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Brother Sixtus updates us on the summer, including a transferal of vows of stability from Saint Louis to Portsmouth, ongoing renovations literal and metaphorical, as well as the long-awaited return of Days of Recollection for the oblate community.

This issue marks our return to monthly publication for summer (June, July, August). The monastery anticipates a wave of renovation, a series of conferences and retreats both online and in-person, and a return to less restricted liturgical life.

On Saturday, May 1, inside the choir area of the Abbey church, two young men were clothed in the black habits of the Benedictines and took new religious names denoting their desire to put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge. Br. Sixtus Roslevich introduces us to the new novices, Brother Basil Piette and Brother Christian Matson.

Prior Michael offers a message for Easter: “I think about contrasts. This week’s Easter liturgy begins with a contrast. In the darkness of the night of Holy Saturday, we light a fire outside and then bring that fire into the Church. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, has risen from the dead.”

The monastery recently completed its full, three-year accreditation with Praesidium, an accrediting agency specializing in abuse prevention and the safeguarding of minors. We explain further this important process for the monastery.

While it may have been but a brief eight weeks, our Manquehue friends see great significance in their time with us this winter. Rosario, Berni, Trini, and Teresa have found many highpoints in their Portsmouth experience.

Brother Sixtus Roslevich reflects on his long connection with the Manquehue Apostolic Movement, particularly through the lens of his retreat in Patagonia in 2002. He tells us that his journey, strengthened by lectio divina and impacted by a powerful conversion experience, and enriched through encounters with Abbot Patrick Barry, founder Jose Manuel Eguiguren, and others of the Movement, had an undeniable impact on his monastic vocation.

In offering his greetings and best wishes for 2021, Prior Michael Brunner reflects on the passage of time, and our orientation to time through the birth of Christ. He encourages us to make the best of this new chapter of 365 days.

Prior Michael calls our attention to theosis, the theology of “divinization” popular in eastern Christianity. We speak such a language in the Mass as well, when we pray in light of God’s humbling Himself in taking on our humanity, that we may “come to share in the divinity of Christ.” This prayer in the Mass points to the Incarnation and leads us to consider the feast of Christmas.

It is with faith in the promises of Christ that we share with you the news of the passing of Reverend Dom Julian Stead O.S.B.'43, monk and priest of Portsmouth Abbey and alumnus of Portsmouth Priory School. Fr. Julian died early on the morning of Dec 23rd, 2020 at St. Clare-Newport where he had been in residence for the past several years. Please join us in praying for the repose and eternal happiness of Fr. Julian.

Brother Sixtus Roslevich reminds us to beware the Ides of March, notorious from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. And precisely a half-year later, this year’s Third Sunday of Advent, six months into our extended pandemic restrictions, comes his latest update.

Brother Sixtus Roslevich reflects on images associated with Advent, seemingly one of the comparatively simpler, more quiet of liturgical seasons. Pitting the Advent wreath against the Christmas Star, the Magi, or even the dreidel or menorah, we find the season understated in its mode of anticipation - but no less significant in the formative memories it contains for us.

While noting that Saint Benedict does not mention Advent, Prior Michael tells us that, “the whole spirit of the Rule is to be a guide for making one’s whole life an Advent looking forward to union with Jesus Christ by living a radical Christ-like life.” And in this year’s season, muted and subdued in our time of pandemic, “the joy of anticipation has an edge to it.” In his Advent message, the Prior invites us to enter into this forward-looking season of preparation. 

Brother Sixtus Roslevich, in an October note to oblates and friends of Portsmouth Abbey, offers a reflection on the theme of "words." Inspired by his interaction with some of the texts he has found in his inherited office in the monastery, and their physical link to the community's past, the very tangible experience of words elicits his own attempt to verbalizing an experience of words, of the Word, and of what may be beyond words.

In offering an assessment of our present circumstances, Father Michael draws on Robert F. Kennedy, as well as Grandmaster Flash. The latter, for the uninitiated, wrote the 1982 hit song, "The Message," with its most famous line: "Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge…" The first comment currently posted beneath a Youtube clip of the song (are footnotes needed for that citation?): "This song is SO the cut for RIGHT NOW!" Fr. Michael offers some RFK hit quotations from the 1960's which also address our present moment with unsettling clarity, calling for, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., "not division…, not hatred…; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another."

A letter from Oblate Director to the greater Abbey community with his recent reflection and some updates.

An update from Br. Sixtus for the July issue of the Current.

Today, on the Memorial of the martyrs St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, we share an Open Letter to the Portsmouth Abbey Community from Prior Administrator Fr. Michael Brunner, O.S.B., on behalf of the School and Monastery.

In an update this week, Brother Sixtus Roslevich comments on various “signs” we might seek at this time: “A popular song from my first year of university had an earworm refrain that went: ‘Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?’