News from Christ in the Desert
Current Road Conditions to the Monastery
The Forest Service Road into our Monastery is in good shape. We will keep you updated if conditions change.
Celebration of Masses and Fundraising in Albuquerque, NM
July 18 and 19
Fr. Christian Leisy, OSB, Subprior of our Monastery, will celebrate the weekend Masses at San Martin de Porres located at 8321 Camino San Martin in Albuquerque. Please join us!
To explore the possibility of assisting us with fundraising and fellowship events in your area, contact Sharon Colby, Director of Stewardship and Development at (505) 771-2922, or wspring2 `at' aol.com.
Fundraising and Fellowship Events Lubbock, TX
August 1 and 2
Dear friends of our monastery have graciously offered to raise funds and friendships on our behalf in their town of Lubbock. Fundraising and Fellowship Events at St John Neumann Catholic Church will include a Day of Monastic Reflection, celebrating and preaching at the weekend Masses, and a special program for teens. If you are in the area, please join us!
Br. Christian and Sharon Colby will conduct a Day of Monastic Reflection to share our vibrant monastic tradition. Our time will include chanting portions of the Daily Office, presentations about monastic life, discussion of one's spiritual journey, and information about our flourishing community, along with ways to visit and support the Monastery. It is being held at the Parish Adult Education Center from 8:45 am - 3:30 pm on August 1. For more information and to register, contact Lilly at the church - (806) 799-2649.
We welcome your gracious donation at the Masses and for the retreat program which will benefit our projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat.
Solemn Professions of Two of Our Brothers
Last Sunday, May 31, saw the Solemn Professions of our brothers Marcus Santiago and Anton Vo. These two men are wonderful life additions to our community for their talents, but most of all for their dedication to our monastic way of life.
It made for a very busy, very crowded, very joyous Pentecost Sunday, with guests from a couple American states as well as Mexico, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Many of the guests stayed for the week. We are always happy to have guests and happy to have them stay a long time. Particularly when the family of a brother comes, it is a wonderful gift for the community here.
Inquiries About Monastic Life
We continue to receive inquiries into our way of life. At present the Abbot is in correspondence with some 16 men who are interested in our life. They won't all enter here. Those who do enter will not all stay. But we never lack serious vocations for our community. And we continue to grow.
At present there are 44 monks in solemn vows to Christ in the Desert and 8 in first vows. Twenty-seven of the monks in solemn vows reside at Christ in the Desert; the others are at our dependent monasteries.
Rejoicing in Our 'New' Truck
A dear friend of the Monastery has graciously given us a used Dodge truck in excellent condition for general use on our property. Our vehicles are in service nearly every day of the year as we engage in our work. We are most grateful for this help!
Living the Rule of Benedict in Our Daily Lives: A Retreat at the Monastery
August 1-6, 2009
This retreat is for all who might feel the monastic pull, to call forth and nourish the bit of monk in us. Together we will explore how to live this claim upon our lives exactly where we are, in the midst of family, work, and community. We will have communal times to explore what the Rule and the monk's faithful monastic living teach us about the discipline of daily prayer, listening, community, work. There will be both contemplative time and time to share.
The facilitators are: Nancy Copeland-Payton, MD, M.Div., a retreat leader, spiritual director, author, and a Benedictine Oblate of the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Idaho. She regularly leads retreats in Catholic and Protestant centers. And, Marie Morgan, D.Min, a spiritual director in Santa Fe, NM. She has guided retreats in both church and corporate settings for over 25 years. She serves on the Lay Advisory Board of Christ in the Desert.
For more information, and to inquire if space is still available, contact Marie via email:marie@merchantmorgan.com.
Welcoming Our Brothers Home
This is the time of year when brothers start returning from various studies and other projects. We should see our population begin to increase in the next couple of weeks. Brother PauLavang, Brother Gerard and Brother Lawrence will all be returning from school. Brother André is coming home from South Africa to spend some time here when it is winter there! Brother Andrew returned this past week from almost a year of raising money for our new community of THIEN TAM. Brother Thomas-Benedict should be returning from a time of exclaustration. There is always a joy in welcoming the brothers home again.
Celebration of Masses and Fundraising Were Offered in Albuquerque, NM
May 23 and 24
Fr. Francisco Alanis Rios, OSB, Prior of our Monastery, celebrated the weekend Masses at Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our thanks to the pastor, Fr. Joe Vigil, and all the parishioners for their gracious donations at the Masses which will benefit our projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat.
Seeking Spanish Book Donations for a New Monastery
We have been asked to help obtain books for the library of a recently founded Spanish-speaking monastery of Carmelite nuns in southern New Mexico. If you can donate Christian and Catholic classics, spirituality, biblical studies, Church history books, etc., in Spanish, please mail them to: Subprior Christian Leisy, OSB, Monastery of Christ in the Desert, P.O. Box 270, Abiquiu, NM, 87510-0270. We will see that the books are delivered to the nuns. Thank you for this help.
