By Michael Patrick O’Brien– A colorful painting of a bald man with large ears and a mischievous smile hung on an otherwise unadorned wall at the Trappist monastery in Huntsville,…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Monastery films are divine. The last four I’ve watched are especially memorable. Three of those films are about Holy Trinity Abbey, the now closed Trappist monastery…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Does art change us? Does its effect linger and sink into our DNA beyond the mere moment of initial existential enjoyment? I don’t have scientific proof,…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– A pair of initials carved into a wooden bar at a historic Chicago hotel have taught me about the myriad ways people express their love. During…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The first time I took my family, including a grandchild, to my favorite Northern Utah pumpkin patch, I suspected the youngest among us would enjoy it.…
What’s happened, three years after my book “Monastery Mornings,” to the Utah Trappist monks and their lovely old abbey?
5 By Michael Patrick O’Brien– In the Fall of 2021, I published a book about growing up at a now-closed Trappist monastery in rural Northern Utah. Telling that wonderful story has…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The only monk who ever came to my house for dinner was the one I never expected to be there. It happened quite serendipitously, just before…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– (Note: this is the final article in a four-part series about the people, art, and architecture of my “Third Place,” the Utah Catholic parish church my…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– (Note: this is the third article in a four-part series about the people, art, and architecture of my “Third Place,” the Utah Catholic parish church my…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– (Note: this is the second article in a four-part series about the people, art, and architecture of my “Third Place,” the Utah Catholic parish church my…