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The Community of Gethsemani wishes everyone a very happy holiday season.

This year marks the first use of a new antiphonary, designed and produced by the monks of the abbey (see the previous news entry). It also marks the introduction of the new translation of the Roman Mass.

The beginning of Advent celebrates the beginning of a new chapter in salvation history, so it is appropriate that we celebrate other new events in our lives.

From St. Bernard's 1st Sermon of Advent:

...velim nosse ... quod ad nos venit ille, aut quare non magis ivimus nos ad illum... duplex erat impedimentum. Nam et caligabant oculi nostri: ille vero lucem habitat inaccessibilem; et jacentes paralytici in grabato divinam illam non poteramus attingere celsitudinem. Propterea benignissimus Salvator et medicus animarum descendit ab altitudine sua, et claritatem suam infirmis occulis temperavit.

I would like to know... why he came to us, and why instead we did not go to him... There were two impediments. First, our eyes were darkened, and he lived in "inapproachable light" (1 Tim 6:16). Second, we were lying like paralytics in our beds, and could not reach his divine loftiness. Therefore, our most gentle Saviour and Doctor of souls came down from his height and tempered his light to suit our feeble eyes.