Fr: Las Vegas - Thank you sharing. St. Michael’s Abbey is responsible for my spiritual growth thru prayers and spiritual study. Been a member for more than 20 yrs as Lay Order Premontre and my youngest son studied for 5 yrs in St. Michael’s Prep school. God bless you all.
Thank you for featuring this, l never knew about this order but l just heard about it because one of my fellow parishioner is now a Norbertine priest. Thank you for this.
I was not familiar with the Norbertine's. I do think their mission to reform( so to speak) clergy is a good thing to do. However their new facilities are quite massive. Which of course took many many funds to build. And now they are asking for more money??? EWTN is world renoun and yet their facilities are not near as massive. I can't help think was the building project of the Norbertine's abit over zealous. It doesn't seem very self mortifying to me. God bless them and God's speed in "reforming" or monitoring the clergy. But Saint Francis is one of the holiest Saints and he didn't insist nor accept such opulence. Just my opinion.
I love these priests. I know many of them. They are the best! Very faithful, charitable, and courageous. If you don’t wish to donate, don’t. 2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
One key difference between them and EWTN's facilities would be that most workers at EWTN do not live there. The monastery is so large because it needs to house all of the men. Also, since a key part of a monastic lifestyle is silence, each monk normally has their own cell which allows them more solitude and silence to foster their prayer life. The Church has always seen beauty as an attribute of God, and hence beautiful buildings not as opulence but as something which can help draw the soul to God. I have never been to St. Michael's, but from my experience of other religious congregations, would venture to bet that the individual monks' cells and objects for daily use are quite simple. Mortification does not necessarily mean living in squalor.
