August 1 (Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, C.Ss.R.)

As someone who has a great devotion to St. Alphonsus Liguori, C.Ss.R. (Patron of Vocations) I thought it would be nice to share this little video with you.  St. Alphonsus...pray for us.

 

Saint Vincent welcomes the Pittsburgh Steelers!!!

Saint Vincent Archabbey proudly welcomes the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers back to the Archabbey for 2009 Summer Training Camp.  May their time here be fruitful and may all the people visiting expereince the power of Jesus through the hospitality offered by the monks and our employees.  "Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: "I was a stranger and you took Me in" (Mt 25:35). And let due honor be shown to all, especially to those "of the household of the faith" (Gal 6:10) and to wayfarers." (Holy Rule of St. Benedict, CHAPTER LIII Of the Reception of Guests)

NPR's Weekend Edition to Feature Saint Vincent Gristmill

On Sunday, August 2, 2009, Weekend Edition host Liane Hansen of National Public Radio will profile the first Benedictine monastery in America. 

Weekend Edition: Sunday Morning is carried locally on WDUQ, 90.5 FM, and airs from 8 to 10 a.m. The segment on the Gristmill is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. It will be available online after 2 p.m. on Sunday on National Public Radio.

In the mid 1800s, a Bavarian Benedictine monk, Boniface Wimmer, came to this country to serve the German immigrants and in the process built a church, seminary and college on land in Latrobe.

The monastery and campus was to be self-sustaining. The brothers had livestock, a vegetable farm, and fields of grain. A gristmill was also built to grind that grain into flour, which provided bread for the monks.

The Gristmill is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is still in operation, providing flour for the Benedictines' daily bread.

Investiture 2009!!!

Just a few pictures from this year's investiture ceremony. Our community welcomed 4 new novices (Br. Romuald, Br. Michael, Br. Matthew, and Br. Matthew).  Please pray for these 4 young men (all in their 20's) as they pray and work in our community and discern more intensely the call to monastic life.

 

  

  

 
 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Priest Day 2009

Each year at the Archabbey, the monks welcome priests from the various local diocese for a day of prayer, refreshment, and fellowship.  This special day for our priests has been appropriately titled "Priest Day."  Today, July 28, 2009 we welcome over 100 priests to our monastery in order to  say "Thank You" for your ministry and for providing the sacraments to our Lord's people.

 

The dignity of the priest is estimated from the exalted nature of his offices. Priests are chosen by God to manage on earth all his concerns and interests. " Divine," says St. Cyril of Alexandria, "are the offices confided to priests." St. Ambrose has called the priestly office a Divine profession. A priest is a minister destined by God to be a public ambassador of the whole Church, to honor Him, and to obtain His graces for all the faithful. The entire Church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces, as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass; for the greatest honor that the whole Church without priests could give to God would consist in offering to Him in sacrifice the lives of all men. But of what value are the lives of all men compared with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is a sacrifice of infinite value? What are all men before God but a little dust? As a drop of a bucket, as a little dust. They are but a mere nothing in His sight: All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all. Thus, by the celebration of a single Mass, in which he offers Jesus Christ in sacrifice, a priest gives greater honor to the Lord, than if all men by dying for God offered to Him the sacrifice of their lives. By a single Mass, he gives greater honor to God than all the Angels and Saints, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, have given or shall give to Him; for their worship cannot be of infinite value, like that which the priest celebrating on the altar offers to God. Moreover, in the holy Mass, the priest offers to God an adequate thanksgiving for all the graces bestowed even on the Blessed in Paradise; but such a thanksgiving all the Saints together are incapable of offering to Him. Hence it is, that on this account also the priestly dignity is superior even to all celestial dignities. Besides, the priest, says St. John Chrysostom, is an ambassador of the whole world, to intercede with God and to obtain graces for all creatures.. The priest, according to St. Ephrem, "treats familiarly with God." To priests every door is open. Jesus has died to institute the priesthood. It was not necessary for the Redeemer to die in order to save the world; a drop of His Blood, a single tear, or prayer, was sufficient to procure salvation for all; for such a prayer, being of infinite value, should be sufficient to save not one but a thousand worlds. But to institute the priesthood, the death of Jesus Christ has been necessary. Had he not died, where should we find the victim that the priests of the New Law now offer? a victim altogether holy and immaculate, capable of giving to God an honor worthy of God. As has been already said, all the lives of men and Angels are not capable of giving to God an infinite honor like that which a priest offers to Him by a single Mass. (The Dignities and Duties of the Priest, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, C.Ss.R)

Prayer of St. Jean Maria Vianny

 

I love You, O my God,
and my only desire is to love You
until the last breath of my life.

I love You, O my infinitely lovable God,
and I would rather die loving You,
than live without loving You.

I love You, Lord
and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally...

My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You,
I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath.

