Notes, Homilies, and News
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Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord-Lent-Cycle B-2018
Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord-Lent-Cycle B-2018 FIRST READING Isaiah 50:4-7 The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may...
read moreThe Abbot’s Notebook for March 21, 2018
The Abbot's Notebook for March 21, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you! Last week Brother Benedict Hall had a bad day and even went to the hospital. It seemed in the end, however, that what was happening to him was an allergic reaction to three...
read moreImpressions of Rome: Sister Rain
If “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain,” as Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle chanted in “My Fair Lady,” then the rain in Rome stays “mainly on me.” At least that is how it felt on Monday, March 12th when another monk, who studies in Rome, and I...
read moreABBOT PHILIP ANNOUNCES EASTER SCHEDULE
Today Abbot Philip Lawrence, OSB, announced the Easter schedule for the Monastery of Christ in the Desert. He emphasized that the public is cordially welcomed for all of the liturgical service being offered. The weather is expected to be fine but in any event,...
read more5th Sunday of Lent – Cycle B – 2018
5th Sunday of Lent - Cycle B – 2018 FIRST READING Jeremiah 31:31-34 The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took...
read moreThe Abbot’s Notebook for March 14, 2018
The Abbot's Notebook for March 14, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you! We are having a good week here in the Monastery. Brother Vincent Mary returned from Vietnam. Abbot Anselm of Pluscarden, the Abbot Visitor of the English Province, arrived...
read moreImpressions of Rome: Piazza Venezia
One of Rome’s most prominent landmarks, as well as being one of the most artistically questionable structures in the city, is the Vittorio Emanuele II (Victor Emmanuel the Second) monument in Piazza Venezia, just a few blocks from our curia Sant’Ambrogio in the...
read more4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare) – Cycle B – 2018
4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare) - Cycle B - 2018 FIRST READING 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s...
read moreThe Abbot’s Notebook for March 7, 2018
The Abbot's Notebook for March 7, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you! The grandmother of our Brother Jude seems to be dying and so he has gone to be with his family in New Jersey. Father Mayeul and Brother Bonaventure are still in Vietnam and...
read moreImpressions of Rome: Snow in the City
Just when I was thinking that I needed an interesting topic to write about, the Lord seemed to reply by sending a record-breaking cold front and serious snowstorm (by Italian standards) to the city of Rome. Snow is a rather rare occurrence here, and the last...
read more3rd Sunday of Lent – Cycle B – 2018
3rd Sunday of Lent - Cycle B - 2018 FIRST READING Exodus 20:1-17 In those days, God delivered all these commandments: “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You...
read moreThe Abbot’s Notebook for February 28, 2018
The Abbot's Notebook for February 28, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you! Already we are in the Second Week of Lent! Here at Christ in the Desert we have begun to focus on the upcoming Canonical Visitation and then after that, we will focus...
read moreImpressions of Rome: The Sound of Music
I arrived at our “Curia Sant’Ambrogio” last year, on Friday the 13th (!) of January, 2017. The Curia is the residence in Rome of the Abbot President of our Subiaco Cassinese Congregation of Benedictines, as well as of his assistants, numbering four monks. We also have...
read more2nd Sunday of Lent – Cycle B – 2018
2nd Sunday of Lent - Cycle B - 2018 FIRST READING Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am!" he replied. Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land...
read moreThe Abbot’s Notebook for February 21, 2018
The Abbot's Notebook for February 21, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you! Already we are in the middle of the First Week of Lent and moving towards Holy Week and Easter. Time always keeps moving! In the past I seemed able to keep up with the...
read moreImpressions of Rome: The Jewish Quarter
Our Curia Sant’Ambrogio is set in the midst of Rome’s Jewish Quarter. The technical and acceptable term for the area is, “the Ghetto,” which to American ears might sound derogatory or anti-Semitic, but if you ask the Jewish residents here, they will tell you they live...
read more1st Sunday of Lent—Cycle B—2018
1st Sunday of Lent—Cycle B—2018 FIRST READING Genesis 9:8-15 God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and...
read moreThe Abbot’s Notebook for February 14, 2018
The Abbot's Notebook for February 14, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you! Not along ago I mentioned how grateful I was that our community had not had flu or colds much this year. That has ended and for most of the past week we have had 7 to 10...
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"Let everyone that comes be received as Christ."
— The Rule of St. Benedict
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