Christmas Greeting
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Christmas Greetings from the Monks of Mepkin

Many Blessings at Christmas and may your New Year be filled with the Peace that Christ brings to us all. About the photo: A triptych fashioned by more than 10,000 attendees of all ages of the 2024 Creche Festival, in celebration…
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Thy Father's Hand
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A New Year’s Message

by Father Joseph Tedesco. Superior of Mepkin Abbey Dear Friends,  The image of “Thy Father’s Hand” by Garland Weeks, as the focus of our newly inaugurated Meditation Garden of Truth and Reconciliation, invites us to ponder…
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Reflections on the Meaning of Advent and Christmas
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Thomas Merton: Reflections on the Meaning of Advent and Christmas

Advent, a season of special grace, is a time set aside to prepare to receive Jesus more fully at Christmas. Advent is about readying one's heart to cradle the One who will be born anew when the Nativity feast is celebrated once again. Advent…
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From Father Joe – Superior of Mepkin Abbey
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From Father Joe – Superior of Mepkin Abbey

As the Book of Ecclesiastes so aptly proclaims in 3: 1: “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every activity under the heavens.” Time has come to make some appointment changes in our monastic leadership positions.  After…
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John Main Seminar 2025 — “Integral Christianity: The Vision of Celtic Christianity for the Crisis of the 21st Century”
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John Main Seminar 2025

John Main Seminar 2025 — “Integral Christianity: The Vision of Celtic Christianity for the Crisis of the 21st Century” 6–9 November • Balally Parish, Dublin (also available online) Join us for the annual gathering led by…
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Suffering

Suffering

Early in May 2025, Jude Brady offered a reflection entitled “To Love Is To Suffer”. While not a unique statement, his thoughts come from the perspective of one seriously ill, facing uncertainty, and grateful for the opportunity to reflect…
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PYX-elated

PYX-elated

Recently I was charged to function as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion - what sometimes is called a Eucharistic minister. Realizing I was carrying a small container, a box, a pyx containing the consecrated host, I asked, “just…
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22nd Annual Crèche Festival
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22nd Annual Crèche Festival (2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTBJ1MRnb8Y November 17-22 and November 28-December 6, 2025 Mondays-Saturdays only “Nativity in Wood and with Wood” The Mepkin Abbey Crèche Festival is a self-guided walking tour of…
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Welcome home from the general chapter
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Father Joe, Welcome Home From the General Chapter

We welcome Father Joe home from the general chapter of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance.  Every three years all the superiors of our men’s and women’s monasteries gather in Italy (at Assisi) to fulfill their service…
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Sister Maureen, OCSO, of Wrentahm gives our 2025 Retreat
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Sister Maureen, OCSO, of Wrentahm gives our 2025 Retreat

Sister Maureen McCabe Sister Maureen McCabe of Mount Saint Mary Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts, was with us August 17th to 23rd to give our annual retreat.  Having served her community for a number of years as novice director…
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Answering The Call
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Answering the Call, Fr. Francis Kline OCSO

The following is an excerpt from Fr. Francis Kline's monastic autobiography, written in 1987, three years before he was elected Mepkin Abbey’s third Abbot. In it, he describes his struggle to answer the call to a religious life and the…
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