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Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Our abbey is nestled on the flank of a rocky hill. Some call it a mountain. Situated all around this hill-like mountain covered with oaks are various houses and clusters of houses that make up what is sometimes referred to as Clear Creek Village. There are dwellings elsewhere, but the greatest number lie at the foot of this hilly eminence. No one is pretending that there is here a village in the full sense of the word; however, something very much like a village is beginning to emerge from this human clay. Something is awakening. Perhaps a case in point could illustrate what I mean.

As I write this letter, the primitive shelter perched on the scaffold above the front door of the church is empty. It […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

In the mystery and poetry of Christmas there is an awareness of a catastrophe that has upset creation, a kind of ancestral memory of a certain garden and the sad burden of sin that weighs upon the world.

The Child of Bethlehem, Emmanuel, is coming to set things right. Lying between the ox and the donkey in the stable, He rules from his crib the stars, the winds and the tides, and so has power to usher in a renewed order. This new creation will not come without a struggle, but that is another story…

And to Adam [God] said: Because thou hast harkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

It is said that at the Abbey of Cluny such were the spaciousness of its buildings and the good order of its grounds and appurtenances, that the Pope, the Emperor, and several kings with numerous suites could be received simultaneously as guests without impairing the tranquil regularity of monastic life. Truly, this monastery was a spiritual citadel, a monastic “keep” at the heart of Christendom.

As a member of the Solesmes Congregation, Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey is a spiritual heir of Cluny. By decree of Pope Gregory XVI in 1837, our Congregation replaced the ancient Congregation of Cluny and several others that disappeared during the French Revolution. The spiritual and material greatness […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Reflecting on the stupendous phenomenon of Fatima—the apparitions and the revelations—one is tempted to modify the well-known saying of Saint Bernard to say De Fatima numquam satis, “When it comes to Fatima, enough is never said.” As a Carmelite theologian expressed it at the end of the last century, “Fatima is the prophetic message of our time.” As we move closer to the centenary of the apparitions in 2017, does this still hold true?

Most Catholics know the story. On May 13th, 1917, three young shepherds were herding their flock not far from their home in Fatima, Portugal, when they saw, as they reported, a lady “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water […]

Tears are the deluge falling on sins, the purification of the world. – St. Gregory Nanzianzen

Truly you are blessed, Abba Arsenius, for you wept for yourself in this world! – Abba Poeman

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

One of the secrets of the ancient monks, one that helped them shape the destiny of the Christian world, is found in the tears they shed as an integral part of the spiritual life. These were not tears of self-pity or the “crocodile tears” of sobbing souls who are slaves of their own emotional ups and downs. No, these were liberating tears of compunction that opened again in some way the Paradise lost by our first parents.

Abba Joseph related that Abba Isaac said, “I was sitting with Abba Poemen […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

On January 22nd I had the privilege of traveling to Washington, D.C. in order to par- ticipate in this year’s March for Life. During a solemn High Mass sponsored by The Paulus Institute and Juventutem that was celebrated at St. Mary Mother of God Church in Washington that evening, I gave the following homily, excerpts from which follow:

It has all been said. The case for the protection of the unborn against the evil of elective abortion, sanctioned by laws purporting to justify this social crime, has been clearly, articulately, forcefully, and coherently set forth. Popes, such as Blessed John Paul II; kings, like King Baudouin of Belgium; scientists, for example Professor Jerome Lejeune, who discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome; poets, artists, men, […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Around our Abbey has grown up a community of Catholic families. This is still a very humble populace, not quite worthy of the designation “town”—or even of “village” (it might take a century to reach that stage)—although it does share some of the characteristics of the latter.

Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheer’d the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer’s lingering blooms delay’d. (Oliver Goldsmith, “Deserted Village”)

In this nascent village, certain persons have begun to fill the various roles that assure the complementary nature of such a human assemblage. One man has a saw-mill; another raises cows and goats. One lady sells her hens’ eggs to neighbors; several women interest themselves in the healing […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Christmas is a center and a summit: “And the Word was made flesh.” All ancient history runs toward this culmination, as Saint Paul teaches us: “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4). Then, from Bethlehem and Calvary—which are intimately joined at this summit—what is left of time runs downhill toward the final consummation that is described in prophetic terms in the Book of the Apocalypse.

The Incarnation thus structures time on a grand scale. We still speak of the centuries B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno Domini, meaning in Latin “the year of the Lord”), despite attempts to change the terminology to B.C.E. (before the common era) and C.E. (the common era). […]

The print version of this letter includes additional images and explanations.

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Many of you have followed with interest the founding of Clear Creek Abbey from the very beginning in 1999. You know that the history of our abbey has been closely linked to the history of our construction projects. From the beginning we stated that we intended to ‘build something beautiful for God’ and that we wanted to construct a monastery ‘to last a thousand years.’ It is a simple fact that the Benedictine monks, whose history scans some fifteen centuries, have been audacious builders. Even a casual glance at the architectural history of Europe will bear this out. Although America is not Europe, although we must, of course, adapt to place and time, nevertheless it […]