerabilis, gratia Benedictus et nomine … There once was a man of saintly life; Blessed Benedict was his name and he was blessed by God’s grace.” (St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues)

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

The Mystery and Power of a Name

Great is the mystery in a name. For the Hebrews, the name of God was so holy that mortal lips were forbidden to pronounce it. The name given to a human being, likewise, touches something deeper than the circumstances of birth: it has to do with this little world, this microcosm we call the person. Each person, whether Divine, angelic, or human, is unique.

Some names contain a particular power. This is especially true of the name “Benedict,” of St. Benedict, whose feast we […]

Salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo; Qua Deus infernum vincit, et astra tenet.
Hail, thou festive, all venerable day! Wherein God conquers Hell, Christ Heaven holds.

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

Easter is no ordinary time. It is a day apart. According to the Jewish manner of counting the days of the week, Sunday corresponded with the first day, the first day of creation, the first day of everything. When Our Lord rose from the dead, all was forever transformed. Sunday became more like the “eighth day”, the day of eternity, as the Fathers liked to say. The Venerable Dom Prosper Gueranger describes the initial moments of the first Easter of our salvation:

“The day of light, Sunday, has begun, and its early dawn is struggling with the gloom. The […]

Dear Friends of Clear Creek Monastery,

In the first encyclical letter of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, of January 25th, 2006, the Church has received a precious gift, a treasure of light which we must lovingly receive into our hearts and minds. It will take more than a casual glance for any of us to sound the depths of this solemn hymn to the supreme love, which God is.

From the very outset of the encyclical (no.7), Pope Benedict establishes the vital role of contemplative life, that especially practiced by monks:

In the account of Jacob’s ladder, the Fathers of the church saw this inseparable connection between ascending and descending love, between eros which seeks God and agape which passes on the gift received, symbolized in various […]