Celebration of Masses and Fundraising Were Held in Taos, NM
May 9 - 10
Fr. Francisco Alanis Rios, OSB, Prior of our Monastery, celebrated the weekend Masses at Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Taos, including Taos Pueblo. We also received a second collection at the Masses to benefit our projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat. Many thanks to the pastor, Fr. Larry Brito, and all the parishioners!
Celebration of Mass and Fundraising Were Held in the Kansas City Area
May 2 and 3
Brother Christian Leisy, OSB, celebrated the weekend Masses at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Shawnee, KS. We also received a second collection at the Masses to benefit our projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat. Many thanks to the pastor, Fr. Craig Maxim, and all the parishioners!
Burning Bush Gift Program
Share your love throughout the year, by purchasing your gifts through our Burning Bush Gift Program to benefit the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.
The symbol of our Monastery, the Burning Bush, is taken from the book of Exodus 3.2 where Moses encounters the living God. Share your love by giving a gift that reminds your family, friends and associates that every place is holy and it is possible to meet God where you stand. As the story reminds us, gifts of meaning cannot be consumed; they can be experienced only in love.
Select gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, or any occasion of importance in the following areas: Environmental Sustainability, Guest Hospitality, Worship and Community Life, Education of a Monk, and Family Connections. You can also design your own gift to match your intentions. You will be sent a beautiful card, handcrafted by the monks, to give to your gift recipients as a remembrance of your love.
To learn more about the Burning Bush Gift Program and to purchase your gifts, click on the link "Looking for the Perfect Gift" on our home page.
Fundraising and Fellowship Events Were Held in Yorktown Heights (suburban NYC) March 28 - 29, 2009
Dear friends of our monastery helped us to cultivate friendships and raise funds in Yorktown Heights at St. Patrick Catholic Church to support projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat. Events included a Morning of Monastic Reflection, as well as celebrating and preaching at the weekend Masses. Many thanks to the pastor, Fr. Joe Bisignano, Deacon Greg, and all the parishioners!
Fundraising and Fellowship Events Were at St Elizabeth's in Lubbock, TX
February 28 - March 1, 2009
Dear friends and benefactors of our monastery helped us to cultivate friendships and raise funds in Lubbock to support projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat. Events included a Morning of Monastic Reflection, celebrating and preaching at masses, and a lively evening with the parish Youth Group. Many thanks to the pastor, Fr. O'Connor, the Dir of Youth Ministry, Tricia Rowan, the parishioners, and all who helped us prepare for and conduct all the activities!
Our Solar Batteries Are Giving Out posted 2/9/09
We have just learned we must replace the 96 batteries which store much of the power to run the monastery. We are over 13 miles from the nearest power line, and bringing in commercial electricity would have been tremendously expensive. Instead, we use energy from the desert sun to generate our electricity on-site. Solar arrays gather energy throughout the day and store it in batteries. The batteries then provide power to the monastery 24 hours a day for all of the monks' rooms, (45+), our church, main library, meeting room, corridors, infirmary rooms, craft room, recreation room, reading room, and the three guest rooms in the Ranch House. We are completely off the 'grid' and are the largest privately owned solar-power system in New Mexico.
The batteries are now 12 years old, so the replacement is no surprise, but it has come faster than we would like, and faster than we have been able to raise the funds for. We have already had to shut down half of the batteries, forcing us to rely heavily upon supplementary, and expensive, propane to meet our energy needs. This is a serious drain on our already heavily stretched budget.
Would you like to help us with this critical need? Please contact Br. Christian Leisy at monkchristian"at"gmail.com. The estimated cost will be close to $100,000.00, plus the labor to replace the batteries.
See our website links to learn more about our environmentally sustainable systems.
Our Monastery Stores in Santa Fe
If you live in Santa Fe, or are passing through, please stop by one or both of the Monastery's stores. Your purchases help support our life and work.
At the Monks' Corner, two blocks south of the historic plaza downtown, you'll find a wide variety of items to suit your needs of gift giving or collecting - sacred art, folk art, hand-made items, both useful and decorative, from monasteries and artisans in New Mexico and throughout the world. Our many `regulars' tell us our charming shop is a respite in the midst of a busy town.
Also, come in and sign up to be notified of our long awaited Internet store as well as our special events held throughout the year
The Community Thrift Store, located just off Cerrillos Road, has a fine selection of gently used items with regular markdowns on many items.
The Community Thrift Store: 1306 Clark Street, 505-473-0972
The Monks' Corner: 235 Don Gaspar at Alameda, 505-982-1915
Fundraising and Fellowship Events were held in Houston, TX
January 17 - 25, 2009
Dear friends and benefactors of our monastery helped us to cultivate friendships and raise funds in Houston to support projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat. Events included a Morning of Monastic Reflection, and celebrating and preaching at masses at both St Anne, and at All Saints Catholic churches. Many thanks to all those at both parishes who helped us prepare for and conduct all the activities of that wonderful weekend, and to those who participated!
