Godzdogz

By Br Daniel Benedict Rowlands, O.P | This Carolingian miniature depicts Christ's feet firmly rooted to the ground as the Father pulls him up, an expression of the "fragile bond between humanity and divinity definitively reestablished in Christ." Read more

By Br Daniel Benedict Rowlands, O.P | False, solely human "prayer", is dangerous, even lethal. True prayer bears a divine mark. It is Christ's prayer: the prayer he taught us − "thy will be done" (Matt. 6:10) −  and the prayer he acted out in his Passion − "not as I will, but as thou wilt.''(Matt. 26:39) Christian prayer is thus fully human, for we bring with us all our desires, but also fully divine on account of that weighty qualification: "but as thou wilt". It remains dangerous, for it leads us to the cross, but dangerous only to sin. Read more

News | Below you can find the reflections preached during our Advent Retreat (17th-23rd December) by each of the student brothers. Read more

By Br Daniel Benedict Rowlands, O.P | "Sin, even venial sin, is the only real sadness in life, the only enemy of peace, and the only problem tears can dissolve."  But what then moved our Lord to weep over Jerusalem? To show us the way to a heart that is a true house of prayer. Read more

Br Daniel Benedict Rowlands, O.P | Heaven is, in a certain sense, individual for each and every one. Every time we pray, we embrace something of the irreducible uniqueness of our relation to God, the relation that circumscribes the entirety of our being. Prayer cannot be substituted for another task, nor can another undertake the prayer that could only ever be mine. Delegation is simply impossible in the contemplative life. Read more

By Br Daniel Benedict Rowlands, O.P | This then is the true heart of the monastic Office: to learn to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), so that the entire day may become wholly permeated by a ceaseless spirit of prayer. This wonderful function of the Office is one that is especially attractive on account of its universality: all Christians may profitably pray the Divine Office. So, then, let us all strive to take up this Work of God and so run "on the path of God's commandments, [with] hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love".    Read more

The Seven Last Words | From the Friday before Palm Sunday until Holy Saturday, the student brothers offer you a daily meditation on the Seven Last Words from the Cross, to accompany you and help you prepare for the mystery of Easter. Read more

Quodlibets | We pray in the Roman Canon of the Mass: “command that we be delivered from eternal damnation”. A reader asks: why can’t we have been delivered from eternal damnation ab initio? Why couldn’t the damned simply have never been created? Read more

By Br Daniel Benedict Rowlands, O.P. | The divine life simply cannot be clung to and possessed as a prize, but must be ceaselessly poured out in love. If we are ready to be "poured out as a libation" (2 Tim. 4:6) and so offer ourselves as  "living sacrifices" (Rom. 12:1), then we become conduits of grace, sanctifying others and are sanctified ourselves in the process. Read more