i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and [...]
Tintern Abbey Tintern Abbey in South Wales is situated in the beautiful Wye Valley--the Wye being a river that runs along the border of England and Wales. The hills rise above the river valley on the England side, and crowning the line of hills is the ancient earthwork defenses called Offa's Dyke. When my [...]
Conversion of Life means your whole self must be transformed into a living icon of Christ.
From the Old Red Book The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know what is [...]
Quarr Abbey If you came this way, Taking any route, starting from anywhere, At any time or at any season, It would always be the same: you would have to put off Sense and notion. You are not here to verify, Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity Or carry report. You are here to kneel [...]
I was introduced to one of the great treasures of English medieval spirituality (sadly neglected by most Catholics) the Revelations of Divine Love by the anchoress and mystic Julian of Norwich when I took a course in the fourteenth century mystics at Blackfriars in Oxford. Fr Simon Tugwell OP was the brilliantly witty and erudite lecturer. The Lady Juliana was born about [...]
Following my blog posts on the role of reading and study in the Benedictine monastic tradition, I've had several readers ask for me to supply a reading list. This is very difficult for varied reasons. Firstly, the number of books and the availability of books is greater than ever. Not only are there a vast number [...]
Silent people are not the only ones who don't say much.
A typical response when a man says he is entering a monastery is, "Why would a smart guy like yourself waste your life doing something like that?" This understandable remark indicates that a man's worth is determined by his usefulness, and in our sated but not satisfied society "usefulness" is usually determined by the level of [...]
Maxime the Stylite of Katskhi in Georgia lives here. Learn more.