Coming down the hill on either side of the valley from the West, or turning the corner at the end of the valley from the East, you catch an occasional glimpse, between obstructing trees, of Pluscarden Abbey. There it stands, in the middle of nowhere, in this gentle and fertile valley: a mediaeval monastery. Somehow the sight is always both astonishing and stirring.
A Nigerian Nun at Pluscarden
Two First Monastic Professions
Homily for the Feast of SS. Peter & Paul, 29 June 2021
In Chapter 57 of the Holy Rule, St. Benedict briefly discusses the skilled craftsmen of the monastery. His concern is that they avoid falling into either pride or avarice because of their work. He rounds off this Chapter by quoting a line from St. Peter’s first Letter, Chapter 4: ...that in all things God may be glorified (1 Pt 4:11). This line has often been taken as summing up not just monastic work, but the whole of monastic life, indeed of the Christian life itself. Let us say today also, this could fittingly sum up the lives of SS. Peter and Paul.