Fr. Francis Bethel, Author at The Imaginative Conservative

About Fr. Francis Bethel

Fr. Francis Bethel, OSB made his vows as a Benedictine monk in 1977 and was ordained a priest in 1983. In 1999, he was among the founders of the Benedictine monastery of Our Lady of Clear Creek in Hulbert, Oklahoma. Author of From Silence to Silence: A Benedictine Pilgrimage to God’s Sanctuary and John Senior and the Restoration of Realism, Fr. Bethel currently serves as Master of Studies at Clear Creek Abbey and teaches Dogmatic Theology.

From Silence to Silence: A Benedictine Pilgrimage to God’s Sanctuary

By Fr. Francis Bethel|2025-11-14T17:03:53-06:00November 8th, 2025|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Monasticism, Sainthood, St. Benedict|

Subjective silence itself is not emptiness. It is attention and receptivity. It is also a light, for the soul is ordered to objective silence, to great mysteries in which we participate. “And as we talked and panted for [eternal wisdom], we touched just the edge of it by the utmost leap of our hearts; then, [...]

Let Them Be Born in Wonder

By Fr. Francis Bethel|2025-08-02T18:32:13-05:00August 2nd, 2025|Categories: Christian Humanism, Christianity, John Senior, Liberal Learning, Timeless Essays, Wyoming Catholic College|

We are made for the stars but rooted in the soil. We are made to seek spiritual realities, but we must use this world, this visible creation, to do so. How the brief life of a storied liberal arts program changed lives the world over. In 1967, at the age of forty-four, John Senior transferred [...]