Ampleforth Abbey Podcast

What’s the difference between wisdom and intelligence? What is it? Where does it come from? Can we acquire it? Is it anything to do with God?

This Home Retreat reflects upon the meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection for Christian life today.

Are you almost ready to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to begin to renew the face of your local acre of the world? ..& can “she” rely on you? an insight into a Confirmation weekend retreat for a group of 30 young disciples preparing to receive a new name & a new relationship with the Holy Spirit.. ..are you ready to be inspired by their insights?

Following the exposure of three illusions in Richard Rohr’s last reflection - called Action and Contemplation, he reflects that we move on to adopt a different viewpoint or world view.

In a culture seemingly afraid of losing autonomy and anxious to maintain youth, how does God call us to age gracefully, to aim for wisdom not success, to let go without giving up.

Although it is now more than 50 years since the revision of the Lectionary after Vatican II, there are still many riches to discover. In this short talk, we will reflect on the Gospels which the Church sets before us on the Sundays of Eastertide, and what they might mean for our growing discipleship of the Risen Lord.

We are told in Isaiah that ‘ my thoughts are not your thoughts. Your ways are not my ways .’ This is, unsurprisingly, not to our taste. However, in times of distress or confusion, we can draw encouragement from the plentiful signs of God’s bringing new life from apparently hopeless situations.

This home retreat is a meditation on Psalm 118 verse 73 ‘It was your hands that made me and shaped me’ and it will explore themes of creation and resurrection, arising from a lectio divina on this verse.

Often, we can fall back to things that are familiar, just because we are used to doing them or reacting in certain ways. The invitation of the Gospel is to stop, look and evaluate, am I in the right position to make this wisest choice or respond to this situation in the most appropriate manner. If we are not in the place, where God desires us to be, we can end up making bad choices for the wrong r...

Fr Henry speaks about Padre Pio.

Fr Ambrose: 'Why do your disciples not fast?'

In this Home Retreat, Fr Wulstan explores how Lent can help us to overcome our inner dividedness and strengthen our hope in God.

Fr Bede: Home Retreat: '..Your heart is greater than your wounds..'

It seems to me that meditation, as John Main taught it, overcomes three foundational illusions that make it almost inevitable that your politics is going to change, your economics is going to be called into question, your socio-economic perspective by which you critique the world will be pretty quickly taken away from you. 

What can we learn from the account of Saint Benedict's life by Gregory the Great? This talk will look at his leaving Rome, his time as a hermit, his different monasteries at Subiaco and Monte Cassino and his death.

Fr Oswald speaks about St Benedict and Care for the Sick " In our society, and perhaps especially since the Pandemic, care of the sick is becoming a part of everyday life - whether it is parents caring for young children or children coping with elderly parents. In today's Home Retreat, we will reflect a little on St Benedict's thoughts about care of the sick in the monastery, to see...

St Benedict quotes from and alludes to the psalms more than any other book of the Scripture. In this retreat I want to speak about the importance of the longest psalm 118 for St Benedict. He assigned it to the Little Hours for Sunday and Monday. He also drew from it something about the structure of liturgical prayer and more importantly still it played a part in  his thinking about monastic vocati...

Fr Abbot speaks about the recent declaration Fiducia supplicans.

Fr Philip: 'The Son also rises...'

Fr Henry recently celebrated 70 years since he was clothed and became a monk. This 'under the microscope' episode provides some insight into his remarkable life, as he answers a round of random questions in just a few minutes.

Fr Wulstan speaks on the effect the celebration of Christ's Nativity should have in our lives.

As the Advent season progresses and we say goodbye to 2023, Abbot Robert would like to share a special message with you this Christmas. 

Fr Cedd speaks about an Advent Sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux

Fr Henry speaks about the Three Women of the Apocalypse.