Brother Sixtus Roslevich led the Portsmouth Oblates in an Advent Day of Recollection for the First Sunday of Advent. In addition to the Mass and the Divine Office, the oblates heard his presentation of this upcoming Jubilee celebration and on the practice of opening a Holy Door.

Sixty years ago, the First Sunday of Advent in 1964 inaugurated the introduction of the use of the vernacular in the Mass, though dioceses the United States were afforded extended additional time to implement the change. In “The Portsmouth Bulletin” of the Fall of that year, Prior Aelred Graham offers some brief reflections on this development.

Our “Artists of the Abbey” column moves from visual art to the spoken and written word this week, as Br. Sixtus Roslevich introduces many of us to the poet John Fandel, who in the 1950’s was a junior monk at Portsmouth, known as Brother Giles. He remained an oblate of the monastery and is buried in the monastic cemetery.