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I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled? (Luke 12:49)

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

There are various types of fire, many of which are highly destructive—for example the firestorm that results from a nuclear blast. The kind that emanates from the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a most unusual one: a fire that purifies, sanctifies and heals. It is really none other than the fire of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy Spirit—the fire of the divinity. The Sacred Heart is a powerful symbol that speaks to us, both of Christ’s humanity, wounded to death for our salvation, and of His divine nature burning with infinite love.

Jesus affirmed that He had come to set the world on fire, not with a […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Since my last letter to you, events in Rome have stunned the world. We have witnessed in quick succession an historic vacancy of the Holy See of Peter through the resignation of one sovereign pontiff, followed by the election and installation of the first Latin American pope. Who would have expected such a turn of events just a few months ago? But, as the saying goes, l’homme propose, et Dieu dispose (“man proposes, and God disposes”). We are all workers in, rather than masters of, the Lord’s vineyard. As much as we might have liked to keep Pope Benedict XVI for a few more years, Heaven has decided otherwise.

Our new Holy Father has borrowed his papal name from the poverello of Assisi, Saint Francis. Such a […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Perhaps the Mayan Calendar was right after all. Maybe the world—or a world—really ended on December 21st of 2012, as the last funeral services were being held for the young Sandy Hook School victims and while a ‘doomsday’ mood gripped the American nation at the approach of Christmas. But we know…

We know as Christians that the Infant King that came once upon a time to Bethlehem IS also the Crucified Lord, the King of heaven and earth, victorious over sin and death through death. It was for this reason that the Magi brought Him not only gold and incense to honor His kingship and His divinity but also myrrh for His burial. The whole Christian program of birth, death and resurrection must be relived by each […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Once upon a time there was a small community of monks, who started a monastery in the everlasting hills of Oklahoma. Upon one of those hills, about a mile from the rustic monks, one hermit—a woman consecrated to God—took up residence in a very small house made of wood with a tin roof.

But the hermit was a bit lonely and so, when other women came to visit her, she encouraged them to stay, so they might all offer prayers, together with the monks, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. Thus a small community came into being, the Benedictine Sisters of Clear Creek, which was placed under the patronage of Mary, Queen of Angels.

For several years these Sisters had no […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Much has been said about the coming of the Son of God into this world on the first Christmas, during the night of Bethlehem. This was the first act of the Gospel, the first Evangelization, the first Noel. Over the years and centuries spiritual writers—not to mention the evangelists themselves—have made mention of just about every aspect of this unique scene: the place, the time, the actors, the circumstances of it all. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled… .

One somewhat neglected facet of the Christmas story has to do with the face of this newborn, who arrives in a poor stable of Judea. As the theologians and philosophers tell us, the human face reveals something […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

It has been fourteen years now since we arrived here in eastern Oklahoma in order to establish a Benedictine monastery under the patronage of Our Lady of the Annunciation. And so it is with great joy that I announce our very first chant collection, recorded right here at Clear Creek Abbey, dedicated to Our Lady in the mystery of her Annunciation. Entitled: Ecce Fiat, the enclosed disk is our Christmas gift to you: a recording of Gregorian chant by our monastic choir. In this Advent season, as we look forward to the great feast of Christmas, it is most appropriate that we humbly contemplate the mysterious nine month gestation of grace that began with Our Lady’s fiat on the feast of the Annunciation.

Looking back over the […]

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

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

It was on the feast of the Assumption in 1998 that His Excellency Bishop Edward J. Slattery of Tulsa signed a charter of foundation, welcoming a group of thirteen Benedictine monks from Notre-Dame de Fontgombault Abbey in France to his diocese. Fourteen years later forty monks occupy several large buildings designed by Professor Thomas Gordon Smith, including a partially completed Romanesque style abbatial church. It is a story of the grace of God, but also of the immense help received from our Friends along the way. We hope you will enjoy seeing a few pictures of this story still in progress. It has been our dream—and more than a dream: our prayerful hope—to ‘build something beautiful […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

The Gospel sometimes speaks to us of economic matters. Such is the passage we read on the Feast of Saint Benedict.

At that time, Peter said to Jesus: Behold we have left all things and have followed Thee; what therefore shall we have?… (Mt. 19:27 and following)

The Lord tends to be rather uncompromising in this area: what is basically asked of us is to give it up — all of it — to the very last dime. Jesus simply will have nothing to do with us if we insist on keeping half. “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me …” (Mt. 19:21)

The […]

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

When Our Lord departed this world, disappearing into the clouds of Heaven from a hill overlooking Jerusalem, He took a great deal more than His sacred and resurrected Body: in some sense He ascended with our own humanity, being Himself a summary and exemplar of the human nature, now restored and perfected beyond anything men of former ages ever dreamt of. He took us—or at any rate what is the best of us—with Him in hope. He did not drag our sins along to the place above, but whatever was found to be noble, pure, genuine, beneficial—whatever holy in the history of mankind—He carried it all to Paradise.

Inversely, since the moment of the Ascension, the world here below has never been quite the same. Whatever inspiration […]