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Clear Creek Abbey is a gem of a place to visit. Hidden in the hills of the top-right corner of Oklahoma between Tulsa and Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Abbey is a fortress of solace, prayer, and hard work. It has an interesting history, but for the purposes of this pilgrimage report, just know that it’s a huge monastery on huge grounds with over 40 Benedictine monks in the middle-of-nowhere Oklahoma.
This is actually my third time to visit Clear Creek Abbey. The first two times were with older gentlemen of my parish for the inaugural-now-annual “Cross Walk Pilgrimage” where we literally take turns carrying a large wooden cross across 20 miles leading up to the monastery. A monk on this particular trip affectionately referred to us as the “cross walkers”, and I laughed. Because true.
Besides those two previous trips with my fellow “cross walkers”, I’ve never visited the Abbey on my own!
Since I’m not currently in a grad school class, and I had a free weekend, I decided to seize the opportunity to go visit Clear Creek for a weekend of being disconnected from the Internet and focusing more on my relationship with God. Yes, the lack of WiFi was penitential.
My intent and goal for this pilgrimage was to have a prayerful retreat from the hustle and bustle of my daily life. In the midst of all the praying, I also wanted to make progress on some of the books I’m reading including Waiting for Eli: A Father’s Journey from Fear to Faith
Before continuing on, it’s important to know two things because these Benedictine monks of Clear Creek are very much about these two things:
- Liturgy of the Hours – it’s the official prayer of the Church as a response to Christ’s command for us to pray unceasingly. You can learn more about that here at the USCCB.
- Extraordinary Form of the Mass / Latin Mass – the Mass as it was celebrated before 1962 and the implementation of the “Novus Ordo” that we’re familiar with today. Find out more at Catholic Answers.
Pilgrimage Details
Location: Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey
Time Required: 3 Days
Cost: $$
Transportation: Car
Essentials: Journal, Prayer Requests, Books, Laptop
Note: A lot of this itinerary wasn’t pre-planned as I gave higher priority to attending the different hours of prayer and working on whatever seemed appropriate during non-prayer and non-meal times. I was winging it every hour, but I have represented below what I actually did as much as possible.
Itinerary
- Friday
- 0400 Wake and Lauds
- 0445-1000 Breakfast and drive to Broken Arrow, OK
- 1000-1100 Meet with The Catholic Man Show
- 1100-1230 Drive to Wagoner, OK/Lunch at Morgan’s Corner
- 1230-1300 Drive to Clear Creek Abbey
- 1300-1345 Check In and Wait
- 1400-1435 Settle In
- 1435 None
- 1500-1630 Explore and Nap
- 1630-1800 Work
- 1800 Vespers
- 1930 Dinner
- 2035 Compline
- 2100-2230 Work
- 2230 Bed
- Saturday
- 0430 Wake then Snooze
- 0500 Upper Church for prayer before Matins and Lauds
- 0515 Matins and Lauds
- 0700 Low Mass in the Upper Church
- 0800-0830 Prime
- 0830-0900 Breakfast
- 0900-1000 Work
- 1000-1100 Terce and High Mass
- 1100-1250 Work
- 1250-1330 Sext then Lunch
- 1330-1415 Socialize
- 1415-1435 Work
- 1435 None
- 1500-1800 Work
- 1800 Vespers
- 1830-1930 Work
- 1930-2000 Dinner
- 2000-2035 Hang Out
- 2035-2100 Compline
- 2100-2200 Work and Pack
- 2200 Bed
- Sunday
- 0530 Wake
- 0530-0600 Shower and Pack
- 0600-0700 Lauds
- 0700-0740 Low Mass (4th Sunday after Pentecost (Extraordinary Form follows older liturgical schedule))
- 0800 Leave Clear Creek
- 0900-1400 Drive
- 1400 Arrive Home
All over the monastery, the monks kindly provide their daily schedule:
Map
Points of Interest
Friday
I woke up at 4AM to get my day started with the usual praying of Morning Prayer (Lauds) from the Liturgy of the Hours at home. After praising the Lord in psalms, I showered and then finished packing. By 5AM, I was out the door and proceeded to stop by a nearby gas station for coffee, and I stopped by a further away gas station for kolaches, because Texas. I know of a German bakery/gas station, called Rumpy’s, near the Texas-Oklahoma border off I-35 and had frequented it several years ago. The nostalgia was strong like the deliciousness of their blueberry and coconut fruit kolaches I had.