Feast of St. James the Greater (July 25)

O Glorious St. James, because of your fervor and generosity, Jesus chose you to witness His glory on the Mount and his agony in the garden.  Obtain for us strength and consolation in the unending struggles of this life.  Help us to follow Christ constantly and generously, to be victors over all our difficulties, and to receive the crown of glory in heaven. Amen.

www.americancatholic.org

This James is the brother of John the Evangelist. The two were called by Jesus as they worked with their father in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had already called another pair of brothers from a similar occupation: Peter and Andrew. “He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him” (Mark 1:19-20). 

James was one of the favored three who had the privilege of witnessing the Transfiguration, the raising to life of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemani. 

Two incidents in the Gospels describe the temperament of this man and his brother. St. Matthew tells that their mother came (Mark says it was the brothers themselves) to ask that they have the seats of honor (one on the right, one on the left of Jesus) in the kingdom. “Jesus said in reply, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We can’” (Matthew 20:22). Jesus then told them they would indeed drink the cup and share his baptism of pain and death, but that sitting at his right hand or left was not his to give—it “is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father” (Matthew 20:23b). It remained to be seen how long it would take to realize the implications of their confident “We can!” 

 

The other disciples became indignant at the ambition of James and John. Then Jesus taught them all the lesson of humble service: The purpose of authority is to serve. They are not to impose their will on others, or lord it over them. This is the position of Jesus himself. He was the servant of all; the service imposed on him was the supreme sacrifice of his own life. 

On another occasion, James and John gave evidence that the nickname Jesus gave them—“sons of thunder”—was an apt one. The Samaritans would not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to hated Jerusalem. “When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?’ Jesus turned and rebuked them...” (Luke 9:54-55). 

James was apparently the first of the apostles to be martyred. “About that time King Herod laid hands upon some members of the church to harm them. He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword, and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also” (Acts 12:1-3a). 

This James, sometimes called James the Greater, is not to be confused with James the Lesser (May 3) or with the author of the Letter of James and the leader of the Jerusalem community.

Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI Announcing the Year for Priests

Your Eminences,

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,

I am glad to be able to welcome you at a special Audience on the eve of my departure for Africa, where I am going to present the Instrumentum Laboris of the Second Special Assembly of the Synod for Africa that will be held here in Rome next October. I thank Cardinal Cláudio Hummes for the kind words with which he has interpreted the sentiments you share and I thank you for the beautiful letter you wrote to me. With him, I greet you all, Superiors, Officials and Members of the Congregation, with gratitude for all the work you do at the service of such an important sector of the Church's life.

The theme you have chosen for this Plenary Assembly "The missionary identity of the priest in the Church as an intrinsic dimension of the exercise of the tria munera" suggests some reflections on the work of these days and the abundant fruit that it will certainly yield. If the whole Church is missionary and if every Christian, by virtue of Baptism and Confirmation quasi ex officio (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1305), receives the mandate to profess the faith publicly, the ministerial priesthood, also from this viewpoint, is ontologically distinct, and not only by rank, from the baptismal priesthood that is also known as the "common priesthood". In fact, the apostolic mandate "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole of creation" (Mk 16: 15) is constitutive of the ministerial priesthood. This mandate is not, as we know, a mere duty entrusted to collaborators; its roots are deeper and must be sought further back in time. 

The missionary dimension of the priesthood is born from the priest's sacramental configuration to Christ. As a consequence it brings with it a heartfelt and total adherence to what the ecclesial tradition has identified as apostolica vivendi forma. This consists in participation in a "new life", spiritually speaking, in that "new way of life" which the Lord Jesus inaugurated and which the Apostles made their own. Through the imposition of the Bishop's hands and the consecratory prayer of the Church, the candidates become new men, they become "presbyters". In this light it is clear that the tria munerapotestas. Of course, the great ecclesial tradition has rightly separated sacramental efficacy from the concrete existential situation of the individual priest and so the legitimate expectations of the faithful are appropriately safeguarded. However, this correct doctrinal explanation takes nothing from the necessary, indeed indispensable, aspiration to moral perfection that must dwell in every authentically priestly heart. 

Precisely to encourage priests in this striving for spiritual perfection on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends, I have decided to establish a special "Year for Priests" that will begin on 19 June and last until 19 June 2010. In fact, it is the 150th anniversary of the death of the Holy Curé d'Ars, John Mary Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ's flock. It will be the task of your Congregation, in agreement with the diocesan Ordinaries and with the superiors of religious institutes to promote and to coordinate the various spiritual and pastoral initiatives that seem useful for making the importance of the priest's role and mission in the Church and in contemporary society ever more clearly perceived. 

The priest's mission, as the theme of the Plenary Assembly emphasizes, is carried out "in the Church". This ecclesial communal, hierarchical and doctrinal dimension is absolutely indispensable to every authentic mission and, alone guarantees its spiritual effectiveness. The four aspects mentioned must always be recognized as intimately connected: the mission is "ecclesial" because no one proclaims himself in the first person, but within and through his own humanity every priest must be well aware that he is bringing to the world Another, God himself. God is the only treasure which ultimately people desire to find in a priest. The mission is "communional" because it is carried out in a unity and communion that only secondly has also important aspects of social visibility. Moreover, these derive essentially from that divine intimacy in which the priest is called to be expert, so that he may be able to lead the souls entrusted to him humbly and trustingly to the same encounter with the Lord. Lastly, the "hierarchical" and "doctrinal" dimensions suggest reaffirming the importance of the ecclesiastical discipline (the term has a connection with "disciple") and doctrinal training and not only theological, initial and continuing formation.

