Monastery News

“Maybe it will only be at the end of our life that we will begin to appreciate that searching for happiness and pleasure apart from God leads only to misery.”

Trappist monk Father Michael Casey

“When it all starts, monastic life feels like a thousand swords wounding you at once. Later, you discover that the wounds were there in the first place, and being a monk has healed them.”

Camaldolese Benedictine monk Anselmo Giabbani

“Become what you were meant to be and you will set fire to the whole earth.”

Dominican mystic Saint Catherine of Siena, +1380

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.”

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, chapter 8, verse 28

“My soul is longing for the Lord more than watchman for daybreak.”

Psalm 129(130)

“I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. God has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do God’s work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it–if I do but keep God’s commandments.”

Saint John Henry Newman, +1890

“You will find among the woods something you never found in books.”

Cistercian abbot and author Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, +1153

“An old man said: ‘One man is thought to be silent, and yet his heart judges and condemns others, and the one who acts thus speaks continually. Another man speaks from morning till evening and yet keeps silence, that is to say, he speaks nothing which is not helpful.'”

A saying from the desert fathers and mothers

“It is often in times of great trial that the Lord presents us with the greatest opportunity for holiness. The question for each of us, then, is whether we will recognize the Lord as he ‘closely passes us by’ and respond, by his grace, with simple acts of faith, hope and charity.”

COLUMBIA magazine editor Alton J. Pelowski

“Did it ever occur to you that it was Christ who humanized infinitude, so to speak? When God became man He made you and me and the rest of us pretty important people. He not only redeemed us. He saved us from the terrible burden of infinity.”

Myles Connolly, in his novel, “Mr. Blue.”

“Make sure you let God’s grace work in your hearts by accepting whatever God gives you, and giving God whatever God takes from you.”

Saint Teresa of Calcuta, +1997