Then I drove for what felt like many, many hours in order to get myself over to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. You see, I’m a fan of The Catholic Man Show podcast (shout out!) where they do three things each episode: 1) open, enjoy, and review an alcoholic beverage, 2) recommend a man gear, and 3) discuss a manly topic. The hosts are based out of Broken Arrow. Since Broken Arrow is about an hour away from the monastery, I figured I could stop by and give the intrepid hosts a bottle of TX Whiskey, which is a hometown favorite. So I met up with one of the hosts, Adam, for coffee where we hung out and got to know each other a bit while talking about manly things. Because of course.
After coffee, I went on my way to Wagoner, which is a small town southwest of the monastery. The two times I did the “cross walk pilgrimage”, we started in Wagoner. I ate lunch at Morgan’s gas station because that is a traditional stop for us cross-carrying men, and therefore I knew it would be a good breather and break before the final stretch of a drive up to the monastery.
Much of my driving time was spent catching up on the handful of Catholic podcasts that I subscribe to. I’ve been slacking lately so my podcast backlog was getting a little ridiculous. I was able to get mostly caught up!
Just past 1:00PM, I arrived at the monastery. I didn’t see anyone, and their gatehouse was locked. I rang the daytime doorbell and was convinced no one would show up until a man dressed in white robes answered the door after a few minutes. Thankfully, he was a monk. Apparently they were having their lunch, and I had awkwardly interrupted. Despite this, I was still warmly greeted, and the characteristic Benedictine hospitality was shining through my white-robed host. He gave me the option to join them for the rest of lunch or to chillax (my word, not his, haha) in one of the parlors and read. I opted for the latter.
I attempted at not sobbing reading through Waiting for Eli
The rest of the time until dinner was a mixture of me napping, me joining along for the monks’ prayer times in the crypt church (or lower level sanctuary), me reading, and me working on Pilgrim for Less. It was hot and humid outside so I wasn’t too keen on being out and about on the grounds.
Since I’m a man, I can take my meals with the monks in their refectory. It’s always a treat because the food is usually simple and delicious (albeit sometimes creative), no one really talks to each other, and there’s a monk in a corner chant-reading aloud from a book. It was here at dinner time that I finally saw how many other guys are staying as guests with the monks. There were about 7-8 other guys ranging from just out of high school to middle-aged. Dinner was bread, milk, spaghetti with red sauce and peas. Dessert was some sort of sticky rice pudding with dried apricot on the side.
After dinner, we guestly guys hung out in the guest courtyard. I got to meet most of them while hanging out. The Guestmaster and his Associate Guestmaster joined us as well. Apparently it was a big deal to the monks in our little circle of fellowship that I was wearing an Apple Watch. The Guestmaster had never seen one and was asking how it worked, and I found myself somewhat explaining Bluetooth. He then proceeded to continuously tap on my Apple Watch in jest and activating a timer or three. Haha.
Hanging around being social for about an hour, I got to learn where some of the guys were from and why they were visiting the monastery. There was also a lot of airplane talk because of me since I’m an #avgeek. Turns out a few of them are doing grand tours of monasteries around the US, and a few others are actively discerning the Benedictine life with these particular monks. Cool stuff!
We closed the night by heading back to the crypt church for Night Prayer with the monks before retiring to our rooms.
Saturday
I’d wager that most people don’t get up early enough to START praying at 5AM. But the monks do. And thankfully, I do as well as part of my daily prayer. They prayed Matins at 5:15AM, and I joined them. What I didn’t know was that Matins goes on seemingly forever! Or maybe I was still groggy and sleepy and every chanted psalm felt like forever. Immediately after Matins, they prayed Lauds, which is the usual Morning Prayer that I devotedly pray every morning on my own. Mostly. Matins and Lauds took about 2 hours.
Immediately after Lauds came the 7:00AM Low Mass. I unwittingly stepped away for a bathroom break and missed the start of Mass. Because it was a Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form, there is no singing/chanting or call and response. And I forgot to grab a Missal so I couldn’t attempt at following along with the priest that I couldn’t even hear. While Mass was being said, I was distracted at seeing the three different Masses going on with three different priests at three different altars in the same general space in the upper church.
