Portsmouth Abbey

06/07/2026

The Feast of Corpus Christi invites us to contemplate the astonishing gift of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist. In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus fulfills His promise to remain with His people, nourishing us with His own Body and Blood and drawing us into communion with Him and with one another. This feast calls us not only to adore Christ in the Eucharist but also to become what we receive: His living presence in the world.

The hymn, Pange Lingua, composed by Thomas Aquinas for Corpus Christi, beautifully expresses this mystery. Its final verses, known as the Tantum Ergo, invite us to worship with faith what our senses cannot fully grasp. As we sing its words, we join generations of believers in giving praise to Christ, who humbly comes to us under the signs of bread and wine and remains with us until the end of the age.

06/01/2026

Today, we celebrate the dedication of the Church of Portsmouth Abbey, a sacred place that has stood for decades as the spiritual heart of the monastery and school community. Completed in 1960 and dedicated on June 1 of that year, the Abbey Church was built not merely as a structure of stone and wood, but as a visible sign of God’s dwelling among His people. Within its walls, generations of monks, students, faculty, alumni, and guests have gathered to pray the Divine Office, celebrate the Eucharist, and seek the quiet presence of the Lord. The dedication of a church reminds us that every Christian community is called to become a living temple of faith, holiness, and charity. As we give thanks for all those whose vision, labor, and sacrifice made this church possible, we also pray that Portsmouth Abbey may continue to be a place where hearts are formed in wisdom, prayer, and service to Christ. Ad multos annos!

05/31/2026

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, however, in Eastern Christianity there is no specific day set aside to celebrate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The Eastern Churches point out that they celebrate the Trinity every Sunday. Westerners do as well, we just set aside a special feast day for the purpose. In the West, Trinity Sunday, officially called “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity,” is one of the few celebrations of the Christian Year that commemorates a reality and doctrine rather than an event or person.

Holy Trinity Sunday is a solemn celebration of the belief in the revelation of one God, yet three divine persons. It was not uniquely celebrated in the early church, but as with many things the advent of new, sometimes heretical, thinking often gives the Church a moment in which to explain and celebrate its own traditions; things it already believes and holds dear. In the early 4th century when the A***n heresy was spreading, the early church, recognizing the inherent Christological and Trinitarian implications, prepared an Office of Prayer with canticles, responses, a preface, and hymns, to be recited on Sundays to proclaim the Holy Trinity. Pope John XXII (14th century) instituted the celebration as a feast for the entire Church; the celebration became a solemnity after the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.

05/27/2026

St. Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk born in the early sixth century who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597 and is regarded as the “Apostle to the English” and a founder of the English Church. Formerly prior of St. Andrew’s Abbey in Rome, he was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great in 595 to lead the Gregorian mission to Britain after the withdrawal of the Roman legions had left the region vulnerable and fragmented. Supported by Frankish rulers and clergy, Augustine arrived in Kent, where King Ethelbert welcomed the missionaries, converted to Christianity, and allowed them to preach freely and establish a monastery at Canterbury. Augustine converted many people, including thousands baptized on Christmas Day in 597, and helped establish the English Church by founding bishoprics at London and Rochester, recovering and restoring early Christian sites, and creating schools to train Anglo-Saxon clergy and missionaries. Known for his biblical knowledge and strong administrative leadership, Augustine also ensured continuity by consecrating Laurence as his successor before he died in 604, after which he was quickly honored as a saint by the people of Canterbury.

05/25/2026

St. Bede the Venerable was an English monk, scholar, teacher, and priest born in 673 near Jarrow, England, who became one of the most influential figures in early English Christianity. Educated under St. Benedict Biscop, he was ordained a deacon at nineteen and a priest at twenty-nine, dedicating his life to study, teaching, and writing. Best known for his work The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which earned him the title “Father of English History,” Bede also translated and interpreted Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers, making Christianity more accessible to the Anglo-Saxons. A gifted linguist, musician, and theologian, he wrote more than sixty surviving works and contributed to biblical scholarship. Declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899, Bede remained devoted to prayer and scholarship until his death on Ascension Day, May 26, 735, reportedly dictating his final sentence shortly before he died.

05/24/2026

Come, Holy Spirit, send forth the heavenly radiance of your light. Come, Father of the poor, come, giver of gifts, come, light of our hearts. O best of Consolers, sweet Guest of the soul, our sweet refreshment. In labor, you are rest; in heat, you are the coolness; in weeping, you are the comfort. O most blessed Light, fill the inmost heart of your faithful. Heal our wounds, renew our strength; on our dryness, pour your dew. Wash the stains of guilt away. Bend the stubborn heart and will, melt the frozen, warm the chill. Guide the steps that go astray. Amen.

05/15/2026

NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT (May 15th - Pentecost)
The Novena to the Holy Spirit is the oldest novena, first made at the direction of our Lord when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. It is the only novena officially prescribed by the Church.

The Novena to the Holy Spirit is the oldest novena, first made at the direction of our Lord when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. It is the only novena officially prescribed by the Church.

05/14/2026

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.
-Acts 6:1–12

05/11/2026

Saints Odo, Maieul, Odilo, Hugh and Blessed Peter the Venerable, Abbots of Cluny, Memorial.

These saints were among the original Abbots of Cluny, a monastery which became widely known, in its time and since, for its liturgical excellence.

Here is a prayer for the day: ‘O God, by whose grace thy servants, the Holy Abbots of Cluny, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became burning and shining lights in thy Church; grant that we also may be aflame with the same spirit of love and discipline, and ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, God, now and forever’.

May these saints pray for us in our own following of Christ, and may He bless you this day.

05/02/2026

The memorial of St. Athanasius reminds us that truth is worth defending, even at great personal cost. In the midst of controversy and exile, he remained faithful to the divinity of Christ and to the faith of the Church. His witness teaches us that courage in doctrine is not stubbornness, but love for the truth that leads to salvation.