Benedict Option Conference

Photo via www.clearcreekmonks.org

One of the communities I’ll be featuring in my upcoming Benedict Option book is the Clear Creek Abbey, a traditionalist Benedictine monastery, and the lay community that has grown up around it. I’m pleased to pass on the news that the folks there are having a Ben Op conference from May 20-22, called “The Idea Of A Village.” Look:

In the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christians gathered around the communities of religious in monasteries of the Benedictine tradition for spiritual succor and stability. Likewise, many of today’s Christians, discouraged by the corruption of our own declining empire, desire a similar spiritual support.

Some of these families have informally settled around Clear Creek Abbey, a thriving monastery of Benedictine monks, and are, in the words of Abbot Philip Anderson, O.S.B., seeking “to recommence the business of building a just and healthy form of social life, ‘from the ground up.’ ”

While some have heard of this idea as “the Benedict Option,” it might more simply be thought of as the pursuit of sanity in a world gone crazy. Come and join us for contemplation and conversation, feasting and festivities.

Follow the link above for more information, and to sign up. Speakers include the Mighty Ralph C. Wood, Andrew Pudewa, Abbot Philip Anderson, Prof. John Nieto of Thomas Aquinas College, and Your Working Boy. Yes, there will be much talk of John Senior. Here is the schedule. It sounds like it’s going to be an event very much in the Walker Percy Weekend vein: talking about ideas, but also feasting — and in this case, mass with the Benedictines at the abbey.

Tickets are strictly limited, so don’t wait.