Living the Rule 
Stories and examples of how monastics and oblates live out the Rule in their daily lives.
Prayers of Intercession
Oblates of Belmont Abbey are free to use the Office of their choosing to fulfill the obligation for prayer. Each form of the Office has its own set of intercessions. A common set of intercessions are offered to the Oblates as another option. Why another set of intercessions? Several reasons but the most important one… Read More ›
Intuition and faith
I think that it is important on the spiritual path, to trust ones intuition when encountering some kind of problem with the faith, images of God, or simply what is told by Father, or some other spiritual authority. As we mature in the faith and also experience, we have more to draw from than is… Read More ›
The Visions, Miracles and Devotion of St. Lutgarde
Time has not been gentle to Thomas of Cantimpré, the thirteenth-century Dominican theologian, preacher, and compiler of notes about saints. In 1892, the scholar who wrote the first major study of the medieval mystics of the Netherlands sadly admitted that his source was not reliable: “his atmosphere is the marvelous.” Butler’s Lives of the Saints worried… Read More ›
Justice, Prayer and Mercy
A devotion that I personally feel an attraction towards is the mercy chaplet. I tend to use it often throughout the day to keep my mind focused, in an attitude of prayer. It keeps me aware, alert, and of course in the Eternals presence. It is said on rosary beads, for it is a round… Read More ›
Gregorian chant will make your life better
Rome, Italy, Jun 3, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Benedictine Monks of Norcia spend their lives in prayer and labor – “ora et labora” – chanting the psalms and producing crafts to support themselves. This week, they also released an album meant to share their prayer with the world – music, they say,… Read More ›
Breathe again
The soul weighed down with pain from the past, tortured with desire to punish and hurt, becoming a victim, yes once again, giving power to the evil done, while the inner chains become heavier as the years fly by, poisoning life, until forgiveness given, bringing forth ones true humanity once again, to child like wonder… Read More ›
Soul breath
There are many ways to pray, many forms, styles, each an expression of the person praying, unique. If you get a room full of people, let’s say, saying the Rosary, or doing centering prayer, or perhaps praying the psalms unison, none are doing it alike, for prayer is an interior act, the outer form of… Read More ›
Is It Time for the Benedict Option?
In the face of moral and social disintegration, St. Benedict established core communities of intentional disciples. The poet T.S. Eliot predicted that, after the disintegration of Western society, civilization would be conserved and restored by a new monastic movement. He was referring to the events at the end of the fifth century, when Benedict of… Read More ›
Inner freedom
It is a difficult road to travel when someone simply wants to be a decent human being. For the desire to do the right thing, to be fair, just, loving, compassionate and yes to have empathy for others, usually leads to inner conflict and suffering. Before that desire comes into being, it is possible to… Read More ›
Why My Generation Loves Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, better perhaps than any other writer of the 20th century, conveyed the romance of Christianity. If God can be known in this life, in a personal and transformative way, what other possibility could be as compelling? What other love affair as attractive? Thomas Merton readers the world over are celebrating the centennial of his… Read More ›