For centuries, Benedictines have safeguarded the soul of civilization. Now, the monks of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey are stewarding this ancient and vital tradition for our age—right here in America.
We must hold each other in prayer.
This is the work of the universal Church. Even as Benedictines lift up the world in prayer, we rely on the prayers of the faithful to advance this holy work of God.
Just as a light shines against the darkness, the Benedictine tradition illuminates, spreads, and endures.
A Call to Eternity
In every age, God calls souls apart to leave behind the fleeting, and to seek what is eternal. To a few, He gives the grace to surrender all for the sake of a life wholly given to Him.
A Call to Radiance
Monastic life is hidden from the world, but radiant in the eyes of heaven. It is quiet, but deeply purposeful—offering prayer, work, and hospitality in service to God. This is a life marked by silence, stability, and sacrifice. To answer such a call is not to retreat from the world, but to offer one’s life for its sanctification.
Beacons of Light
In an age of ruin and unrest, Benedictine monasteries preserved what the world was losing—sacred texts, learning, craftsmanship, the rhythm of Christian life. They taught by example, tilling the soil, forming the young, welcoming the stranger, and sanctifying the day through labor and prayer.
A Life Ordered to Worship
But the Benedictines gave the Church something even greater: a life ordered entirely toward the worship of God. Their monasteries were built not only to withstand time, but to sanctify it—to be places where the fire of worship could burn without interruption. In every age, and on every continent.
Every labor, every silence, every note of chant was ordered toward the altar—toward that one place where earth is lifted to heaven. And at the heart of it all rises the sacred liturgy, the Divine Office, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Kingdoms have fallen and empires have faded, but the light of monastic life continues to burn—quiet, steady, and unafraid.
Ora et Labora
This is the quiet and necessary work of monasteries, as relevant and beautiful as ever. Benedictines are still building monasteries, and young men still journey to them to surrender everything. They come to kneel, to serve, to keep watch at the altar, so that the light of prayer may never go dark.
The Work Continues
Holiness is not of another time, nor of another place: beauty still saves, prayer still sanctifies, and God still calls us, here and now.
By participating in this work, Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey is part of this worthy heritage. In the old world, and in the new world; in the ancient monasteries, and in those (like ours) just now being built, this fire is still burning in silence, still illuminating the path to God.
This is the life that once renewed a broken world. And by God’s grace it may do so again.
Please visit the website of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey to learn more and to support the monks’ work.
Photos and text courtesy of Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey.