 Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Monastery: Hulbert, Oklahoma
Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek in Oklahoma is a contemplative Benedictine community founded in 1999. Its origins date to the early 1970s, when six University of Kansas students went to the French Abbey Notre Dame de Fontgombault thinking they would soon return to establish their own monastery, bringing renewal to American Catholicism and society. But the demands of monastic life and obedience intervened, and it was not until 25 years later that they, along with seven fellow monks, returned to America to start Clear Creek, establishing the first foundation for men of the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes in America.
In ten years the monastery has grown from 13 to 30 monks who are intent on building a community that will "last for a thousand years." Many families have settled near the monastery in order to share in the monks' life of prayer. The Latin rite is used both for Mass and the daily offices. They maintain a working farm and orchard, raise sheep, make furniture, and care for a huge vegetable garden. Today Gregorian chant can be heard in more and more parishes across the Tulsa diocese, where ordinary church choirs have learned Gregorian chant from the monks.   
|
