July 28, 2009

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)