Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

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Writings of the Church Fathers

You are a new Creation in Christ

Let God’s people then recognize that they are a new creation in Christ, and with all vigilance understand by Whom they have been adopted and Whom they have adopted. Let not the things, which have been made new, return to their ancient instability; and let not him who has ‘put his hand to the plough’… Read More ›

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Divine humility alone can lift you up

With what words shall we bless the love of God and how can we express our thanks? He has loved us so much that for our sake He, who is eternal and older than the universe itself, has become younger than most of his servants in the world! Like an infant, he cried speechlessly, even… Read More ›

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Life of St. Bernard

I have ascended to the highest in me, and look! the Lord is towering above that. In my curiosity I have descended to explore my lowest depths, yet I found him even deeper. If I looked outside myself, I saw him stretching beyond the furthest I could see; and if I looked within, he was… Read More ›

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The deadly weight of pride

But how shall we, casting off the deadly weight of pride, descend to saving humility? lf such an aim governed our conduct under all circumstances, we should not overlook the least detail on the ground that we would suffer no harm therefrom. The soul comes to take on a resemblance to its preoccupations and it… Read More ›

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Our Lord’s life was an example of Humility

In everything which concerns the Lord we find lessons in humility. As an infant, He was straightway laid in a cave, and not upon a couch but in a manger. In the house of a carpenter and of a mother who was poor, He was subject to His mother and her spouse. He was taught… Read More ›

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Do not deny your soul what is needs

Every day you provide your bodies with good to keep them from failing. In the same way your good works should be the daily nourishment of your hearts. Your bodies are fed with food and your spirits with good works. You aren’t to deny your soul, which is going to live forever, what you grant to your body, which… Read More ›

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The Savior has raised His own body

Both from the confession of the evil spirits and from the daily witness of His works, it is manifest, then, and let none presume to doubt it, that the Savior has raised His own body, and that He is very Son of God, having His being from God as from a Father, Whose Word and… Read More ›

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Human pride brought you down

Behold, man, what God has become for your sake! Keep in your heart a lesson from this great humility imparted by a speechless infant!  You were in paradise one day and you were eloquent giving each creature a name but your creator, for your sake, laid down speechless unable to call his own mother by… Read More ›

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I was looking for a way to reach You

I was looking for a way to reach you and be yours, but my search bore no fruit, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (Tim 1 2:5). For He has commanded me to stick to Him in order to reach You, and He – may… Read More ›

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His incarnation was absolutely real

The evening before our Lord gave himself up to death he shared his own body with his Apostles and offered them his blood, with the command that they were to do what he had done in order to keep the memory of his Passion alive. Then a strange thing happened. Earlier Jesus had charged his… Read More ›

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