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Br. Robert takes care to keep kindled his fire of incense as the lazy smoke beatifies sunlight streaming through stained glass windows.

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R.I.P. Father Peter Schmidt, OCSO

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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...
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Homily — Solemnity of St. Benedict

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We celebrate the Solemnity of our monastic Father, St. Benedict of Nursia, who, in the sixth century, gave us the Christ-centered Rule by which thousands of monks and nuns have lived through the centuries and by which we live here at St. Joseph’s Abbey. People might be tempted to ask what relevance a sixth century rule could have for the 21 st century. Pope Leo XIV seems convinced of its relevance not only to monks but to all people. In the recent (May 2026) encyclical On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo writes, (quote)“Since the emergence of her Social Doctrine, the Church has emphasized the protection of workers and the need to combat all forms of exploitation. Above all, the Magisterium has recognized in work ‘the essential key’ to understanding the entire social question, since it is through work that individuals develop many dimensions of their existence. In view of this, we can understand the great intuition of Saint Benedict of Nurs...
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