Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney visited Holy Face Monastery in Clifton, N.J., on July 11 to celebrate the Solemnity of St. Benedict with a Mass. The Sylvestrine Benedictine Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict administers the monastery, which stands atop a hill overlooking Route 3.
Bishop Sweeney was the main celebrant of the Mass. Sylvestrine monks at the monastery, including Father Damien Gjonaj, provincial, concelebrated the liturgy. After communion, Bishop Sweeney also blessed the congregation with relics of St. Benedict, founder of the Order of St. Benedict.
Visitors and pilgrimage groups visit Holy Face, a dependent house of St. Benedict Priory in Oxford, Mich., and a member of the Sylvestrine Congregation. The 18-acre grounds feature a monastic church, the Hall of Saints, various shrines, and the Stations of the Cross. The monastery offers Conventual Mass, Benediction and blessings, confessions, and veneration of the Holy Face and the Holy Shroud.
St. Benedict of Nursia was a monk and abbot who lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. He founded several monasteries and wrote the Rule of St. Benedict, which became fundamental for Western Monasticism. The Catholic Church venerates him as patron of Europe, according to osb.org.
The monks at Holy Face follow the essence of the Rule of St. Benedict, which signifies the Catholic monastic practice of working and praying, uniting contemplation with action.
