Updates on our Public Prayer

     We would like to affirm what we had published earlier:

        - being fully vaccinated, wearing a face mask, and social distancing -

              are required at our common prayer, and in our Gallery Shop.

    We would also like to affirm that it is a deep joy for us to be sharing our home again.  

    Given the signs of our times we hope our clarity will help us to continue moving forward together.

Reopenings

Our Gallery Shop is now open at certain hours during most of the week. Please click here for the schedule.

Also, starting in August we will be receiving guests again- groups or individuals coming together. The manner in which our hospitality is now organized is a bit different than before. You may click here for more information.

Weekend Prayer

 We would like to thank all the persons who have come to our public prayer for following these requirements: that you be fully vaccinated, wear a mask during prayer, and maintain social distance.

With these requests still in place we will start having public prayer services on the weekends. This includes the Sunday Eucharist at 11:30 am. Please note there is no Saturday Eucharist nor Sunday Mid-Afternoon prayer. For a complete listing of all the prayers please visit the Prayer Schedule posted under the "Visiting Us" tab on our homepage or click here.

It is a deep joy for us to pray together again.

Public Prayer

     As we begin to gradually offer public prayer again we thank all persons who come to our common prayer for following these requirements: 

                        that you be fully vaccinated, 

                        that during prayer time you wear a mask,

                        and that we maintain social distance.  

    Note: If you are not able to be vaccinated due to health issues, we ask you to please contact us so we can make special arrangements for you during our prayer time.

    We hope our home is a prayerful and safe space for all who come, and we hope these precautions will enhance the hospitality that we offer to each other.

    A detailed schedule can be found on our homepage under the "Visiting Us" tab, and the heading Prayer Schedules. We want to mention that we still have our Retreat Days every month during which there is no public prayer.  Those dates can also be found under the "Visiting Us" tab.

    We are a pilgrim people, and this last time of pandemic has shown us how we always need to be ready to begin a new journey.  We hope that as we continue our pilgrimage that together we are sources of hope, strength, and courage for each other and for others.

    During this time we are not receiving retreatants and we are working to open the Gallery Shop soon.

2020 Part 2 Video

We hope you enjoy this video about our life at home during the very exceptional year of 2020.

Click here for the link.

Pentecost

 As a way of entering into the spirit of Pentecost together we wanted to share with you this Letter of Response to Abbot Primate Gregory Polan: responding to his question of our experience during this time of pandemic. 

God brought us out of the distress

and made the storm be still.

We were glad because we had quiet

and we were brought to our desired home…

Give thanks for God’s mercy is upon us.
                                                               -     Psalm 107: 28-31

As the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict says (vs. 11-12): The Spirit says… “Come and listen, and I will teach you the fear of God.” For our community this has been a time of deep learning and deeply recognizing that we together with all our brothers and sisters in this world are experiencing the same distress in varying ways. There are no ones of us who are exempt or more privileged. “God is calling us in love and showing us the way to live.” (RB Prol. v. 20) We have been called to let go of whatever arrogance and sense that we are in control that may easily creep into our life. We want to continue growing into the humility so central to our Gospel call and monastic spirituality.

Through the extended solitude of this time which has limited the usual guests to the monastery, we have experienced a strengthening depth to our brotherhood living in community with one another. We have consciously given priority to what is most important in our monastic witness: the searching and joy in our common prayer; the care for the beauty of creation that blesses and surrounds us; the inspired creativity of our craft work focused more simply and intently during this time; and the gift of this witness that we offer for the guests and friends whom we welcome in our monastic home.

We have also been aware that we have one another to live with and how so many others struggle in the isolation, distancing and anxieties of these moments. It remains continually an invitation to stay present to them offering our prayer, love and glimmers of hope “in the midst of the storm.”
Also, it has been a time for our friends and oblates to explore creative ways that they can be present to one another and not rely completely on our monastic community to support them and direct their prayer and witness to the Gospel call. This experience of independence has been a step forward for many of them to realize that the gift lies within them and among them as they reach out to one another. The Spirit continues to live and move equally in diverse ways through each and every one of us.

This has been a time of radical change, allowing our contemplative prayer and silence as well as our words speak to one another. It has been an opportunity to recognize more clearly that we do not always go forward but sometimes backwards or laterally to the side. However, we can still take small steps and discover together the answers are not always obvious right in front of us but slowly emerging as we attentively listen to the Spirit’s groaning response among and within us. This is the challenge of fidelity to our monastic way through stability, conversatio morum, and obedience.

Your brothers of Weston Priory

A New Video: With song and images of the joy of springtime at the Priory, we made this video as our Pentecost greeting to all. Click here for the link.

brother Leo

We want to share our joy with you, that brother John's book about brother Leo, "A Benedictine Legacy of Peace" has been translated into German. We now have a 96 year old international author living among us!

A few months ago, Fr. Daniel Hörnemann of the Benedictine Abbey and Community in Gerleve, Germany, contacted us with the hope of translating the book, as Gerleve is working hard on its archives. Since that is where brother Leo began his monastic journey it is wonderful to feel his life being so warmly remembered by his original brothers.

The cover of the German translation is a picture of a young brother Leo at study in Gerleve with a number of books in front of him. That picture appears on page 29 of the English publication. He looks so young, with so much promise! Who would have ever thought that he would be the founder of Weston Priory, which "along with five other monasteries in the United States represent a return to the more ancient traditions." (See page 95)

We wish to thank Abbot Andreas and the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Gerleve, Germany, for their interest and efforts to have the book translated into German. We cannot be grateful enough to Fr. Daniel Hörnemann, a monk of Gerleve, for his German translation of the book and for all the work he did to research some of the background history in the book in order to have it prepared for publication; Fr. Elmar also assisted him in the endeavor. Our gratitude also goes to Abbot Emeritus Pius Engelbert from Gerleve for offering to write the Forward; and to Fr. Cyrill from EOS Publishers at St. Ottilen Archabbey in Germany for publishing the German Edition.

So we encourage everyone to look at the original book again if you have it already, and to know that the book is available at our homepage under the Gallery Shop tab. It is very easy to find, and always a joyful way of being connected to our ongoing daily life as we continue our journey through this pandemic time.

Many may be wondering if we will open soon for public prayer. We continue to feel our way through this question, and have no plans for resuming public prayer at this time.