Summer/Fall Issue of Pomegranate Blossoms

Enjoy Mother Theodora's reflection on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in her cover article, "The Oil of Desire." Learn more about our upcoming benefit dinner, the "Bridegroom's Banquet." Read a reflection from Sr. Iliana on her first year as a rasophore nun. See photos from our newly completed East Wing renovations. Enjoy lots of photos from Girls' Camp and the Mariapoch Pilgrimage! (Click on the image below)

Magdala Apostolate Video

Check out this 3.5 minute video which includes footage and interviews from our community. The video was produced to get the word out about the Magdala Apostolate, which provides education/formation for women religious through the internet in a "real-time" classroom setting. We are so grateful for this apostolate which allows us to receive education without leaving the monastery! It is provided to us free of charge. Please consider supporting this wonderful apostolate!

Subscribe to our newsletter, Pomegranate Blossoms

Our fall edition of Pomegranate Blossoms is soon to be published, and you can now easily subscribe through this form, now available on our website. Choose to receive a paper copy in the mail, an electronic version through email, or both!

If you are already receiving our newsletter but want to change your address or your type of subscription, you can also do that through this form. Enjoy!

(Subscribe by Fri. Sept. 9 to receive the fall edition)

Registration now available for the Bridegroom's Banquet!

You’re invited to the “Bridegroom’s Banquet,” a benefit dinner for the nuns of Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, on

Saturday, November 5

at St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church

Brecksville, Ohio  

There is no cost to attend the dinner, but registration is required (by October 21).  Adults 21 and older may attend.  Enjoy a buffet dinner, live music and an evening with the nuns and their guests.  Learn more about the nuns and their life of prayer and hospitality.  The evening will begin with Vespers (Evening Prayer) at 5:30 p.m. and conclude at 8:00 p.m.  You are also invited to attend the parish’s Vigil Divine Liturgy at 4:00 p.m.

For the schedule, more information and to register, please click here to visit the Bridegroom's Banquet tab.

We hope to enjoy the evening with you on November 5!

Join us for our Fall Work Day & Cookout, Sept. 24

Join us for a day of outdoor and indoor work projects, prayer, food and fun at the monastery on Saturday, September 24.  Volunteers of all ages and abilities are welcome!  The day begins at 10 a.m., includes lunch, and closes with vespers at 5 p.m. followed by a cookout.  Come at whatever time you are available, and bring a side dish to share if you can.  The monastery is located at 17485 Mumford Rd. Burton, Ohio.  Please RSVP* by Tuesday, September 20, to 440-834-0290 or christthebridegroom@gmail.com, so that the appropriate amount of food can be prepared.


*Please RSVP with:
1. The number of adults (include teens) and the number of kids (12 and under)
2. Will you be here for lunch or dinner or both?
3. The dish you plan to bring

Announcing: "The Bridegroom's Banquet," Nov. 5!

Last year many enjoyed our first fundraising dinner, the "Mumford & Nuns BBQ," which took place in the summer at the monastery. This year, we invite you to join us for "The Bridegroom's Banquet" on Sat. Nov. 5, 2016, at St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church in Brecksville, Ohio.

This year, admission is free! Registration is required, so please check back soon for more information. Adults 21 and older are invited.

Please mark your calendar to join us for an enjoyable evening of prayer, dinner and fellowship. You will have the opportunity to learn more about our life and to support the monastery.

A talk by Fr. Boniface Hicks: Mercy and the Mother of God

A beautiful talk for the Year of Mercy by Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB, at the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapoch, August 14, 2016. Fr. Boniface talks about the "emptiness" of the Mother of God as the way in which she could be filled with grace and mercy and overflow with mercy for others. This is great news for us who are so empty and broken! 

"When we see her greatness, it's not because she does something that's out of reach of us. She does something that every one of us can do: she's empty, she's open, she's earth that God can plant His mercies in. She has a space that she can't fill, and she doesn't try to--that's our danger: we always try to fill that space with something that's in our own control; we have to let that go. We have to allow ourselves to be poor, and weak, and limited, and broken, and then God can fill us like He fills her. 

He shows us precisely what He wants us to be: empty and filled with His love, that we may also become a fount of His mercies, pure earth which pour forth His abundant mercies. What God shows us in our Lady is precisely what He is making us into: not a porcelain statue distant from us and unachievable, but something that's more like falling than like flying...something that looks more like dying than like rising. Our job is to die, His job is to raise us up again, and that's what our Lady demonstrates for us in her Dormition...."