Benedictine Wisdom 
Instruction on the Rule by the great early thinkers of the Benedictine order.
Reading the Cistercian Fathers
This is a continuation of an interview with Fr. Michael Casey, OSCO January, 2010. Br Chris: How do you recommend reading the Cistercian Fathers? Fr Michael Casey: It depends on the individual. Some people you give them a reading list and they read it, other people you give them a reading list and they don’t… Read More ›
With God near I am never alone
Give me, 0 Lord, the comfort of my wilderness: a solitary heart and frequent communing with you. As long as you are with me, O my God, I shall not be alone; but if you leave me, woe to him that is alone; for if I fall asleep, there will be no one to keep… Read More ›
The discipline of silence
The silence of the Word in the womb of the virgin speaks to you, cries out to you, recommends the discipline of silence. For ‘in silence and in hope shall be your strength’ as Isaiah promises, who defined the pursuit of justice as silence. As the Christ-child in the womb advanced towards birth in a… Read More ›
The one who is displeasing to himself is pleasing to God
Let the soul harken to the divine voice, and to her own amazement and wonder she will hear it say, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. Who is poorer in spirit than the person whose spirit finds no rest and who has nowhere to lay his head? This… Read More ›
God has the words of eternal life
God has the words of eternal life, and the hour is coming —if only it were already here!—when the dead shall hear his voice, and those who hear him shall live, for life is in his will. And if you want to know, his will is our conversion. Listen to him then: ‘Is it my… Read More ›
The old things are passing away
For to despise the present age, not to love transitory things, unreservedly to stretch out the mind in humility to God and our neighbor, to preserve patience against offered insults and, with patience guarded, to repel the pain of malice from the heart, to give one’s property to the poor, not to covet that of… Read More ›
Seek solitude and interior peace
If in the depths of your soul you were to keep a quiet silence, the all-powerful Word would flow from the Father's throne secretly into you. Happy then is the person who has so fled the world's tumult, who has so withdrawn into the solitude and secrecy of interior peace, that he can hear not… Read More ›
Search the Scriptures
Search the Scriptures. For you are not mistaken in thinking that you find life in them, you who seek nothing else in them but Christ, to whom the Scriptures bear witness. Blessed indeed are they who search his testimonies, seek them out with all their heart. Your testimonies are wonderful, Lord, therefore my soul has… Read More ›
Who is pleasing to God?
Let the soul harken to the divine voice, and to her own amazement and wonder she will hear it say, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. Who is poorer in spirit than the person whose spirit finds no rest and who has nowhere to lay his head? This… Read More ›
The School of the Word
Truly a trustworthy word and deserving of every welcome, O Lord, is your almighty Word, which in so deep a silence made its way down from the Father’s royal throne into the mangers of animals and meanwhile speaks to us better by its silence. Let him who has ears to hear, hear what this loving… Read More ›