Archbishop of Canterbury Effectively Endorses Theme of June 10-12 Portsmouth Institute!

Posted by David Moran | June 1, 2011

June 1, 2011

Just ten days before the Portsmouth Institute convenes its 2011 Conference on The Catholic Shakespeare?, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has inserted himself into the controversy by saying in an interview that he believed William Shakespeare to have been a Catholic.

“For what it’s worth I think he probably had a Catholic background and a lot of Catholic friends and associates…How much he believed in it, or what he did about it, I don’t quite know..but there are things in his plays you can’t understand without understanding the notions of forgiveness and free grace…The mysteriousness is part of what the plays are all about.  That seems impossible without something of the sacred.”

The Portsmouth Institute (www.portsmouthinstitute.org) convenes at Portsmouth Abbey on Friday June 10.  Among the speakers are Abbot Aidan Bellenger of Downside Abbey in the UK, Clare Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, and the dean of Catholic Shakespeare studies, Father Peter Milward S.J., who is traveling from Japan to give the keynote address on Saturday evening.  Other events include an orchestral concert of music associated with Shakespeare on Friday evening, an adaptation of Hamlet at the newly renovated Newport Casino Theatre on Saturday afternoon, and the Byrd Mass for Five Voices on Sunday morning at 9:30.  For a complete listing of speakers and events and to register, please go to the website or call (401) 643-1244 or email (cwaterman@portsmouthabbey.org) Cindy Waterman.

Of Dr. Williams remarks, Portsmouth Institute director James MacGuire commented, “It was kind of His Grace to endorse our little conference across the pond, and I am of course extending an invitation to him to join us for what promises to be an edifying and inspirational weekend on the beautiful shores of Narragansett Bay.  Needless to say, we invite all others who might be interested to do so as well.”

Contact: Cindy Waterman cwaterman@portsmouthabbey.org (401) 643-1244


From the Director of the Portsmouth Institute

Posted by David Moran | May 26, 2011

Let me echo David’s kind words and urge you all to join us for what promises to be our best conference ever.  In addition to the Byrd Mass on Sunday, June 12th, we will be presenting a Shakespeare Concert with works by Walton (the Henry V Suite) and Tschaikovsky (the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture) on Friday evening, June 10th.  Also, on Saturday afternoon, we will be traveling by bus to the newly renovated, Stanford White-designed Newport Casino Theatre for an adaptation of Hamlet by Theatre of the Word and narrated by Joseph Pearce.  These events will complement the outstanding array of scholars we are bringing from around the country “and the great globe itself,” such as Abbot Aidan Bellenger from Downside and Father Peter Milward S.J. from Japan, Clare Asquith and many others.  There is ample time, as well, at Portsmouth for prayer, fellowship, good food and cheer, and the opportunity to enjoy our beautiful setting on the shores of Narragansett Bay, so by all means do please contact Cindy Waterman at (401) 643-1244 or cwaterman@portsmouthabbey.org and plan to join us.  We look forward to welcoming you!

Jamie MacGuire ‘70

Director

Portsmouth Institute


The Catholic Shakespeare?

Posted by David Moran | May 19, 2011

The third annual Portsmouth Institute will be held here June 10-12 on the topic The Catholic Shakespeare? Scholars from around the world will be discussing this fascinating topic, and sojourns to Newport, scenes from the plays, and beautiful liturgies featuring the sublime music of William Byrd have been prepared for the attendees. We hope those of you who are interested in things Portsmouth Abbey will consider coming.  Our own Father Damian has put together a Shakespeare exhibit for the event, and the rest of the community is eager to meet and get to know the attendees during this relaxed but stimulating weekend.  It is a late spring here at Portsmouth — by the 10th of June the place should be alive with the natural beauty the monks have been cultivating since 1919. Come see us at our best!

David Moran


Portsmouth Abbey Monastery Site Is Well Received

Posted by David Moran | April 27, 2011

Well, it has been an exciting 10 days since the publication of the New York Times article about our efforts to promote vocations to this monastery. We have heard from 25,000 persons around the world; have nearly 100 sign-ups for our newsletter; our facebook visits are up 2000%; we did an interview with the local Providence RI television Channel 12; we  have a score of visit requests needing to be qualified; and were even mentioned on CBS News.

