On the afternoon of Saturday, 10 July, the vigil of the feast of Our Holy Father Saint Benedict, the Loper family -- Dr. Tracy (an Oblate of the monastery), his wife Rebecca, and their sons Antonio, and Nicholas -- arrived at the monastery to present us with a gift. You can imagine our astonishment and our joy when they asked us to go into the oratory, and Antonio unveiled a magnificent icon of Saint Benedict. The Loper family commissioned this icon for our monastery. It now hangs on the Epistle side of the sanctuary.
We gathered around the new icon and sang an antiphon from the Office Saint Benedict:
O thou pattern of life celestial,
our Teacher, and Leader Benedict,
whose spirit now rejoices with Christ in the heavens:
preserve thy flock, kindly Shepherd;
strengthen them by thy holy prayer;
and on a way made clear by thee their guide,
make them enter heaven.
(Antiphon on Magnificat at Second Vespers)
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