No, Mass didn’t count for thrice with the three Masses going on. Before the liturgy of the Eucharist for the Mass happening on my side of the upper church, the altar server looked back at me and non-verbally asked me from afar if I were receiving Communion. I gave a slight nod. To receive Communion, you have to be kneeling and receive on the tongue. Way more hipster. Myself and the veiled ladies, who I’m non-Marianly assuming are members of the local community just outside of the monastery, on my side of the church filed into the first pew as a makeshift Communion rail.
After Low Mass, I had about 30 minutes to properly get ready for the day as I was still pretty much wearing yesterday’s clothes and felt gross because of the humidity and heat. Perhaps that’s why no on really sat near me for the prayer times and Mass…haha. I took a shower, and I returned to the upper church once again for Prime prayer. Immediately after Prime was breakfast in the refectory where we enjoyed bread, PB&J, cereal, and coffee. It was more come-and-go versus the formal affair that was dinner last night. Oh man, I really needed that coffee because otherwise it would have been penitential for everyone else.
I moseyed back to my room after breakfast and was able to finish reading the Gospel of John.
Approaching 10:00AM, I headed down to the crypt church for Terce prayer and Mass. This time I made sure to grab a Missal and booklet for the Order of the Mass so I could mostly follow along with the liturgy. Thankfully, I didn’t get lost so much. Since it was a High Mass, incense was used and parts of it were sung/chanted aloud.
When Mass finished, I returned to my room and finished reading Waiting for Eli
Sext prayer was at 12:50 PM followed by lunch. The monastery gained a few visitors, and some of those guys (mix of older gentlemen and kids) joined us for lunch. Lunch was soup, bread, omelet with sour cream sauce, beans, with a simple leaf salad and dressing. Dessert was Hershey Kisses still in Easter livery. I think they served house wine?! One of the drinks looked like iced tea, but it tasted slightly fruity, alcoholic, and fizzy. And where the kids were sitting, there were no bottles of it. Hmm. Either way, it was good.
After lunch, I got to hang out with the other guys again as we all loitered in the courtyard. The Associate Guestmaster was talking to the new guests while I chatted it up with one of the guys I met last night.
We prayed None at 2:35PM, and then we had the typical three-hour gap before Vespers. I spent this time working, napping, and reading. At about 5:00PM, I decided to walk around the grounds a little bit. After doing so, I decided to do some journaling under a huge, shady tree where some benches are set up. Conveniently, the door to the crypt church was a stone throw away making it easy to go to Vespers. After journaling, I headed back inside to pray Vespers.
During the gap between Vespers and dinner, I attempted at leveling up my Catholic hipsterness by reading The Catholic Hipster Handbook
Dinner was a little weird for me because the “soup” wasn’t hot. It seemed a lot like cold fruit juice although, it still tasted good soaked in the baked bread that they serve every meal. The main entree was bok choy with some sort of thick sauce over it. It didn’t seem too appealing in looks, but it was passable in taste. Dessert was bread pudding with raisins with a side of preserved raspberries. That was delicious.
Post-dinner socializing involved lots of talk regarding manure. Apparently some of the other guys had helped dig trenches and plant trees during the 3:00PM-6:00PM work period, and one guy seemed to be knowledgeable about #farmlife or something. Our exceedingly engaging conversation on how horse manure is the best manure was rudely interrupted by the appearance of a huge, tarantula-like spider crawling towards us in the courtyard. One of the other guys promptly kicked it away from us and then back toward us. I felt like a sissy for jumping back. Eventually, some of the nearby garden bed rocks were used to smash it. Good thing we were at a Benedictine monastery because if we were at at Franciscan one, I’m pretty sure it would have been disappointing for St. Francis (ya know, coz he likes animals). More manure talk, then we were off to Night Prayer to pray before going to bed. Thankfully, I didn’t have any nightmares of huge spiders crawling on me.
Sunday
Upon waking at 5:00AM, I doubly-checked to make sure there were no tarantulas crawling around. Because safety.
I elected not to attend Matins at 4:50AM because I wanted to sleep in a little so that I wouldn’t be too tired while driving home. After finishing up packing and showering, I awkwardly slipped into the upper church for the end of Matins and the start of Lauds. I made another mistake for Lauds by grabbing the wrong book. I had grabbed the Missal and not the book which contains all the Hours prayers. Because of this mistake, I mostly sat through Lauds without following along. Fortunately by this point, I actually somewhat recognized some of the Psalms the monks prayed because of my own devotion to Lauds and me picking up on some Latin this weekend.
