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Three Hearts Pilgrimage 2024

2024-10-18T17:16:28-05:00October 12th, 2024|News|

The annual three day pilgriamge to Clear Creek Abbey concluded today, October 12th, with the Pontifical Mass celebrated by the Right Reverend Father Jean Pateau, Abbot of Notre-Dame de Fontgombault, who gave the following homily

 

Right Reverend Father,
Dear Fathers and Brothers,
Dear Brothers and Sisters, pilgrims and friends of Clear Creek,

When I was a child, I loved to hear my mother repeat a little nursery rhyme: “No Saturday without sunshine”. Such a thought might seem strange to specialists in meteorology, strange to those who try to predict the weather. Not so for those who live a close heart-to-heart relationship with Mary, on a Saturday dedicated to her. Mary is the sunshine of our lives. And why is that? Because her fiat teaches us to say “Yes” to God, to say “Yes” to God’s plans.

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Coming Of Age

2024-09-28T12:30:59-05:00September 13th, 2024|Letters to the Friends|

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

It was a quarter of a century ago, on the morning of September 15th well before dawn, when the founders of our monastery packed up the last of their effects and prepared to make the long journey from France to America. During the chant of the Benedictus canticle, toward the end of the office of Lauds, they assembled in the middle of the ancient abbatial church of Fontgombault and then moved out, led by the abbot, Eagles' Bluff with abbot of Solesmesthrough the open portal and into the vehicle that would take them to a train for Paris. In Paris, a place once peopled by saints and famous monasteries, they boarded a plane bound for […]

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Glimpse into the cloister: Monastic Silence

2024-08-23T15:29:01-05:00August 23rd, 2024|Glimpse into the cloister|

In a house full of adult men of varying temperaments and origins, one can imagine that certain rules would be necessary to maintain peace and good order.

Saint Benedict, in fact, puts emphasis on this practical aspect when regulating the silence which the monks must keep at night: it is intended to allow all to sleep without being kept up by the importunity of those who would want to talk. This silence of the night, then, takes on a grave character colored by fraternal charity. This silence of the night or great silence is normally the one that captures the popular mind, with images of monks in dark corridors using sign language to communicate about secret things.

Nonetheless, this was not the universal practice of ancient monasticism. We read in the […]

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Assumption 2024

2024-08-31T15:26:26-05:00August 15th, 2024|Homilies of Father Abbot|

Blessed be the Lord who made heaven and earth, who hath directed thee to the mortal wounding of the head of the prince of our enemies (Judith).

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

On this glorious feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, many splendid and glorious things are presented to the eyes of our soul: a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet; the visit made by Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, when she intoned her Magnificat; the spectacle of angels rejoicing as they receive their Queen into the blessed precincts of Heaven; finally, the bride described in Psalm 44, adorned with gilded clothing surrounded with variety. And all of these sacred images have a spiritual meaning, not only for the Church in general, but […]

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Salve Regina: A Monastic Introduction to the Chant

2024-08-13T15:22:51-05:00August 13th, 2024|Videos|

The Choirmaster of Clear Creek Abbey gives an introduction to one of the most well-loved pieces of Gregorian Chant: the beautiful antiphon to Our Lady, Salve Regina. View our Books about Gregorian Chant View our Gregorian Chant Albums

Learn Gregorian Chant

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New from Abbey Editions: The Rule of Saint Benedict in English and Latin

2024-08-02T15:59:14-05:00August 2nd, 2024|News|

Abbey Editions, the imprint of the monks of Clear Creek, has just released a new edition of the Rule of Saint Benedict in English and Latin. The Latin text is the one used by the monks of Clear Creek at the Chapter of Prime and also forms the basis for the authoritative Commentary of Dom Delatte on the Rule. The English text is the translation made by Abbot Justin McCann a century ago, modified according to American spelling.

Hardcover, 168 pages, includes index.

The great achievement of St. Benedict, through which the essentials of Western civilization were preserved amid the chaos and confusion of the Dark Ages, cannot be overestimated. And the Rule which he established for his monks has had an influence throughout European […]

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St. Henry, Benedictine Oblate

2024-07-13T18:34:16-05:00July 13th, 2024|Glimpse into the cloister|

Today is the 1,000th anniversary of the passing of Saint Henry, whom Pope St. Pius X declared to be the patron of Benedictine Oblates.  This Emperor took to heart not just politics and temporal legislation but also religion and the welfare of the Church, as can be seen in his founding monasteries throughout the Empire.  Tradition tells us that, trained by the Benedictine bishop of Regensburg, he became an oblate of the Abbey of Cluny and then asked to be received into the Benedictine abbey of St. Vanne at Verdun.  The abbot welcomed him, but immediately constrained him by obedience to re-ascend the imperial throne.

Saint Henry was first a King of Germany and then the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He had a prudent, precise, and […]

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Of Angels and Fish

2024-10-21T15:40:22-05:00July 13th, 2024|Letters to the Friends, News|

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Saint Benedict by Fra Angelico

Saint Benedict by Fra Angelico

The thing was known. The son of Pietro di Bernardone, previously a turbulent youth, had experienced a real conversion. Observing this religious saga as it unfolded, some Benedictine monks who owned property in the area decided to let Francis and his band of followers use the Porziuncula, a small but beautiful chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels, together with the land adjoining it, as a home for their new order. Since these new Brothers wanted to own nothing, it was understood that they would provide the Benedictines with a basket of fish each year as a kind of rent. This all happened some 800 years […]

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St. Benedict 2024

2024-07-13T12:19:08-05:00July 11th, 2024|Homilies of Father Abbot|

Then Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? (Mt. 19: 27)

Dear Brothers and Sisters
My Very Dear Sons,

The consequences of Saint Benedict’s flight to the wilderness in order to serve God alone are incalculable. How paradoxical this is: he abandons family and friends, his fellow human beings, but in so doing renders them a greater service than ever he could have by remaining in the usual walks of life! The theme is well known to monks, who also remember that much of our Western civilization hinged on that decision of the young man from Nursia. Not only did monastic life powerfully prosper in his wake, but even the outcroppings of the monastic project served to sustain the institutions […]

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New Gregorian Chant Manual: Laus in Ecclesia Level Two

2024-07-03T12:42:59-05:00July 3rd, 2024|News|

The monks of Clear Creek are happy to announce the publication of Level 2 of the popular program for learning Gregorian Chant, Laus in Ecclesia.

Developed by the Schola Saint Grègoire in France, Laus in Ecclesia is a three-level course intended to train the faithful, choir members and directors to sing competently and beautifully within the context of the Mass and the Divine Office.

Level one was published in 2017 and sold through the first edition, so a 2nd edition is now available with improved features, such as spiral binding to allow the book to lie open and uncoated paper that is easier to write upon. Level two has just been published for the first time in English, with Level three projected […]

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Building Something Beautiful For God –
To Last A Thousand Years

Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey is a Benedictine community belonging to the Solesmes Congregation and, like other monasteries of the Solesmes Congregation, is to be counted among the institutes entirely ordered towards contemplation. It was founded in 1999 from the Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault in France and is located in the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Clear Creek became an abbey in 2010 and counts 55 monks, who devote themselves to God alone in the hidden life, in silence and solitude, in constant prayer and willing penance.

After twenty years of existence, we are happy, by the grace of God, to have completed two large buildings and a sizable portion of our abbatial church. We completed the “Chapter House” in 2023 to accommodate the growing number of monks and provide a Sacristy, Infirmary, classrooms and the Chapter itself. Please help us continue this arduous, but important work for the glory of God.

© Copyright 2024 | Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey | All Rights Reserved

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