Phase One

You are invited to join the Angelicum Academy's North American Apostolate to help:

CLEAR CREEK MONASTERY

15 Minute, Professional-quality Film on Clear Creek Monastery

Members of our staff have been good friends of the monks at Clear Creek Monastery since even before their foundation in northeastern Oklahoma in 1999. Many of our students and parents are familiar with the Pearson Integrated Humanities Program ("IHP") at Kansas University at Lawrence, Kansas. It was there that most of the original group of monks who founded Clear Creek Monastery went to college and from there they went to France in the 1970's to pursue their religious vocations.

Phase One - Front of Monastery Church, Guest Quarters, First Part of Monks Quarters

Thus rooted in the classical liberal arts tradition (including a strong great books emphasis and a vibrant "poetic" element in the IHP), as well as in the ancient Benedictine traditions, they returned to the U.S. in 1999 to found a monastery that continues to cultivate these great traditions of Western civilization. Hence our lively interest in their work.

Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek (the complete name) is a monastic foundation of the French Abbey Notre Dame de Fontgombault, itself a foundation of Saint Pierre de Solesmes. Over the years Solesmes started new monasteries, one of which was the Abbey of Fontgombault, restored to monastic life in 1948. Fontgombault in turn, after having sent monks to three monasteries in France, started this one an hour east of Tulsa, Oklahoma in response to the invitation of His Excellency Edward Slattery, Bishop of Tulsa.

Interior of Proposed Monastery Church

It is a part of the Solesmes tradition to cultivate a solemn, public liturgy. Holding the Church's chant to be the perfect expression of her liturgical prayer, the abbot of Solesmes undertook, with his monks, and with the blessing and encouragement of various Popes, the restoration of the Gregorian melodies which centuries of neglect and changes in taste had left unrecognizable. The workshop of the Paléographie musicale was born of this research. Consistent with the tradition of their congregation of preserving Gregorian Chant in its purest form, the monks at Clear Creek are allowed, indeed encouraged, to celebrate God's glory in Latin, so appropriate to give an idea of God's mystery with a sense of the sacred. With Bishop Slattery's approval, the Divine Office and Holy Mass are in Latin, sung in Gregorian Chant. Thus the monks exploit the riches developed over many centuries in the Church's liturgy and cultivate and preserve the purest form of Gregorian Chant, right here in the United States. Visitors and guests are welcomed in the very hospitable Benedictine tradition.

Bird's Eye View of Church with Belfry

Two other main features of the Solesmes Congregation which the monks of Clear Creek strive to live fully must be noted: deep fidelity to the Holy See and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. They also observe the complete Benedictine horarium, to which the public is invited.

The ancient roots of Western civilization - intellectual, cultural and religious - are all to be found collected here in one monastic community, preserved for a new millenium. It is for these reasons, combined with the fervour, dedication and flouishing condition of their new foundation (with numerous applicants needing space and a monastery building), that we invite you, the reader, to join in this apostolate to contribute towards the construction of the first phase of their much-needed monastery, to be located on their 1,200 acres situated in rural, eastern Oklahoma. Please send your donations, Mass stipends and/or prayer requests directly to:

Clear Creek Monastery
5804 West Monastery Road, Hulbert, OK 74441
Phone: (918) 772-2454 Fax: (918) 772-1044

Their website may be viewed at: clearcreekmonks.org