Awareness of the radical social changes that have occurred in recent decades must motivate the best ecclesial forces to supervise the formation of candidates for the ministry. In particular, it must foster the constant concern of Pastors for their principal collaborators, both by cultivating truly fatherly human relations and by taking an interest in their continuing formation, especially from the doctrinal and spiritual viewpoints. The mission is rooted in a special way in a good formation, developed in communion with uninterrupted ecclesial Tradition, without breaks or temptations of irregularity. In this sense, it is important to encourage in priests, especially in the young generations, a correct reception of the texts of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, interpreted in the light of the Church's entire fund of doctrine. It seems urgent to recover that awareness that has always been at the heart of the Church's mission, which impels priests to be present, identifiable and recognizable both for their judgement of faith, for their personal virtues as well as for the habit, in the contexts of culture and of charity. 

As Church and as priests, we proclaim Jesus of Nazareth Lord and Christ, Crucified and Risen, Sovereign of time and of history, in the glad certainty that this truth coincides with the deepest expectations of the human heart. In the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, that is, of the fact that God became man like us, lies both the content and the method of Christian proclamation. The true dynamic centre of the mission is here: in Jesus Christ, precisely. The centrality of Christ brings with it the correct appreciation of the ministerial priesthood, without which there would be neither the Eucharist, nor even the mission nor the Church herself. In this regard it is necessary to be alert to ensure that the "new structures" or pastoral organizations are not planned on the basis of an erroneous interpretation of the proper promotion of the laity for a time in which one would have "to do without" the ordained ministry, because in that case the presuppositions for a further dilution of the ministerial priesthood would be laid and possible presumed "solutions" might come dramatically to coincide with the real causes of contemporary problems linked to the ministry. 

I am certain that in these days the work of the Plenary Assembly, under the protection of the Mater Ecclesiae, will be able to examine these brief ideas that I permit myself to submit to the attention of the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops, while I invoke upon you all an abundance of heavenly gifts, as a pledge of which I impart a special, affectionate Apostolic Blessing to you and to all your loved ones. 

Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI

to the Members of the Congregation for the Clergy on the Occasion of their Plenary Assembly
Monday, 16 March 2009
(www.vatican.va)

Archabbey featured in Our Sunday Visitor

Article from the Summer 2009 "Heart to Heart" - which can be found online via the "Heart to Heart" link on this blog (top right side)

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel - "Flos Carmeli" Prayer of St. Simon Stock

O beautiful Flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine, Splendor of Heaven, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God, still ever remaining a Pure Virgin, assist me in this necessity.  O Star of the sea, help and protect me!
Show me that Thou art my Mother.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!

Mother and Ornament of Carmel, Pray for us!
 
Virgin, Flower of Carmel, Pray for us!
 
Patroness of all who wear the Scapular, Pray for us!
 
Hope of all who die wearing the Scapular, Pray for us!
 
St. Joseph, Friend of the Sacred Heart, Pray for us!
 
St. Joseph, Chaste Spouse of Mary, Pray for us!
 
St. Joseph, Our Patron, Pray for us!
 
O sweet Heart of Mary, Be our salvation!

First Profession of and Reneal of Vows 2009

The procession into the Church

 

Father Archabbot prepares to begin Vespers 

 

 

 

(L-R) Br. Pio, Br. Albert, Br. John Paul, Br. Isidore, and Father Jean-Luc declare their intention to profess vows to God and His Church at St. Vincent Archabbey

 

A packed Church applauds the Brothers for their "Yes" to God 

  

Br. Mark, O.S.B. served as cantor and did a wonderful job leading the fathful in prayer 

 

Father Sebastian, O.S.B. (our Novice Master for 20 years) gives the homily to his last class of novices. May God bless him for his outstanding work!

Br. John Paul, OSB professed his first vows of Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life

Br. Isidore, OSB professed his first vows of Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life

 

Br. Albert, OSB professed his first vows of Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life

 

Father Jean-Luc, OSB professed his first vows of Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life

Br. Pio, OSB professed his first vows of Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life

Father Archabbot prays over the Brothers after the chanting of the Suscipe

Our Junior Monks renew their vows before Father Archabbot and the Monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey

 

(L-R) Br. Jeremiah, OSB, Br. Michael, OSB, and Br. Gabriel Myriam, OSB prepare to renew their monastic vows

The newly professed Brothers, now invested in the Monastic Scapular and Cowl receive the sign of peace along with the Brothers who renewed their vows (Br. Maximilian, OSB, Br. Jeremiah, OSB, Br Michael, OSB, and Br. Gabriel Myriam, OSB)