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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 […]