I live near St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, MA. There's an old joke about three Catholic orders: What are the Jesuits up to? How many Franciscan monasteries are there? And what do the Benedictines do? (At all! Well, they live by St. Benedict's Rule.) They say/sing the daily Offices of the Liturgy in Gregorian/Latin plain chant, and the public is invited to chapel. They do this as their gift to God, to make it a little piece of Heaven on earth -- and they've succeeded.
Their setting is amazing, a wonderful old Federal mansion with a cloister, barns and outbuildings, great view over the river valley, bucolic. But they could be in a slum and you'd have the same feeling of blessed peace. They live by the rule of poverty, manual labor, and Church Liturgy done in plain chant. But people fall in love with them and the chapel and give them things. Oriental rugs, silver, relics, Mack trucks, to name a few.
They used to have dairy cows, (during one of their annual Christmas dinners with hundreds of people invited, the septic system clogged and monks were out in the driving rain and dark digging a series of trenchs in the leaching field, so one of the elderly monks threw up a window, poked his head out and yelled, "What a time to bury a dead cow!" They had horses, too, even pigs and peacocks. I remember driving by years ago...seeing peacocks on the roof of the Chapter House and thinking I was 'seeing' things. They changed my life, gave me back the spirit of Christmas...a gift totally unexpected. The gift of simplicity, the gift of faith. I wish that for everyone here at FR in the New Year.
Where is Still River, MA?
It was the experience of a lifetime.
We have their Christmas Fudge and Fruitcake at home now.
I was born in a hospital run by Franciscan sisters. My father, who was absent from my life, was named for two saints one being Francis.
I live in the City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels. I did live in San Francisco for some time and would like to live in Santa Fe.
On and on, there has been a Catholic theme beguiling me all my life that now I see.
I am so pleased to read of your experience of the abbey. Your life was truly changed for the better.