The Holy Rood Guild

05/31/2026

Neither the Day Nor the Hour
Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one.

ST. TERESA OF JESUS

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

05/03/2026

That Interior Wilderness
No one can see God and live. It is true: I saw him and died. Nothing could again satisfy me except that interior wilderness where life is simply God to me and I to God.
SR. MAUREEN McCABE, OCSO I Am the Way

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

03/20/2026

God’s Better Gift
If God at times seems to be slow in responding, it is because he is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. We well know that the long-awaited gift is all the more precious for the delay in it's being granted… Ask, seek, insist. Through this asking and seeking you will be better prepared to receive God's gift when it comes. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for his greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Posted by a monk of st. joseph's abbey at 3:00 AM

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

12/31/2025

Cross out the word ‘discouragement’ from your dictionary of love; the more you feel your weakness and the difficulty of recollecting yourself, and the more hidden the Master seems, the more you must rejoice, for then you are giving to Him…. What does it matter what we feel; He is the unchanging one…. He loves you today as He loved you yesterday and will love you tomorrow.

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

12/25/2025

God is Seen in the Flesh
Of old, God the incorporeal and formless was never depicted, but now that God has been seen in the flesh and has associated with humankind, I depict what I have seen of God. I do not venerate matter, I venerate the fashioner of matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked salvation, and I will not cease from referencing matter through which my salvation was worked.
SAINT JOHN DAMASCENE

Merry Christmas from all of us here at St. Joseph's Abbey!

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

11/30/2025

Update on Our Abbey Hermitage
Br Adam and Fr Isaac last wrote you about the renovation of the hermitage here at the abbey. Here is a timeline report to bring you up to date on this project.
https://spencerabbey1098.blogspot.com/

10/17/2025

Seeking by Day
He who seeks God while attending to his own ease and comfort seeks him by night, and therefore does not find him. But he who seeks him in the practice of virtue and good works, disregarding comforts, seeks him by day. Such a one shall find him, for what is invisible at night can be seen by daylight.
ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS The Spiritual Canticle

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

08/11/2025

Our Greatest Danger
Our greatest danger is not our sins, but our indifference. We must be in love with God. It is not so much to change what we are doing, but our intention, our motive. It is not sufficient that we refrain from insulting a person, we must love.
DOROTHY DAY The Catholic Worker, Jul/Aug 1943

We are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following....

07/22/2025

The Word of God and Poverty
The beginning of the path of life is continually to exercise the intellect in the words of God, and to live in poverty. For when a man waters himself with one, it aids in the perfection of the other.
https://spencerabbey1098.blogspot.com/

06/30/2025

Sunday - June 29. Today’s solemnity honors two conversions that underpin the entire foundation of the Church. Two saints who were converted, literally turned around, by their discovery of mercy, better still by their discovery that they were discovered by Mercy in the person of Christ Jesus the innocent victim, who though he has suffered and died for his people’s sinfulness comes back from the dead without recrimination as forgiving victim. In fact he absolutely refuses not to forgive. This continues to astound and unnerve us just as it did Peter and Paul. https://spencerabbey1098.blogspot.com/