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Great bunch of guys for a monastic Plunge!

Great bunch of guys for a monastic Plunge!

Just completed another Plunge! for six students from Saint John’s University. Had a great time hosting them for prayer, a video of Saint John’s at 150, meals and a tour of the abbey and the grounds. Of course our Benedictine motto is Ora et Labora (worship and work) so the below picture was taken in front [...]

Hill-Murray Catholic School’s Week Visit…

Hill-Murray Catholic School’s Week Visit…

This morning two other monks and I traveled to Hill-Murray School in Saint Paul to do some presentations in conjunction with the school’s celebration of Catholic School’s Week. From what I could tell we were featured along with about 20 other speakers. I presented on the Rule of Saint Benedict and pictured below are the great group of student’s [...]

Great FYS Tour Group!

Great FYS Tour Group!

As in the past on this blog, I have posted pictures of various tour groups and this is another group which was made up of first year students here at Saint Benedict’s College and Saint John’s University. We began our tour in the Great Hall as it was the second formal place of worship used by [...]

A Monastic Baptism?

A Monastic Baptism?

Well, not really of course! However, as with any monastery that has been around for over a century and a half, Saint John’s Abbey is no exception in having local families become very close to the monastic community. In fact some have been living “next door” to us for over three generations! Though Matt and [...]

YTM January Retreat

YTM January Retreat

Just finished a great YTM (Youth in Theology and Ministry which comes out of the School of  Theology here) retreat this past weekend. This is a program that I have written about before that I believe is an excellent way to share with young Catholics the tradition that is the Catholic Church. In short over [...]

Happy Feast of the Epiphany!

Happy Feast of the Epiphany!

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea…
  Behold, magi for the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
  “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
  and have come to do him homage.” (Matt 2:1-2)

“In encountering the Christ, the magi behold the love of God in their midst.” – Jay [...]

A Blessed Christmas to All!

A Blessed Christmas to All!

We had almost a full church last evening…which for us means almost 2,000 people. It was a wonderful concert and mass of the Nativity of our Lord!

We will celebrate mass today at 10 am with the Collegeville parish which is a new tradition – or maybe one that was renewed! – just last year. Nice [...]

Promised skating pictures…

Promised skating pictures…

So a few days ago I posted a picture of the ice on Lake Sagatagan which is our largest lake. I promised to follow up with pictures of some of the Junior monks skating…here they are:

Advent blessings, bpv

About once every ten years…

About once every ten years…

About once in every ten years Lake Sagatagan freezes in such a way that the conditions create a quality of ice on which it makes it perfect to skate. I am sure that you will be seeing some pictures in the near future of some of our young monks showing their ice skating ability –  or [...]

New Sculpture of Saint Benedict

New Sculpture of Saint Benedict

Br. David Paul Lange, OSB has been commissioned to create a life size sculpture of Saint Benedict which will eventually be placed on campus. This last Saturday he gave a glimpse of his work which at this writing in the process of being cast in bronze. In the second picture below he is shown talking about the [...]