stability

The monks of Holy Cross Monastery look to their vow of stability for guidance in this time of social distancing, connecting to the outside world with live-streamed Vespers and a retreat offered over Zoom.

My grandfather died two weeks ago, a few months short of his 89th birthday, in the same room where he was born. Most every night of his long life, he slept under the same roof, in the farmhouse where his parents had settled just after their marriage.

The Benedictines have shown me another pattern of faithfulness: the pattern of committing to a place and a community and refusing to run away.

I am hardly suggesting that “staying” — in a job, in a parish, in a denomination, in a city, with an institution — is always the right thing to do, only that, for Christians, change rather than stability bears the burden of proof, a burden that can be satisfied, but is borne nonetheless.

One thing that I’ve noticed on this blog is a willingness to criticize inflated claims for the liturgy. But, properly chastened, can we make claims that the liturgy "works," making you a better person?

By Ephraim Radner • “Few meetings are the result of chance.” — Christian de Chergé, Trappist monk, who was martyred in 1996.

My early formation as an Episcopalian was shaped to a large extent by the first person I ever felt confident in calling “my priest.”...