Friday, April 17, 2009

Welcome to the blog!

The main purpose of this blog is to assist those attempting to say some or all of the traditional Benedictine Monastic Office through the provision of Ordos and instructions on how to say the Office.

A disclaimer

I've said the Benedictine Office now for five years (and the traditional Roman Office on and off for quite some time before that), and have spent some time visiting traditional Benedictine monasteries, so I'm fairly familiar with it. But if you think I've got it wrong, please do chip in and correct me!

And if you think you've got some material that may be of use to others interested in this topic, please do contact me.

Dedication

In 1969 the English historian Dom David Knowles, surveying the disastrous exodus of monks and nuns from their monasteries resulting from the drastic changes made to their lives under the guise of the renewal of monastic life, wrote:

"..if a particular generation (even though it be our own) destroys it or disfigures it, it will return again when saints arise to show its nobility to the modern world."

This blog is dedicated to those who would be such saints, labouring in the vineyards of monasteries such as Le Barroux, Fontgambault, Flavigny, Jouques and Clear Creek to preserve the Benedictine charism.

3 comments:

expat said...

Thanks for this, Terra!

I look forward to using this great new resource.
I appreciate all your hard work in putting this together.

Anonymous said...

Can you give me a reference for the Dom David Knowles quotation,please ? Thanks. Alan Robinson

Kate Edwards said...

Alan - Its from Christian Monasticism (NY, McGraw-hill, 1969), p244.