One of the singular blessings enjoyed by our small monastic community this year was the result of our commissioning the artist Daniel Mitsui for a drawing of the Benedictine motif ‘pax inter spinas’, which we now happily use as our logo.

As our Conventual Mass is often a missa cantata, we have employed the medieval practice of the use of the pax-brede (instrumentum pacis, pax, baiser de paix) for some time. The priest kisses the pax-brede at the same time he would give the pax to the deacon in a missa solemnis and the MC carries the pax-brede to those in choir and those assisting to communicate the pax to them. (One may find the current rules for the use of the pax-brede in the usus antiquior of the Roman rite in J.B. O’Connell’s The Celebration of Mass, 1964 edn. pp. 430-31).

It seemed natural to the community, therefore, to seek to have a pax-brede made incorporating Daniel Mitsui’s truly beautiful work. Thanks to some kind and generous benefactors, this became possible and our new bronze silver-gilt 14cm diameter instrumentum pacis arrived in time to be blessed for and used at the Masses of Christmas – a wonderful gift indeed, giving glory to Almighty God and edification to the brethren who by means of it receive His Peace even amidst the thorns that abound this world.

​The pax-brede is often forgotten in modern celebrations of the usus antiquior, but it may be used as explained above, and on other occasions such as in a nuptial Mass. For that reason we asked our craftsmen for the facility to make copies of their work, which we are happy to make available to appropriate persons (please contact us for details of price, production time and shipping costs).

+ What do you want for Christmas this year? That may seem to be something of an unusual question with which to open a Chapter Conference on the Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord, but it is nevertheless an apposite one. What, as the hours of Advent draw to a close and the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord approaches, do you desire with all your heart, soul, mind and being?
     I ask the question because, whilst monks rightly eschew the materialism that so often smothers the approaching feast, our vocation is nevertheless one of prayer and intercession. Rightly do we ask Almighty God for a further outpouring of his gifts, and we do so with greater fervor and intensity when, prepared by weeks of penance, we celebrate the greatest feasts.
     So monks may, indeed ought to, want things for Christmas: spiritual things – for themselves and their own vocation, for their monastic family including its oblates and associates and benefactors, for all those who have asked our prayers, for our God-given families, for our friends, for the good of the Church and for the salvation of the world. A monk who does not ask for such gifts neglects an essential element of his calling.
     And yet, faced with all that we rightly desire, in asking Almighty God for the goods we so urgently need, we can become overwhelmed, even despondent. We are weak. Sin so often reigns where virtue is desperately needed. Our prayers and sacrifices can seem to effect little. We may well want the best of things this Christmas, but for all our asking, for all our prayers and sacrifices hitherto in Advent, we may well feel in these final moments of Advent that nevertheless very little shall be forthcoming this year, once again.
     My brothers, it is precisely here, in our inadequacy and in our downheartedness that the Lord comes to us in the feast of His Nativity. We are inadequate. Our sins, our human frailty – and those and that of others – surely do depress us, at times inordinately. We ourselves can do very little to rise above this. But the becoming Flesh of God Himself can and does do something – no, everything. This singular event in human history opens the door to our redemption from sin and death and offers eternal salvation. He comes to save us: you and I and all who are open to His grace, all for whom we care and for whom we pray.
     The collect for the fourth Sunday of Advent which we prayed throughout yesterday teaches us this reality most eloquently. If it passed us by yesterday, I recommend revisiting it and contemplating its doctrine today:
​
“Excita, quǽsumus, Dómine, poténtiam tuam, et veni: et magna nobis virtúte succúrre; ut per auxílium grátiæ tuæ, quod nostra peccáta præpédiunt, indulgéntiæ tuæ propitiatiónis accéleret.”
 
“Stir up thy power, Lord, and come, and help us with your great power, so that with the help of your grace that which our sins impede may be hastened by your merciful forgiveness.”
 
