Conception Abbey

As many of you already know there are actually two feasts of St. Benedict in the calendar for Benedictines. On March 21, we celebrate the Transitus of St. Benedict. This means his "passing," or his death. That is normally the day when we celebrate the saints days; that is, the day they pass from this life to eternal life. On July 11, we celebrate another feast of St. Benedict. This is the day the universal Church celebrates the feast of St. Benedict, primarily because March 21 usually comes during lent. The Benedictines have been given permission to celebrate one of these days as a solemnity and the other as a feast. Each monastery makes that decision. Here at Conception we celebrate the solemnity on March 21. That works better for us as most of the monks are at home, the students are here, classes are canceled for the day etc. Therefore, we celebrate July 11 as a feast. This year July 11 comes on a Sunday. A feast cannot take the place of a Sunday, a solemnity does take the place of the Sunday Mass in ordinary time. Thus, this year we here at Conception will not celebrate July 11 as a feast at all. I hope this is clear to all of you. A number of you will be here for the "Pray and Work" weekend but we will on Sunday simply celebrate the regular Sunday Mass and not the Mass of St. Benedict.

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Now just a few words about St. Benedict even though we do not celebrate his feast on July 11 this year. All of us know that St. Benedict frequently makes use of scripture in the Rule. In an appendix of RB80, an author writes:

" Whatever other factors may have been involved in the rise and development of the monastic movement, there is no doubt that the central factor, without which the monastic movement is simply unthinkable, is the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The monastic way of life was conceived as a response to the precepts of Scripture. St. Athanasius portrayed Anthony as taking up the monastic form of life in simple obedience to hearing the words of Scripture."

Through the Scriptures one of our primary goals in the monastic life has to be to conform our lives more perfectly to Jesus Christ. To become more Christ like. We are "to put nothing before our love of Christ." That is why we come to the monastery, that is why we become oblates.

Jesus Christ is so much the center of our monastic life that St. Benedict tells us "the Abbot is seen to hold the place of Christ" in the monastery. We are also to serve Christ in one another, and especially in our guests, in the sick, in the poor. We are in short to prefer nothing whatever to Christ.

May God continue to bless us, may he help us to be faithful to the Scriptures and always to serve Christ in all we do.