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Dom Guéranger on the Blessing of Candles at Candlemas

2024-01-30T12:22:08-06:00January 30th, 2024|Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year|

The Blessing of Candles at Candlemas

by Dom Prosper Guéranger, founding Abbot of the Congregation of Solesmes, taken from his treatment of February 2: The Purification of the Blessed Virgin in Volume 3 of his Liturgical Year.

The mystery of to-day’s ceremony of the blessing of candles has frequently been explained by liturgists, dating from the 7th century. According to St. Ivo of Chartres, the wax which is formed from the juice of flowers by the bee, (which has always been considered as the emblem of virginity,) signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, who diminished not, either by his conception or his birth, the spotless purity of his Blessed Mother. The same holy Bishop would have us […]

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Refectory Reading: Blessed Charles of Austria

2024-01-26T14:03:24-06:00January 15th, 2024|Refectory Readings|

Blessed Charles of Austria: A Holy Emperor and His Legacy tells the story of Karl or Charles Hapsburg, the last of the Holy Roman Emperors, who died in 1922 and was beatified in 2004.
Charles Coulombe expertly traces the idea of empire and Catholic monarchy throughout the centuries, as well as the lineage of both Charles and his wife, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, whose cause for beatification Clear Creek Abbey is promoting. Charles’s deep Catholic faith and devotion to his family come to the fore in the narrative, in addition to his skill and wisdom in statecraft and generalship.

From the foreword by Archduke Karl von Hapsburg, grandson of Blessed Karl:

Thinking about Blessed Emperor Karl, three principal roles of the man present themselves: the soldier, the politician, and the family man. The most […]

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The Wind in the Wilderness

2024-08-17T15:52:52-05:00January 13th, 2024|Letters to the Friends|

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Poised on the threshold of a new year of God’s grace, while we prayerfully consider the challenges that confront us, whether in the world in general, in our American society (on the brink of mental, if not material civil war), or even in the Church, we are tempted by discouragement. Is our world not going to be ripped apart? As Catholic Christians, we are taught to cultivate the theological virtue of hope, but the human landscape that surrounds us seems very much to be taking the shape of a wilderness. How shall we manage?

Well, in fact, if we can free ourselves for a moment from the cultural shallows, where all things tend to descend into mud and muck, if we can lift our heads again like […]

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Dom Guéranger on the Epiphany

2024-01-05T16:20:13-06:00January 5th, 2024|Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year|

Epiphany Meditation

by Dom Prosper Guéranger, founding Abbot of the Congregation of Solesmes, taken from the chapter entitled “The Epiphany of Our Lord” in Volume 3 of his Liturgical Year.

The Feast of the Epiphany is the continuation of the mystery of Christmas; but it appears on the Calendar of the Church with its own special character. Its very name, which signifies Manifestation, implies that it celebrates the apparition of God to his creatures. The Epiphany is indeed great Feast, and the joy caused us by the Birth of our Jesus must be renewed on it, for, as though it were a second Christmas Day, it shows us our Incarnate God in a new light. It leaves us all the sweetness of […]

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Christmas 2023

2023-12-30T15:20:16-06:00December 25th, 2023|Homilies of Father Abbot|

And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel. (Matthew 2:6)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My very dear sons,

It is high time we took the road to Bethlehem. Like the Magi, it is time we followed the star toward the City of David, not only because it is Christmas, but because we stand in need of much that is to be found in that place. Our world has grown cold. Times are hard. We are freezing in our materialism and our cultural sinfulness. The Lord is our last refuge: we need to see Him. Let us go over to Bethlehem, said the shepherds, and let us see this […]

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Crowd Around The Crib

2024-08-20T11:37:54-05:00December 22nd, 2023|Letters to the Friends|

Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,

Would you like to flee the calculated madness that dominates much of contemporary society? or even a certain chaos that troubles the Church? And do this without cultural cowardice, without escapism? Would you like to find release by means of a supernatural realism, the surest guard of sanity? Then come to the place where this can happen—come crowd around the Crib. We will find ourselves there in good company, rubbing elbows (most respectfully), not only with the Holy Family, the Shepherds, and the Magi, but also (liturgically speaking) with those perfect champions of the pro-life cause, the Holy Innocents, and that great man, St. Thomas Becket, Chaucer’s “holy blissful martyr,” along with so many others, whose feasts we celebrate in the Octave that prolongs Christmas. Truly a holy […]

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Immaculate Conception 2023

2023-12-16T17:36:01-06:00December 8th, 2023|Homilies of Father Abbot|

Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix…Thy garments are white as snow, and thy face is as the sun. (2nd Antiphon of Laudes).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
My Very Dear Sons,

In contemplating the spectacle of the Immaculate Conception, such is the spiritual splendor and brightness of the vision, supposing we turn our soul toward this mystery with humility, such is the power of Mary’s immaculate radiance, that one might fear going “snow blind” so to speak, of being blinded for shear excess of light.  It is tempting for one who preaches to conclude (hastily) that there is nothing to say about such uniform whiteness, nothing to comment upon here, whereas in truth such beauty rightly considered, could feed our contemplation for year upon year, age upon age.  Our Lady’s light is not the […]

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Dom Guéranger on the Mystery of Advent

2023-12-01T17:51:30-06:00December 1st, 2023|Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year|

The Mystery of Advent

by Dom Prosper Guéranger, founding Abbot of the Congregation of Solesmes, taken from the chapter entitled “The Mystery of Advent” in Volume 1 of his Liturgical Year.

Introduction

If we would penetrate into the profound mystery which occupies the mind of the Church during this season, we find that this mystery of Advent, or the Coming of Jesus is at once simple and threefold. It is simple, for it is the one same Son of God that is coming; it is threefold, because he comes at three different times and in three different ways.

“In the first Coming,” says St. Bernard, “he comes in the flesh and in weakness; in the second, he comes in spirit and in power; in the third, he […]

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Pilgrimage through Advent

2023-11-24T15:38:52-06:00November 22nd, 2023|Videos|

After reflecting on the Three Hearts Pilgrimage in October 2023, a lay friend of the monastery put this together to inform others about Clear Creek Abbey as we approach the start of Advent. View our Advent and Christmas items Discover more about the Three Hearts Pilgrimage

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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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