Monastery News

“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”

American poet Robert Frost, +1963

“The opposite of individualism is mutuality: living in the context of others. When individualism yields to mutuality, selfishness is replaced by sensitivity, conflict is replaced by harmony, stalemate is replaced by dialogue, obstinancy is replaced by adaptability, aggression is replaced by patience, withdrawal is replaced by participation.”

Australian Trappist monk and author Father Michael Casey

“Everything good that ever happened to me in my life began in the Church. I ask you to do three things: Stay close to God. Stay close to one another as a family. Stay close to the Church.”

Catherine Wall, who died on May 1st, 2020, at the age of 101!

“Let us open our eyes to the divine light, and listen with astonished ears to the warning of the divine voice, which daily cries out to us: ‘Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.'”

Prologue of the Rule of Saint Benedict, +547 AD

“The monk is one who is united with all because he sees himself constantly in each.”

Desert Father Evagrius Ponticus, +399

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.”

Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 35, verse 18.

“Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks–we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.”

American author Parker Palmer

“The opposite of envy is a sense of solidarity in which I take delight in the use and expansion of the talents of others and see my own as of value insofar as they can be of such benefit to others that my gifts may be seen as not only mine but also theirs.”

Trappist monk and author Father Michael Casey

“Love is maintained and increased by a friendly expression, a pleasant word, a cheerful deed.”

Cistercian abbot Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, +1153

“The better part of valor is discretion.”

William Shakespeare, +1616

“It is today, and not yesterday or tomorrow, that life must be lived.”

Belgian Discaled Carmelite friar Wilfrid Stinissen

“The life where Hope and Memory are one,
Earth quiet and unchanged; the human soul
Consistent in self-rule; and heaven revealed
To meditation in that quietness.”

English poet William Wordsworth, +1850

“In a single act of love hold the entire world in your heart. There consider all the good people together and rejoice. There look upon the evil and lament. Gaze upon those in trouble and oppressed and share their suffering.”

Cistercian abbot and author Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, +1167

“In the darkening June evening I draw a blossom near, and bending close search it as a woman searches a loved one’s face.”

“Peonies at Dusk,” by American poet Jane Kenyon, +1995