A Benedictine Monastery in the Heart of DC
Rt. Rev. Dom James Wiseman, OSBAmazingly, up here near the north-east boundary of the District of Columbia, twelve minutes by Metro from Union Station and twenty minutes from the Capitol is a real traditional monastery where monks live the life of prayer established by our 6th century founder St. Benedict and where we continue that life and the aspirations of our founder for the glory of God and the sanctification of the nation and the world.
Here within an urban oasis of 40 acres of secluded woodland, the sounds of the city are virtually unheard. Here too stand our prestigious academic High School and close by the Catholic University of America where monks still teach alongside their lay colleagues, and the values of our patrons, St. Benedict and St. Anselm, are proclaimed among our youth to the glory of God and the wonder of the modern world.
Sometimes we are referred to as “Washington’s best kept secret”; perhaps this is because monks are not naturally given to the more ostentatious ways of projecting themselves upon the surrounding world. Monasteries are power-houses of prayer and virtue, and our evangelization is precisely by prayer, spiritual direction and education, so we invite you to share our “secret”. We invite you “come and see”.
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First & Third Saturdays with the Monks Join the the monks for a talk on a theme specified for the day, along with a period of private meditation in the church, evening prayer, supper, night prayer, a Marian litany procession, and reflection together on the Sunday readings.
Catholic Freedom in the Modern World Seminar Join Dom Dunstan Robidoux and others on May 19, 2012 for the second meeting of this seminar. You may even participate via Skype. Continue reading to learn more about how to prepare for this session.
Fr. John’s Memoir |
March 17, 2012 Come & See Monastic Experience Weekend The spring Come & See Monastic Experience Weekend was attended by Jacob Lehmann and by Robert Langford, presently living in the DC area...
February 25, 2012 Alumni Day of Recollection An Alumni Day of Recollection at the Abbey, the first, was attended by 16 alumni and spouses. Fr. Peter Weigand was the celebrant and homilist at the Mass for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday...
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May 6, 2012 | Fr. Hilary Fifth Sunday of Easter Let us recall the first words of our Opening Prayer: “Almighty ever-living God, constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us...” How can God “constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us?”
April 29, 2012 | Fr. Joseph Fourth Sunday of Easter Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is designated "Good Shepherd Sunday." The Fourth Sundays of all three cycles (i.e., Cycles A, B, and C) have gospels from the 10th chapter of St. John; all of them deal with Christ as the Good Shepherd...
April 21, 2012 | Abbot James Solemnity of St. Anselm Unlike so many important figures of the early Middle Ages about whose life we know relatively little, for Anselm we are blessed with the biography that was written by his fellow monk Eadmer, who learned so much from conversations with Anselm himself,...
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