Fourth Sunday of Advent The circle of light is complete. The fourth Advent Candle now burns brightly in a radiant ring of light. In five days, Jesus the light of the world, will come among us as God from God and Light from Light. Jesus, the long-awaited One, will once more walk among us, this time incarnate in US. In these days of Advent we have experienced his healing mercy,…
Third Sunday of Advent "His reason is love." says Julian of Norwich in speaking about why God created the universe. His reason is love, not punishment, not wrath, not to be a perpetually-insulted God who wreaks judgment on his creatures. His reason for creation is love. And so Jesus, that is why you came and you still come. You want to let us know beyond a doubt who you really…
Second Sunday of Advent "Lead kindly light," says John Henry Newman, "amid the encircling gloom." The encircling gloom which at first seemed so impenetrable yields now to one more small light giving of its substance and surrendering its heart to the flame. Lord Jesus, transform us into persons of mercy. Help us to share and to be the mercy we have received. Two small candles will burn bravely this week,…
First Sunday of Advent Here we are again, standing at the threshold of another Advent. In this season of the year when darkness steps to the fore and pushes aside our daylight, we take a step into the liturgy of Advent where we illumine the darkness with the light of a candle in an ever-increasing crescendo of light and presence. It is our time of journey. A journey into the…
Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends! We hope that your day was blessed and full of family, friends and celebration. And probably a football game, too?? Ours was a happy time of relaxing with one another and our two brother monks of Erlac around a table laden with a delicious din ner provided for us by our good friend and dentist, Dr. Escobar. After our celebration at the table of the Eucharist,…
Happy Autumn, dear Friends! We enjoyed our annual community retreat the week of October 18-24. This year our retreat director was Fr. James Palmigiano of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, MA. This is the third time over the years that he has been our retreat director and, as always, it was fabulous. The weather cooperated to provide nice days for long walks in our beautiful high desert or just sit…
Autumn has turned out to be a time of many moods! It splashed the hillsides with yellow and dazzled us with the bluest of blue skies and dancing white clouds - just to make us smile. Then came the winds that blew in a gully-drencher of a rainstorm. Our arroyos were raging with water in a way they haven't in a long time. Fish Canyon gushed across the road and…
The grass on the Santa Rita foothills is still green at the roots, but otherwise it has that gone-to-seed autumn look. The "Gold Fields" are blooming all over, adding splashes of golden color everywhere. On the roadsides and on the edges of the dry river beds, tall sunflowers adding their own shades of gold, brown and green. We have wonderful dark skies and wide horizons for astronomical viewing here. Early on Sunday morning,…
All good things must come to an end, so we bid adieu to Fr. John and Sr. Eleanor with a supper party. It's been a joy to share in Sr. Eleanor's warm Irish humor and good spirits this summer. We wish her all the best in her studies. We are grateful to the abbot and community of the Genesee for lending Fr. John to us for these past two weeks. He…
August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the patronal feast of our Cistercian order, so we always celebrate it with special joy. But this year our joy was doubled as we celebrated our Sister Kate's Golden Jubilee of vows. Three members of Kate's family traveled from Pennsylvania for the occasion. Our good friend Fr. John Denburger from the Abbey of the Genesee in New…
