How have the remote pillars of the faith fared during the pandemic of 2020? California is home to a number of monastery abbeys, where monks quietly maintain the continuous flow of daily commune with the divine, all while the world around these bucolic structures dart from one priority to the next. In the monastery, the priority is always God… and His people. Orange County Catholic spoke with two members from these spiritual compounds.
Fr. Paul Mark Schwan is the abbot of New Clairvaux Abbey, a Trappist-Cistercian monastery on the outskirts of a tiny town called Vina, located about 100 miles north of Sacramento in Tehama County. The population, as of the 2010 census, is 237. And while Tehama County has reported one death from COVID-19, New Clairvaux was subject to the same restrictions that have affected the entire state.
“We have closed the monastery to the public,” Fr. Paul Mark continued. “Our guest house and bookstore are closed through June 1. The church doors are locked and we are not able to allow the public to participate in the liturgy.” Presently, “no people come to the monastery for spiritual direction/confession,” the abbot said.
While adhering to health guidelines for the well-being of the monks at New Clairvaux, “the most important thing we do is to pray daily for our world and for a solution to the pandemic,” Fr. Paul Mark said. “Daily at the General Intercessions at Mass we offer a special prayer to God through the Blessed Mother’s intercession.”
Fr. Ambrose Criste, O. Praem. from St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado remarked, “The fact that none of the faithful can come here to participate in our liturgical life with us or to receive the Sacraments from us has been a tremendous sadness.”
Fr. Ambrose explained, “We [Norbertines] make a procession around the abbey grounds every day, carrying the relics of the Saints and singing the ancient Roman Litany against the plague, begging God to drive back this threat and to restore the Sacraments to God’s people.”
“We pray to be open to the lesson to be learned from the pandemic,” Father Paul Mark said. “Good always comes forth out of even evil and sinful events if we but listen to the work of God’s grace through these contradictory events. So we live in hope, and hope is the grace of this Paschal season of celebration. The Good News of Jesus Christ is hope and joy, whether in season or out of season.”
Full story at OC Catholic.
The Norbertine priests are amazing and holy priests. They have so many vocations to the priesthood that men are on wait lists. They teach the Truth and their order is thriving.
Amen!
St. Michael’s Abbey is a primary reason we remain in Southern California. We can count on their priests to conduct pious liturgies and proclaim the One True Faith. May God’s blessings continue to shower upon them!
Where we are true to Christ and the faith that comes from Him and the Apostles, we will get vocations: to the priesthood, religious life and holy matrimony.
No man I know wants to be some kind of glorified social worker in a Roman collar.
Only if the gospel is true is it worth giving one’s life to.
Good as the Norbertine priests are (praise God for them ) they fall short of the model priest Fr. James Altman of La Crosse Wi.
Topic here is their failure to understand, as he DOES, the role and power of a Christ-like homily.
I only bring this up because I am convinced that Altman’s greatness is in his thorough preparation and research of scripture that enable him to be such a fiery relevant preacher who sees where today’s events mirror those events of two thousand years ago. Example: At seventy six years of age I DO know the scripture stories well and feel I deserve better than to be told about them over and over again as if I didn’t already know. I need help in knowing where I fit in to them in my own life. Few priests even try. They set their sights low and fail to really inspire in bringing Christ’s teachings alive in our troubled times. Not to mention the fear most priests exhibit by avoiding difficult issues. “Preach the gospel at all times whether convenient or inconvenient.” Christ says.
Raise the bar dear priests. You can do it. God has a great stake in your success. Let Him do the talking for you. Trust. “ These are the best of times and the worst of times.”