Come Let Us Adore : St. Gregory's Abbey, 1999-2011

Since their founding as St. Gregory's Priory in Valparaiso, Indiana in 1939, the monks of St. Gregory's have published newsletters to share community news and reflections on the Christian life. In 1999, they published a collection of photos and articles from their newsletters calledSinging God's Praises: The First Fifty Years. This successor volume brings together thoughtful articles and evocative photos published over the next twelve years that explore the spiritual journey as lived through the Rule of St. Benedict and celebrate the seasons of Christmas and Easter with meditations on their deeper meaning. Ideal reading for strengthening the heart for prayer.The articles collected here are written by the monks of Saint Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan, the home of a community of men living under the Rule of Saint Benedict within the Episcopal Church.The editor, Andrew Marr, has been the community's abbot since 1989.

In highlighting Jesus' vulnerability in these ways, the story of Jesus' birth challenges us to examine our attitude to our own vulnerability and the vulnerability of others. In contrast with the Word made flesh, we usually do not wish to be vulnerable in any way, and we do everything possible to avoid it. In the process of trying to make ourselves invulnerable, we usually end up preying on the vulnerability of other people. It is, then, all the more amazing that the one Being in the universe who really is invulnerable chooses to be vulnerable, even to extent of being born in harsh circumstances and dying under circumstances harsher still. If we despise vulnerability in ourselves, do we then despise vulnerability in others? Even, or especially, if it is God who is vulnerable? Do we choose to welcome and protect the vulnerable Christ Child as did Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi? Does the image of a newborn babe lying in a feeding trough make us wish to do something about it?