I was able to take some video of our Good Friday service — Abbot Caedmon’s homily is wonderful in its calm explanation of the liturgy, and the School singing the Lord’s Prayer in Latin is so us that I included it in its entirety.  When our students go on their Rome pilgrimage and are in St. Peter’s Square for the Pope’s blessing, they are among the learned few who can join in with the Pope’s Latin. (The audio is much better with headphones, I find.)

I will be posting in a day or two more video, this time from the Easter Vigil; my editing skills are those of an amateur, so please be charitable.

We are intensely grateful for the help of Partners+simons all the way through from concept creation to their unstinting help this past week.  They are not only remarkably creative and resourceful, but also cheerfully patient with your untutored, though learning, blogger. If you like our website, you like them.


If you’re a Catholic, you need to know when it is dark outside!

Posted by David Moran | March 24, 2011

One of the things I like about the Catholic Church is that it doesn’t make many exceptions. Take the Easter Vigil, for example.  This solemn celebration of the Resurrection, everyone knows, occurs on the evening before Easter Sunday. But because of the vagaries of the lunar calendar, this year Easter is very late – April 24.  So when does evening occur?

Well, the Church wants the service to be performed and completed in darkness. Our Easter Vigil at Portsmouth has usually been at 8pm, but Abbot Caedmon has moved it back to 8:30pm this year so that we will really be in darkness when it starts. The theme of light penetrating the darkness will be more authentic and dramatic, as the Church intended when it laid down this rule.  I haven’t been at Portsmouth Abbey for Holy Week since 1971, so I am looking forward to it.  The whole School will be there; and we will have a short reception immediately after the Vigil, in celebration of the Resurrection.


Welcome to the Portsmouth Abbey Blog

Posted by David Moran | March 21, 2011

Welcome to the premiere of the Portsmouth Abbey blog. My name is David Moran and I am the Director of the Monastic Renewal Program Office at Portsmouth. The purpose of this blog, and the primary purpose of this website, is to assist in attracting vocational visits to our monastery, established here in 1919. The monks have been the sponsor of Portsmouth Abbey School, the leading coeducational Catholic boarding school in America, since 1926.

We will do our best to make any blog posts interesting and perhaps occasionally provocative. We do ask that responses to our posts be informed by relevance and Christian charity.

To give you a sense of what a vocational visit to Portsmouth Abbey may be like, I would like to quote from two communications recently received. I will quote them at length.

“Father Abbot,

May the Lord give you his peace. Many thanks for your generous hospitality over the past week. Attending your prayer schedule and meals has given me a wonderful structure to the period of silence which was much needed following this past semester at the seminary. You are a wonderful set of monks at service to the Church through your presence here. I do hope that your trip to the FOCUS conference will be fruitful. May 2011 be a year of hope as you will continue in my prayers as I return to New York.”

“Father Abbot, Fathers, and Brothers,

I want to thank you for such a peaceful and joyous retreat in preparation for my (God-willing) priestly ordination on June 11, 2011. I found the praying of the Divine Office very beautiful and deeply reverent. I also enjoyed the great fraternity and your welcome-ness on my part. Most of all, this community exemplifies Benedictine hospitality in such a way that it is completely natural, not overbearing, and immediate. It was as if you could know the help or direction I needed even before I myself was aware that I needed it! I loved absorbing the wisdom of you all at evening coffee and I want to especially thank Brother Francis for his constant, patient direction while praying the Office in the stalls, and Father Julian for the daily spiritual direction he provided for me. Know of my prayers, especially that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Benedict, and St. Gregory, the Lord may send more and more vocations to this Abbey!”

We do make a regular practice of welcoming seminarians who are pursuing vocations elsewhere, and find in this a real opportunity to help build up the Church.  The same welcome will be found here for sincere persons who wish to explore a vocation to the religious life as lived here by the monks of Portsmouth Abbey.

Posts on this blog will bring news, commentary, excerpts from homilies, meditations on Saints’ days, and other things (including links to other content we think you might like) that we hope will be of interest to you. Wish us luck, and keep us in your prayers.

David Moran