Low Mass started right after Lauds, and I was grateful to be less lost in following along with the Missal. The Missal is nice because it gives both the Latin and English words of the Mass and basically like stage directions of what the priest is doing. I mean, it’s a lot like Mass at home, but again, I can’t hear the priest because he’s talking only loud enough for himself and the altar server although he is celebrating it for us who are actively participating with him.
Mass finished up, I headed back up to my room, grabbed my stuff, made it rain with cash as my donation for my stay, said goodbye to one of the other guys, and then headed out the door to get in my car to start driving home.
My way home was pretty easy. I did stop to get gas, breakfast and coffee, and some snacks for future consumption. Since I didn’t have to drive across Oklahoma like on my way in, the road trip was shorter.
Stats and Achievements
- Total Cost: $138 ($27 gas; $21 food; $90 lodging which included meals)
- Total Miles Driven: ~650 miles
- Total Distance Walked: ~6 miles / 16,000 steps
- Liturgy of the Hours Attended: 12
- Masses attended: 3
- Times Seeing Nuns Get Into A Ford F-150: 1
- Tarantulas Ran Away From: 1
- Books finished: 2
- Monks Talked To: 3
Response
I think first and foremost, this pilgrimage was rather refreshing because I was disconnected from the Internets for a majority of my weekend. I was able to spend more time focusing on other things versus focusing on refreshing a news feed, timeline, or past Netflix’s “Are you still watching?” button. Since I’m a creature of habit, it’ll be difficult struggling with Internet distractions again, but going forward I tangibly know what it feels like to disconnect, even if for a little bit. Hopefully I can check my phone a little bit less.
As a fruit of having a lot of time to read, I was able to finish two books! I’m on a quest to read all of the New Testament as part of a New Year’s goal, and I’ve been doing a crappy job of making good progress. Thankfully, I was able to finish the Gospel of John this weekend. This Gospel ends with John supposing that the world couldn’t contain all the books written of the works of Jesus. This made for an interesting point of reflection because the Bible only records the essential stuff. I mean, I know Jesus is super extra, but it’d be fun to know what else He did. But maybe that’s where I should pivot and think about how Jesus works in my own life. Whoa.
The other book I finished was Waiting for Eli
Since this was my third visit to Clear Creek Abbey, I’m still just amazed that the monks incorporate a life of work and prayer. “Ora et labora” (pray and work), their axiom goes. It reminds me of a quote that I heard somewhere that goes something like “our days shouldn’t be interrupted by prayer, but rather our prayer should be interrupted by our day” as a way to make the point that we should be praying unceasingly. I already pray Lauds on my own, but I think it would be good to incorporate another Hour for prayer like Compline. I will need to be intentional with that and perhaps even schedule reminders.
Also, I feel like I leveled up a few times in Latin! Every Mass and every Hour of prayer is in Latin. Since I followed along with the books and booklets that the monastery provides with both Latin and English, I was able to see Latin in action. After this weekend, I really want to pick up an Order of the Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin (with English) for fun!
And of course, as I always try to make sure I am praying for other people and their prayer requests and intentions when on pilgrimages, I was able to do so at every Hour and Mass carrying my little notebook where I’ve written/copied those requests.
All in all, this was an excellent pilgrimage and personal retreat. I only wished I had stayed longer on Sunday, but I needed to return home to celebrate Father’s Day with my parents. I forgot to pick up some of the monks’ cheese so obviously that’s Reason #3295726 to return. 😉
Question for you—have you ever been to a Latin Mass or the Extraordinary Form of the Mass? What did you think about it? Comment below!
Resources:
- Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey website
- USCCB – Liturgy of the Hours
- Catholic Answers – Extraordinary Form of the Mass
JR is a full-time engineer working in the aerospace industry. Apart from having such a fly job, he flies unto the arms of Our Lady and the Church pursuing his faith and a relationship with Christ. Over the past several years, faith and flying via pilgrimages became a thing. When he’s not being fly, JR hangs out with family, friends, his chihuahua, and with thoughts of the next trip.