We believe passionately that God has given us a mission: to draw others to know and experience in their lives the love of God in Christ. Sharing this “Good News” is at the center of our call and our life. In our chapels and retreat houses, and our online teachings, we hope to offer a still point in the midst of the chaos of contemporary life. We hope that as you explore these pages, you’ll find “Good News” that will help you live authentically, responsive to God’s call of love.
Sermons Resume August 31
There will be a pause in the posting of new sermons while the Chapel is closed and Brothers are away in August for our Annual Community Retreat, time for Community Discussions and Chapter, as well as Vacations and Family Visits. For a daily dose of monastic wisdom, subscribe to “Brother, Give Us a Word.” Sermons will resume once the Chapel opens on Aug. 31.
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Summer Seminarians
Three seminarians lived alongside the Brothers at the Monastery this summer, sharing in worship, work, meals, study and discussion, and the enjoyment of life together. Pictured are Donna Hines (Virginia Theological Seminary), and Jim Corcoran and Mary Beth Mills-Curran (both from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University).
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Temporal and Eternal – Br. Jim Woodrum
“We lift up our hearts and minds and all that we are in offering to God and here God becomes present to us in these gifts of bread and wine: the bread broken for us, the wine poured out for us. It is the re-membering of the ultimate sacrifice of love given by Jesus on the cross, forever joining the eternal to the temporal, and by grace the temporal to the eternal.”
Br. Jim Woodrum ponders how we – temporal beings that we are – can be containers of eternal love.
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First Fervor – Br. Keith Nelson
“James and John don’t know it yet, but ‘We are able’ may well be the shortest, simplest, most direct, most honest prayer of their lives. It is a prayer that expresses the truest, noblest, and holiest intention of their lives, a prayer that will never be fully translatable on this side of heaven; a prayer that fulfills their vocation in God.”
Br. Keith Nelson finds in James and John an example of how Jesus takes our willingness – which is not to say our readiness – and makes us worthy.
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Saint Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles – Br. Curtis Almquist
“God’s love for us is channeled through Jesus, who has come to love us, and who is able to love us, and who does love us quite personally, all of what has made us who we are. This is not unconditional love; this is conditional love: our personally experiencing love given the conditions that have formed and deformed our lives.”
Br. Curtis Almquist pulls back some of the legend surrounding Mary of Magdala to find lessons for us all in healing and love.
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Clothing of a Novice
We are pleased to announce that Jack Crowley was clothed as a novice in our community last Sunday.
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Work and Prayer – Br. Lucas Hall
“Work serves an end. Even the holiest work of your life is not your purpose. It facilitates your purpose. If a person steeped in a Jewish culture that mandated sabbath and jubilee needed this reminder, people steeped in an American culture of bootstrap-pulling and 24/7 work emails need it all the more.”
Br. Lucas Hall returns to the familiar story of Mary and Martha as he struggles – like so many of us – to balance the demands of work and prayer.
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Chapel Closure
The Monastery Chapel closes following Evensong on Sunday, July 28th.
The Chapel re-opens with Evensong on Saturday, August 31st.
Bread Today – Br. Luke Ditewig
“Salvation is a gift. It does not come on our terms, as we dream up, plan for, or prepare.”
Br. Luke Ditewig invites us to find God’s salvation in motion, arising in the change, disruption, and confusion of our daily lives.
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Why Church Matters, Right Now – Lisa Kimball
“If the church is to be a sign of Life – a magnet for the God-given longing in all people to reconcile with God and with one another – then the Church must speak its abundant life in the terms of the times. As Anglicans, we are at our best when we engage the signs of our times with the signs of eternal life.”
Lisa Kimball, from the Department of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary, encourages all of us to take part in the Church’s great mission to interpret the Signs of Life to all those trapped in the signs of our times.
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