From Season to Season

Some of you who have been following this blog for a while will remember that I was Benedictine monk for nearly eleven years and, after a long and careful period of discernment, I decided to seek a dispensation from my monastic vows. This was certainly a difficult decision, but those events in 2013 were not the end of the story... Late last year I began to actively discern the possibility of returning to religious life. Early this year I contacted a handful of religious communities, including the Society of the Divine Savior (the Salvatorians). Those conversations and my discernment have continued and the past months have been a time of challenge, opportunity, reflection, and blessings. With all of this in mind, I am happy and humbled to announce that I have been accepted as a candidate for the Salvatorians and will enter formation in January.   I am especially grateful to so many people who have supported my ongoing reflection and discernment, particularly dear f...

Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching… be self-possessed in all circumstances, put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry . —2 Timothy 4:2, 5  St. Norbert Window from St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin Saint Norbert was born near Wesel, Germany, around the year 1080. Through the influence of his noble family, he was able to obtain a paid position at the church of St. Victor in Xanten. His only task was to take part in the daily prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, but he paid someone to take his place so he could take a higher paying position as a religious counselor (chaplain) to Emperor Henry V . Eventually, Norbert converted from a worldly life, embracing the religious ideal, and he was ordained to the priesthood in 1115. Feeling called to a more austere way of life, Norbert gave away all his possessions and moved to the va...

Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong. —1 Corinthians 1:26-27 In 1896, Mark Twain published his last completed novel. This unexpected work was also his favorite. It was entitled Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte . Twain later recalled, “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best.” Years before, in the 1850s, he had found a leaf from a biography of Joan of Arc, an event which began a lifelong fascination with her story. The book is a huge departure from Twain’s comedic writings, but it’s certainly worth reading. Mark Twain’s book is just one example of how a nineteen year old French girl, who lived an extraordinary (and extraordinarily unusual) life, and who died a horrific death, has held the imagination of so many fo...

Born in 1568, Aloysius was the son and heir of the powerful Gonzaga family of Castiglione and a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. At an early age he manifested habits of prayer and virtue which formed a strong spiritual foundation for his later life. Sometimes given to excess in his penances, he was nonetheless unrelenting in his desires to please God and see God's will above all things. Feeling called to religious life, he entered into a battle of wills with his father, who refused to allow his son to abdicate his title and the right of succession. However, after years of prayer, sacrifice, and struggle, Aloysius was given the necessary permission by his family to enter the Society of Jesus at Rome. Well-liked by his superiors and confreres, he was an outstanding student and desired to serve in the Society's Asian missions. In the spring of 1591, he contracted the plague after carrying a dying man from the street to a hospital. Aloysius died during the night of June 20-21, afte...