Address for the Rite of the Blessing of Abbot John Caronan, O. Praem.
Blessing of Abbot John Caronan, O. Praem.
Abbey Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
Saint Michael’s Abbey of Orange in California
Silverado, California
September 28, 2026
Prv 4, 7-13
1 Pt 5, 1-4
Lk 12, 35-55
Address
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The solemn rite of the Blessing of Abbot John Caronan fills our hearts with grateful joy, the pure and selfless joy and gratitude of children for the gift of a father who participates in the love of God the Father. Through the election of Father Abbot, God the Father, “of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named,”[1] has provided a father for the ecclesial family of Canons Regular of Prémontré of Saint Michael’s Abbey of Orange. The coat-of-arms by which Father Abbot is identified rightly bears the motto: Patris Corde, “With a Father’s Heart,” for his office is from, with, and in the Heart of God the Father.
The very name of the office to which Father Abbot has been elected comes from the Aramaic word, abba, the word with which a child lovingly addresses his father. It is the name by which we, adopted sons and daughters of God the Father in God the Son through the Indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, address God the Father.[2] In today’s celebration, we experience in a particularly powerful manner our sharing in the life of the Trinity through our life in the Church, the Mystical Body of God the Son Incarnate.
It is true that Father Abbot has been the father of the Canons Regular of Saint Michael’s Abbey since his election, but the Church, given his particular participation in the divine paternity, reserves for him a solemn blessing, a sacramental which confers divine grace for the exercise of his office. The chant of the Litany of the Saints, followed by the prayer of blessing, and the conferral of the pontifical insignia – the ring, the miter, and the pastoral staff – all signify the grace conferred upon Father Abbot by today’s solemn rite.
The Holy Scriptures which have just been proclaimed instruct us about the grace of the office of Abbot. The Father Abbot is, first of all, to seek Divine Wisdom to know how to order rightly the life of the community in accord with the gift first given to Saint Norbert and handed down faithfully in Saint Michael’s Abbey, first by Father Abbot Ladislaus Parker and then by Father Abbot Eugene Hayes. Rejoicing at the election of a new Father Abbot, we are filled with gratitude for those who have gone before him, from whom he receives the inspiration to trust in the help of God’s grace before the heavy burden of his office. May he keep ever in his mind and heart the words of the Book of Proverbs:
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight…. Keep hold of instruction, do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.[3]
From Divine Wisdom, he will know best how to respond to the Lord’s command: “Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.”[4] Thus, he will be “the faithful and wise steward” whom “his master when he comes” will find caring for the life of the community, giving the members of the community “their portion of food at the proper time.”[5]
The Rule of Saint Augustine, faithful to the truth revealed in the Sacred Scriptures, instructs the Canons Regular and their superior with these words:
Obey your superior as a father, always with the respect worthy of his position, so as not to offend God in him….
The superior has the principal task of seeing to it that all these precepts are observed. He should further provide that infractions are not carelessly overlooked but punished and corrected….
Your superior should regard himself to be [blessed] as one who serves you in love, not as one who exercises authority over you. Accord him the first place of honour among you, but in fear before God he shall lie prostrate beneath your feet. Let him be a model of good deeds for everyone: he shall restrain the restless, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, with patience towards all. He shall willingly embrace discipline and instil fear. While both are necessary, he shall strive, nevertheless to be loved by you rather than feared, mindful always that he will be accountable to God for you.
By being obedient, you manifest more compassion not only for yourselves, but also for him, because the higher position among you is all the more perilous.[6]
Clearly, for Saint Augustine and for his sons in the life of Canons Regular, the exercise of authority and the response of obedience does not flow from human considerations but from the grace of divine love at work in both the heart of the superior as in the heart of those for whom he is the father.[7]
With these thoughts in mind, filled with joyful gratitude at the gift of a new Father Abbot, let us proceed with the Blessing of Father Abbot. May the divine grace conferred through the sacred rite of the Church redound to his ever-greater fatherly love for the brethren in his care and in their ever-greater filial love for God the Father and His presence among them in their Father Abbot. May Our Lady of Prémontré, Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Joseph Her Most Chaste Spouse, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Norbert, and all Norbertine Saints and Blesseds intercede now for God the Father’s abundant blessing upon Father Abbot John Caronan.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Eph 3, 15.
[2] Rom 8, 15-17; Gal 4, 6.
[3] Prv 4, 7. 13.
[4] 1 Pt 5, 2-3.
[5] Lk 12, 42-43.
[6] “Praeposito tamquam patri oboediatur, honore seruato, ne in illo offendatur Deus; …
Ut ergo cuncta ista seruentur et, si quid seruatum non fuerit, non neglegenter praetereatur, sed emendandum corrigendumque curetur, ad praepositum praecipue pertinebit; …
Ipse uero qui uobis praeest, non se existimet potestate dominantem, sed caritate seruientem felicem. Honore coram uobis praelatus sit uobis, timore coram deo substratus sit pedibus uestris. Circa omnes seipsum bonorum operum praebeat exemplum, corripiat inquietos, consoletur pusillianimes, suscipiat infirmos, patiens sit ad omnes. Disciplinam libens habeat, metum imponat. Et quamuis utrumque sit necessarium, tamen plus a uobis amari adpetat quam timeri, semper cogitans deo se pro uobis redditurum esse rationem.
Unde uos magis oboediendo, non solum uestri, uerum etiam ipsius miseremini, quia inter uos, quanto in loco superiore, tanto in periculo maiore uersatur.” George Lawless, Augustine of Hippo and His Monastic Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), pp. 100-103.
[7] Cf. The Rule of Saint Augustine with Introduction and Commentary by Tarsicius J. Van Bavel OSA, tr. Raymond Canning OSA (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1986), pp. 111-114.