Christmas Newsletter
December 1, 2016
First Sunday of Advent The first flicker of light tops the candle among the greens of our Advent Wreath. Our candle has yielded its substance to fire and casts its gentle glow. The candle and the fire have become one. We stand at the threshold of a season of longing, of waiting. “O Come Emmanuel, God with us.” He is
October/November 2016 News from Santa Rita Abbey How did the year zoom by so quickly that Thanksgiving Day is next week?! Yet here we are! Fr. Casimir will return for another stint as our chaplain just in time to celebrate Mass for us on Thanksgiving Day. He will stay for all of Advent, Christmas and into the New Year, leaving
A REFLECTION ON LUKE 12:49-53 Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” We are surrounded by fire–the fragments of the ball of fire that Jesus cast upon the earth and of which he speaks in this Gospel passage. It was his mission and it consumed him–this passionate desire to
September/October 2016 News from Santa Rita Abbey What beautiful weather we are having at Santa Rita Abbey right now! There’s something special about blue skies in October. Thanks to the rain in September the grass is still green, and there are yellow wildflowers, of all sizes, in bloom everywhere. Last spring we planted muhly grass in the old rosebush beds at
A Reflection for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 9:30-37 Jesus was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” When you look at today’s Gospel, what do you see? I suppose there are many fruitful
Here at Santa Rita Abbey we celebrate a Sister’s feast day, that is, the feast of her patron saint, more than we do her birthday. In August we have two feast days: Sr. Clare’s on August 11 (the feast of St. Clare of Assisi), and Sr. Esther’s on August 15 (the feast of the Assumption of Mary.) The feast day
REFLECTION ON EXODUS 34:29-35 Radiance! We are just swimming in radiance. It fills us, and all we can look upon, and all that is. The Scriptures tell us, “His radiance fills all things.” Presence could be another word for it. His presence fills all things. How could it be otherwise? Only the veil of creation obscures it, but don’t we experience
Summertime at Santa Rita Abbey What a lovely summertime we are having, overflowing with life! Two chaplains, newborn fawns, young ravens, fresh tomatoes, rain and more rain, visits from friends of the monastery, and two new volunteer helpers just arrived … Fr. Francis Michael, a monk of Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, Georgia, has been with us for seven weeks as chaplain.