(In passing one should note that this collect, in use on the Fourth Sunday of Advent from at least the eighth or ninth centuries, was replaced in the Missal of Paul VI by the beautiful, but significantly theologically different, collect from the feast of the Annunciation – which we may know more familiarly as the prayer said at the end of the Angelus.)
     To be sure the season of Advent and Christmas is replete with rich liturgical texts which bear much contemplation. Those of us privileged to celebrate the usus antquior in its fullness have a true feast in which to indulge. But this collect seems to offer a key which unlocks much of the approaching mystery, particularly the chains in which our helplessness in the face of sin and weakness bind us.
     That key is nothing other than the need, the requirement, the absolute necessity that our hearts, minds and souls be unlocked, that they become wholly open to His “great power”. For only then can “that which our sins impede” come to be. Only then, when I am humbly open to His grace, as was the Blessed Virgin Mary, only when all that stands in the way of God’s Will for me is forgiven and removed, can all that I am called to be in this life and the next come to pass.
     That is why the season of Advent precedes Christmas: so that we might prepare our hearts and minds and souls for His coming through prayer, penance, sacramental confession, and other spiritual practices. That is why today, the Vigil of the Nativity, is traditionally a day of fasting and abstinence – one last reminder of the need to ‘prepare a way for the Lord’ to ‘make our paths straight’ before Him (cf. Mk 1:3).
     Hours remain before we shall sing of He who became Flesh for our salvation. Let those hours be ones of great recollection and of interior preparation. Let them be ones in which we pray with ever more fervor  that the Lord will come and help each of us, and all those for whom we pray, with His great power, that we may receive the necessary help of His grace so that all that our sins have thus far impeded may, by the merciful forgiveness that is the promise of His Incarnation, at last be realised.
     If our desire for this gift this Christmas leads us so to open ourselves to God’s grace and power, it shall be a truly blessed Christmas indeed.  +

​+ The first-class feasts of our diocesan patron, St Leontius, and of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, falling on Fridays this year, have resulted in this being our first Advent conference – half way through the season, as we are. Nevertheless, our life of praying, digesting and contemplating the liturgical texts will have ensured that the riches of this beautiful season have not escaped us thus far.
     This evening I wish to consider the two antiphons that are proper to this ferial Friday of the second week of Advent, that given for the Benedictus and that given for the Magnificat, for I believe they are truly indicative of the spirit and content of the season.
     Dicite: Pusillanimes, confortamini: ecce Dominus Deus noster veniat, we sang this morning. “Say to them: ‘Be strong, you that are fearful of heart, for behold the Lord our God will come.’”
     Who amongst us has not experienced fear, worry, distress, anxiety, dread or any other number of mixed or even destructive emotions in our hearts in this past year – in respect of the situation of my family, with regard to my friends, because of the exigencies of my health or of that of those close to me, in finding or sustaining good employment, in pursing my education or in discerning or having the courage faithfully to follow and persevere in my God-given vocation? Being fearful of heart is part of the fallen human condition. Here on earth, where our hearts are not yet completely filled with God’s life and love as they shall be when, if we persevere in the Faith, we enjoy the beatific vision in heaven, fear is an effect of original sin. We may know better, but the emotion of fear can so easily gain the upper hand in our lives and dominate our thoughts, words and deeds. Where fear reigns, God’s grace is inhibited. Advent 2018 may well find us thus: fearful and not whom we truly could or should be.
     “Be strong!” the Sacred Liturgy insists today. Fine words, to be sure, but words which can bring little comfort to one crippled by fear.     But the Church continues – she obstinately maintains that we fearful of heart must take courage, “for behold the Lord our God will come.”
     For with His coming we shall no longer be alone. The darkness of our fears cannot dominate us when the light of His coming shines upon even the worst of them. Help is at hand. Grace is available to purify, elevate and perfect our fallen, weak and broken human nature. God will become man so to assist each one of us. For this reason, now, even in our fear, we must be strong. For this reason we must turn anew, this Advent, to He who is Hope, that we might receive all that we need in living and persevering in fidelity to God’s Will and Law. In so doing we shall be given all that we need, and more, to strengthen us.
     This feast of the availability of God’s grace is that to which Advent looks forward with an increasing appetite. It is why Advent is such a joyful penitential season. It is why the liturgical texts resound with praise, as does the second of our proper texts, this evening’s Magnificat antiphon: Cantate Domino canticum novum: laus eis ad extremis terrae. “Sing to the Lord a new song: His praise from the ends of the earth.”
     Am I able to sing those words? Is my heart sufficiently free from fear so to do at this point of Advent 2018? If it is not, if the shadows of doubt and fear and anxiety and so on linger, if I am still hesitating in following God’s will in any area of my life, then the Church calls me to use her traditional means of prayer and penance – including the sacrament of confession – to put right that which needs correcting, to repair any damage I have done to myself or others, to take the necessary steps – even risks – in following the God’s Will for me, etc., so that I may indeed receive His grace, so that my heart may sing “His praise from the ends of the earth” with a purity that may well at first astonish me.
     Traditionally the third week of Advent is Ember week and on Ember Wednesday, Friday and Saturday we are called to pray and fast with a particular intensity. Amidst the business of Advent that can even intrude into the monastic enclosure, let these days be days of efficacious purification for each of us. Let their faithful observance open us ever more to the grace that is available to us. Let their disciplines clear the way so that the light of Christ can shine more brightly in our hearts and banish even the darkest fears that lurk in the corners therein.
     Then we shall indeed be strong. Then our lives will be that unique song of praise to Him which only we, our fears banished by the Lord who comes, can sing. +

​The monastery is the privileged custodian of many relics of the saints which are venerated liturgically on their respective feast days and whose intercession we seek regularly .

​Today, in preparing for First Vespers of All Saints we incorporated some newly arrived relics that have been entrusted to the monastery into our reliquaries: Pope Saint Gregory II († 731); Saint Boniface († 754); Saint Thomas Becket († 1162); the Croatian Blessed Aloysius Stepinac († 1960) and of the Italian visionary and stigmatic Blessed Maria Bolognese (†1980).

Omnes sancti et sanctae Dei, orate pro nobis !

​The monastery library contains many treasures but amongst them one is singularly important: a Missale Monasticum secundum ritum Casinensis published in Venice in 1515. It is a truly beautiful missal, illustrated throughout with small woodcuts for the Gospel passage of each Mass and full-page woodcuts for the greater feasts and seasons. Those who have seen our Mass intention card will already know the beauty of these illustrations.

We have carefully photographed two of the larger woodcuts from the Mass of Christmas day to produce Christmas cards for our friends and benefactors and others who wish to share the beauty of this very early printed missal and thereby support the monastery.

Printed on 18.2 x 11.7 cm white card stock, the Christmas cards are blank inside and come with a matching envelope. They are available at the monastery or can be sent by post (including internationally, often locally, in good time and at a reasonable cost).

The cards are discounted according to the total quantity purchased: 1+ €2,50; 5+ €2,25; 10 €2,00; 20 €1,85; 30 €1,75; 40 €1,65; 50 €1,50; 75 €1,35; 100+ €1,25.

To order, please email the monastery and state the quantity of the card(s) you wish. The first card is “The Nativity” and the second (including the liturgical text) is “The Mass of Christmas Day”. Please include your full delivery address and a contact phone number (for delivery). We will calculate the shipping cost and send you a PayPal invoice. Upon receipt of this you can confirm your order with your payment and the cards will be dispatched as soon as possible.

Given the exigencies of the postal system we recommend ordering as soon as possible.

On September 17th we were singularly blessed to received the renewal of monastic vows in our monastery of a new confrère, Dom Bernward, who comes to us with a wealth of monastic wisdom and experience. Thanks be to Almighty God and to all who have fostered and assisted him in his vocation to our small but growing monastic family.