The Current

What are the Fifty Catholic Churches to See Before You Die? As we enter this month of commemorations, of considerations of death and of our hopes of a heavenly inheritance, perhaps such a theme is appropriate to consider, to ponder a part of our heavenly inheritance here on earth. The British journalist Elena Curti recently published a book with this title, on churches in her own country. She invites readers, as Archbishop George Stack notes in his foreword,  to not miss these “great architectural treasures of England and Wales, yet hardly known and rarely explored.” We find many parish churches on her list, as well as several English Benedictine sites. Curti has written for "The Tablet" for nearly twenty years, including many articles on church heritage and preservation. She notes to Crux: “I’m hoping that my book will encourage many more people to visit not just the 50 but do some exploring of their own.” The Current decided to take this cue and do its own exploring, posing the question to our monastic community: which churches might make your list? Do you have a “top three” churches you would propose, that people might like to visit, that may have particular significance to you? We excluded our own Abbey’s Church of Saint Gregory the Great, while it may well hold pride of place on such a list, and sought beyond our own cloister what holy places made the lists of our monks.

Prior Michael Brunner's homily this past Sunday addressed the parable of the talents, and pointed to the call to give thanks. "At the beginning of Mass, we admitted our faults, failures and sins. Eucharist , what we are celebrating, means thanksgiving, and that’s what we are really here for. To rejoice, to thank God for the gifts of life and the gift of his love, the gift of his son. We thank God that we know about all this, that he feeds us in this sacrament so we can love as He does, so we can grow in His life and love and be ready to enter His kingdom whenever He calls us." Facing the conclusion of a difficult season impacted by the pandemic and its restrictions, he offered his farewells for the extended break and reminded the school community to be thankful for the gifts of the term. And as we also approach the conclusion of a liturgical year and thankfully look forward to Advent, he noted that we never can know how much time together we have. Prior Michael sees in the parable a lesson of a call to use in our present moment  the talents God has invested in us. (Read the full homily and others here).

The week brings us to year's end, beginning with the Solemnity of Christ the King, and ending with the vigil of Advent I. Our readings turn to the eschaton, the final days, mirroring the final days of the liturgical calendar. We also recall this week saints whose personal "final days" mark the glory of their witness: one of the martyrs of the very early church in Clement I (November 23), and some of the hundreds of thousands of martyrs of Vietnam of the nineteenth century, such as Andrew Dung-Lac (November 24). May the power of their faith invigorate our own as we turn to the preparations and hopes of Our Lord's Advent. You can find our weekly and monthly saints in "This Week in Heaven."