ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Our Lord says in the Gospel: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” Faith in the divinity of Jesus is the basis of all spiritual life; but we must have a logical faith which surrenders us entirely to Him. In prayer, my dear child, give yourself often to Jesus Christ. You must cast yourself down in your utter nothingness before Him, that will do great good to your soul. Yield up to Christ your body, your soul, your intellect, your heart; tell Him that you want Him to make of you all that he wills; abandon yourself to Him, but do not forget that to give oneself entirely to Christ is to be also given to His mystical body, to our neighbor. BLESSED COLUMBIA MARMION Union With God

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: "Father, those whom you gave me are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me… Br. Daniel told me that soon after Peter died, while he was still in his room,before the funeral home arrived, a dove alighted on his window, and remained there for quite some time, looking in at Peter.   As we know the dove is a traditional symbol of the Holy Spirit. This appearance was particularly touching and fitting because the Holy Spirit was the object of special devotion to Fr. Peter and deeply linked to his monastic vocation. When he was sent off to the university by the monastery for further studies, his special area of study was the role of the Holy Spirit in the writings of William of St. Thierry, and this interest stayed with him throughout his monastic life. For it is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that the mysteries of Christ are opened to us, and of the Father, our origin an...

No beginner can ever drive away a thought if God does not drive it away. Only the strong are capable of struggling with them and banishing them. But even they do not achieve this by themselves, but with God's help rise up to wrestle with them, armed with his weapons. So, when thoughts come, call to our Lord Jesus, often and patiently, and they will retreat; for they cannot bear the warmth of the heart produced by prayer, and flee as if scorched by fire. John of the Ladder tells us to flog our foes with the name of Jesus; for our God is fire, devouring evil. The Lord is quick to help, and will speedily revenge those who wholeheartedly call to Him day and night. ST. GREGORY OF SINAI Philokalia, Instructions to Hesychasts

To see visible objects we need the eyes of the body. To understand intelligible truths we need the eyes of the mind. To have the vision of divine things we cannot do without faith. What the eye is for the body, faith is for reason. To be more precise; the eye needs the light which puts it in contact with visible things; reason needs faith to show it divine things. THEODORET The Cure of Pagan, Diseases 1, 78

SPENCER – Father Peter was born on November 25, 1942 to ethnic German parents, Karl and Elisabeth Schmidt, in the Moravian town of Mährisch-Trübau, now part of the Czech Republic. As the Russian army approached the area in 1945 after World War II ended, the entire family, including the five children, fled to Braunschweig, West Germany. As a schoolboy there, Peter often passed the 12 th century Cistercian Abbey of Riddagshausen, now a parish church, and it was those walks to the imposing structure that kindled in him a monastic vocation. In college he studied pedagogics, German literature and history. Post-graduate work continued with philosophy and theology classes in Salzburg, Austria. After completing his master’s degree in 1970, he went to the Trappist Cistercian Abbey of Mariawald in Heimbach, Germany, for a prolonged period of discernment. He entered the monastery that same year, taking the monastic name Gotthard. After professing temporary vows, he was sent to the University of...

‘Could not God make people perfect right at the beginning?’ someone may ask. Take the example of a very small child. The mother can give her baby grown-up food, but the baby is still unable to take adult nourishment. Similarly, God could have given humanity perfection right at the beginning, but humanity could not have received it because it was only a child. For that reason Our Lord, who sums up all things in himself, when he came on earth in these last days, came not in the full glory which he could have done, but in a form we could see. Certainly, he could have come in his imperishable glory, but we should not have been able to bear the greatness of his majesty. Therefore, like giving milk to infants, the perfect bread of the Father revealed himself to us on earth in human form, so that we might be nourished by his word like babes at the breast and so by degrees become strong enough to digest the whole word of God. IRENAEUS Against Heresies, 4,62