Brother, Give Us a Word

A daily monastic practice to nourish your spirit

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Welcome to SSJE

We are a community of men giving our whole selves over to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Rooted in the ancient monastic traditions of prayer and community life, and critically engaged with contemporary culture, we seek to know and share an authentic experience of God’s love and mercy. We live a common life shaped by worship, prayer, and our Rule of Life.

We invite you to explore these pages to learn more about how we live and pray, the tradition that grounds us, and the call that draws us onward day by day.

Worship Schedule | Rule of Life | Catch the Life

News from the Monastery & Emery House

The Chapel is Open!!

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Gallery: Easter 2022

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Gallery: Holy Week 2022

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Sunday Eucharist in the Chapel

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Gallery: Lent 2022

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Student Tuesdays & Residency Program

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Br. Lucas on Praying with the Old Testament

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Credo: Formation in Practice

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Update: Livestream Services Resume this Week

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Br. Jonathan on Questioning the Faith

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Br. Curtis on why we need more than “Spirituality”

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Update from the Community: January 20

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Brother, Give Us A Word

A daily meditation to start your day. Subscribe here >

Happiness

Here’s the problem with pursuing happiness: it’s based on a false premise, namely that there’s something we have to do, something we need to have, in order to be happy. In truth, the joy Jesus shares with us doesn’t work like that. It’s a joy with no cause, with no prerequisite, and it’s already here.

-Br. Nicholas Bartoli, SSJE

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Recent Sermons from the Chapel

What is Love? – Br. Jim Woodrum

By Br. Jim Woodrum | May 15, 2022 |

“As love goes, this is where things get thorny. Loving God without condition as God has loved us, while a tall order for finite creatures, is something we might readily give ascent to. But, loving each other ‘agape’ style? What does it mean to love each other without conditions: without sex and romance, without stability and provision, without fellowship in exalted experience, or ultimately, without any expectation or transaction?”

Br. Jim Woodrum challenges us to mirror God’s unconditional love in the love we show to one another.

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Take Him at His Word – Br. Sean Glenn

By Br. Sean Glenn | May 14, 2022 |

“It is too easy to see the Resurrection in human terms, an event that reveals a God whose omnipotence is characterized by all the ways human beings conceive of omnipotence. Yes, God is big and strong and powerful. But not in the ways our hearts have been trained to conceive of such attributes.”

Br. Sean Glenn separates the power of God, revealed in the Resurrection, from those human forms of power that seek to dominate.

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Holy Baptism: New Life for Young and Old Alike – Br. Curtis Almquist

By Br. Curtis Almquist | May 8, 2022 |

“It is God who is the source of our lives, and God who is the end of our lives, and it is God who calls us and desires us to be in union with God forever. It is God who seeks us out, God who has all the time in the world for us. Baptism is an act which anticipates its completion in the future, with a person’s own confession of faith. Baptism is an initiation, not a completion.”

On the joyful event of an infant baptism, Br. Curtis Almquist invites us to see all baptism not as a completion, but as an initiation.

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Jesus, the Prism of God’s Light – Br. Keith Nelson

By Br. Keith Nelson | May 3, 2022 |

“Are there humble, ordinary gestures that the crucified and risen Jesus has used to show you the nature of God? Have you become distracted from the pattern of light by the dissatisfied ache for an epiphany? Jesus offers a profound reassurance and a further invitation to Philip, and to us, today: ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.’”

Br. Keith Nelson beckons us toward Jesus and the long, slow work of conversion as we see, in his prismatic glory, the Light of God.

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Faith Seeking Understanding – Br. Geoffrey Tristram

By Br. Geoffrey Tristram | April 24, 2022 |

“It was seeing Jesus’ body, in all its brokenness and woundedness which brought Thomas to belief. But this beautiful story is not a story of proof but a story of love. For me, the story of Thomas is not primarily a story of a sceptic who comes to believe because his list of doubts is answered; not an intellectual assent to something proven. The story of Thomas is rather the story of a man who comes to believe not because he has enough proof, but because he has actually touched the mystery of divine, self-sacrificial love.”

In this sermon on Thomas, Br. Geoffrey urges us to listen to our gut and heart, not our head, as we encounter the Lord.

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