Letters to the Friends

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

According to a prominent thinker of the twentieth century, Simone Weil (she was not a Catholic Christian, but moving close the Church at the time of her premature death), “The beautiful is the experimental proof that the incarnation is possible.” If this soul not yet received into the fold of Christ could make such a bold assertion, how much more should the Catholic faithful find in the beauty of creation the traces of God? With the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity the supernatural sense of wonder grows even greater, as the “proof” becomes tangible. Here is what the preface for Christmas in the Roman Missal tells us:

For by […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

The clerical sexual abuse crisis that has now reached alarming proportions is like the many-headed Hydra that Hercules had to kill as one of his Twelve Labors—worse still, like the Beast of the Apocalypse with seven heads (chapter 13), something extremely hard to kill. Indeed, the restoration of the virtue of chastity in all its dimensions has become an urgent matter—a matter of spiritual life or death. What is desperately needed is a substantial reaffirmation of the Catholic doctrine concerning chastity and a new commitment to the vow of priestly celibacy, which is its corollary.

Surprisingly enough, our formula of monastic profession does not even mention chastity specifically. For as Dom Delatte points out, chastity—like poverty—is “included in the promise to observe monastic customs and the monastic […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Many in our day seek ways of living closer to the land. At Clear Creek we are fortunate to have abundant natural resources in the rugged woodlands God has provided for us. Here follows a description of some techniques we are learning in an effort to make good use of these gifts of Creation. — br. Philip Anderson, abbot

Cherokee County, Oklahoma, is not known as Big Ag country: tractors in these parts (if folks have them at all) are small, and there are no “amber waves of grain” for as far as the eye can see. The harsh climate combined with the rocky soil require a more flexible approach to agriculture, aided by frequent and fervent prayer. Also helpful is an appreciation that “small is beautiful.” […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

For his part, Saint Paul argued that talk about certain subjects should simply be eliminated from the conversation of Christians: “Let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints” (Eph. 5:3). It seems that in our sad times, we Catholics are obliged to hear of nothing else but those forbidden subjects. Where has innocence gone?

At least on Christmas, let us hope, we can leave aside for a moment the depressing news and focus our eyes and hearts on the perfect innocence of the Christ child. For this one day, nothing threatens the spiritual peace. Herod’s black riders, those fearful population-control henchmen, have not yet arrived in the streets of Bethlehem. The Child in His Mother’s virginal and immaculate hands does not yet […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Contemplating the calendar invites us to look beyond the present moment, whether to the past or to the future. Together with this calendar I am sending you, I offer a few reflections on the past, present, and future of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey.

In a homily given at the Mass for the official opening of our monastery on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11, 2000, the Most Reverend Edward J. Slattery, then bishop of Tulsa, made comments that seemed to take on a prophetic character:

…[T]he monk who freely consecrates himself to God through the voluntary renunciations of poverty, chastity, obedience, through the practice of conversion and stability, all this leading him to a life of prayerful passion and […]