AD CENAM AGNI

Day Nineteen | The Great Fast

No one can come to the knowledge of God, except through humility. Today, as we fast, let us do so in an effort to grow in humility.

Live: Paschal Vespers 2023

He is RISEN! Join us for Vespers every Sunday during Easter.

Fixing Your Gaze on Eternity

An Easter message from Abbot Hayes, O.Praem.

The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Worthy and fruitful holy communions increase our faith in the rising of Christ and the hope of our own rising on the last day. Such faith answers the deepest need of the human heart; such belief is itself a witness and proclamation—heart speaking to heart, deep calling on deep.

The Exsultet: The Easter Proclamation

Let us exult! The Exsultant is a powerful chant--a true expression of joy sung on the cusp of Easter Sunday.

Tenebrae, 2023

The liturgy of Tenebrae (Latin for "darkness"), which dates back to the ninth century, is a special expression of Matins and Lauds unique to Holy Week.

The Paschal Candle Column

Lent concludes, at last, with the Exsultet--an audacious celebration that is honored in the abbey's Paschal Column.

Holy Saturday: A Blessed Night, A Glorious Night

Truly this is a blessed night, a glorious night, when the catastrophic fall of mankind in Adam is revealed in the New Adam to be a happy fault. This is the night whose wonder gleams as bright as the day. 

Helping Him Die

It was in this Gospel, the Passion according to John, that we heard that the Mother of Jesus stood at the foot of the cross, so close that He could speak to her, in an agonizing rasp, and expect to be heard. Ask yourself for a moment, How is it possible that any mother in such a situation could actually stand?!

Crux Fidelis

During the veneration of the Holy Cross, we sing the text of "Crux Fidelis" to profess our faith in Our Lord's Passion.

Popule Meus by Palestrina, Explained

Fr. Edmund guides us through Palestrina's Popule Meus, a striking piece of polyphony and a favorite of Vatican liturgists since the 16th century.

Good Friday: No Answer

We have no excuse for our ungrateful rejection of His kindness. The liturgy’s only answer to His reproaches is to beg for mercy, from the Greek East to the Latin West

Vexilla Regis

"The Royal Banner forward goes..." This begins the Vexilla Regis, sung during Passiontide to mark the sublimity and victory of the Cross.

Holy Thursday: As He Has Loved Us

“A new commandment I give you: love one another…” For this to make sense, we must love ourselves, and love ourselves rightly.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

A Hymn of Grief

By listening to the simple tone and absorbing the tragic sentiment of Tenebrae, we enter more deeply into the wonderful mystery of the Lord’s saving passion and death.

The Chanted Passion of Holy Week

The Chanted Passion is a treasure of the Church, an inspiration to countless composers.

Palm Sunday Vespers

The Norbertine Chant of the Stabat Mater

Sung to honor Our Lady of Sorrows, the Stabat Mater is perhaps one of the most recognizable Lenten chants.

Journey with Christ Through the Triduum Liturgies

We encounter Christ's Passion in every Mass, but the liturgies of Holy Week make the reality of Christ's Passion so clear to us.

Blood of Christ, Save Us

The Blood of Christ is a mystery of total victory over all that could trouble us in life. This Blood is the hope of the penitent, the relief of the burdened, the peace and tenderness of hearts, our solace in sorrow, and will be finally our consolation when we are dying.

This Rivulet of Red

A meditation -- through art, liturgy, and hymn -- on the Sacred Blood.

This Blood Is Christ

“This is the Chalice of My Blood, of the New and Eternal Covenant which will be poured out for you and for many…” How many times have we knelt at Holy Mass when these words were pronounced by the priest over the wine?

March 26 | Lenten Sunday Vespers

Join us for Vespers every Sunday during Lent.

An Echoing Fiat

The feast of the Annunciation celebrates the very moment in which the divine and human natures came together in Jesus Christ.

The Veiling of Sacred Images in Passiontide

In a counterintuitive action, the Church has us veil the images that depict Christ and the saints during Passiontide. If we are focusing on His Passion, why are we veiling these images?

A Wonderful Exchange

God becoming man is only one side of the equation. He became one with us so that we could become one with him. God became man so that men might become gods.

True God and True Man

As unimaginable as it may seem, the unchanging God has taken to himself a human nature in order to suffer like us and for us.

March 19 | Lenten Sunday Vespers

Join us for Vespers every Sunday during Lent.

Why Did God Have to Die?

Is it true that Our Lord's Crucifixion is also the death of God? And did Jesus really have to die for our sins?

Preparing for a Happy Death

The very structure of the daily prayers in an abbey helps remind the religious of impending death. We have to foresee this moment by preparing well, being vigilant, ready.

March 12 | Lenten Sunday Vespers

Join us for Vespers every Sunday during Lent.

Hail Mary

The practice of Christian contemplation can eventually permeate our every moment, readying us for the life of heaven.

Sacred Art and the Paschal Mystery

Art's ability to unite and engage the heart and mind helps us enter in a deeper way into the mysteries of our Faith.

Come Holy Spirit

God, the principal Author of Scripture, knows all times and souls in one eternal moment. The Word of God truly had you in mind when he inspired the ancient prophets to hide his infinite wisdom within human words.

Bless Us, O Lord

Even the Old Testament passages that at first appear to be tedious “filler” become beautiful when we understand them as types of Christ!

God, Come to My Assistance

This spiritual sense is more than just foreshadowing and symbolism; any good writer can do that. But because God is the Author not only of the Bible, but of Nature and of History, he can make the things described to really be signs of other things!

A Reading From...

These are not just edifying stories, but the solid, really historical foundation through which God prepared and worked out our salvation! 

Lenten Sunday Vespers

Join us for Vespers every Sunday during Lent.

Getting Back Up

God does not bless human sin, but he is more than willing to pick up children who try and fail.