Blessings from a Benefactor posted 1/7/09
We monks truly rely on the Lord to open people's minds and hearts to us, and to send us all that we need, either directly or through others. Last week, at the close of the year, we received a large financial gift. It was the intention of the donor, who died a couple years ago, that we would be able to pay off a good portion of our debt. We rejoice that, thanks to generosity of the donor, we were able to pay off almost $1,000,000 worth of debt. What a wonderful Christmas gift!
New Monastery Tote Bags posted 12/20/08
We are pleased to offer you a new product which many people have requested. We now have monastery tote bags that are 100% cotton and feature the photo of the chapel you see above. They are perfect for shopping, school, work, travel, and home use. For more information and for ordering, go to the gift shop and then to "Monastery Tote Bag".
Our Brother Makes His Solemn Vows
Brother Anselmo Vargas Castro made his solemn vows December 12th on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He came to us from La Soledad, one of our two dependent houses in Mexico. He is a medical doctor. He is a great baker and a strong worker in all that we ask of him. Some of his family from Mexico were able to travel to the Monastery to share in this wonderful event.
Our New Monastic Residence in Texas
Most people are aware of the slowdown of vocations to religious and priestly life in the Church today. For us at Christ in the Desert, instead of a slowdown, we have experienced a fairly steady growth over the past years and are able to help in other monastic communities and to assist in establishing new ones.
La Soledad Monastery, near San Miguel de Allende in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, began as the hermitage of our founder, Father Aelred Wall, and then after his death in 1984, it became a community in 1987. Santa Maria Monastery, near Xalapa in Veracruz, Mexico, began in 1995. Holy Cross in Chicago began in 1988 and was adopted by Christ in the Desert in 1997 in order for it to become a Benedictine monastery canonically. All these monasteries are attracting good vocations to the Benedictine way of life.
We have just completed the purchase of 297 acres of land south of Dallas, Texas, near Kerens, Texas, for a new monastic residence called THIEN TAM, which means Heavenly or Sacred Heart. It will be a monastery for Vietnamese vocations and in time, God willing, a full-fledged abbey. Our Brother Paul Nygyen Huu Phuoc is in residence there now as the superior and Fr Mayeul Tran Van Thu is with him.
The spacious dwelling already on the property will be remodeled in 2009 to house the monks until a complete monastery can be constructed to accommodate, perhaps, as many as fifty.
Like Christ in the Desert and the other monasteries associated with us, the emphasis is on simple monastic life, celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours throughout the day, along with suitable work to earn the daily bread. In time hospitality will also be offered for private retreats, as we do here at Christ in the Desert.
Next year others of our Vietnamese professed monks will be going to THIEN TAM. One of our monks, Fr Andrew Nguyen is currently fundraising throughout the country for this new venture.
Please pray for each of these projects and know that the monks in each are praying for the needs of the world and for all people.
Our Annual Community Retreat
This year our annual community retreat (November 2 - 8) was conducted by Fr Prior Luke Anderson, a Cistercian monk and priest of Saint Mary's Priory, New Ringgold, Pennsylvania.
Prior Luke is 81 years young but the epitome of energy and vitality, completely captivating us with his fine conferences on basic monastic values, especially that of humility.
His excellent sense of humor kept us quite alert to his points and awaiting his next example from monastic lore that he has seen or heard about in his many decades of life in a monastery.
An expert on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who lived from 1090-1153, Prior Luke wove many of the teachings of Saint Bernard into the twice daily conferences and homilies at Mass.
His main text was St. Bernard's The Steps of Humility and Pride. It was also the text that was read at Table during the retreat.
We feel very fortunate and blessed to have experienced the wit and wisdom of Prior Luke, who has greatly encouraged us on our monastic journey. May God bless Prior Luke and his holy band of brothers at Saint Mary's Priory.
November 15, 2008
We just received news of the death of a dear friend of our monastery, Sr. Jeremy Hall, OSB, of St. Benedict Monastery, in St. Joseph, Minnesota. May Sr. Jeremy now enjoy the rewards of eternal life. Please pray for her and all the faithful departed. November is traditionally the month of special prayer for all the deceased.
November 13, 2008
Today is the 24th anniversary of the death of our founder, Fr. Aelred Wall. A Memorial Page is in preparation.
November 10, 2008
Yesterday evening, Br. Paul Nguyen transferred his solemn vows to Christ in the Desert. He is currently stationed in Texas and is the first monk to be living at our new domus of Thien Tham near Dallas.
Fundraising and Fellowship Events Were Held in Lubbock, TX
November 8 and 9, 2008
Three dear friends and benefactors of our monastery graciously offered to raise funds and friendships on our behalf in their hometown of Lubbock.
Since our beginning in 1964 with just a handful of monks, God abundantly has blessed our life of prayer, work, and hospitality in the Rio Chama Canyon of New Mexico. We have grown in the number of vocations, including those from other parts of the globe. We are being called to expand and strengthen our water, solar, and building projects to increase the capacity live our life of prayer, and to welcome guests of all faiths or no particular faith who come to be still and listen, to encounter God who is present everywhere.
Fundraising and Fellowship Events in Lubbock included a Morning of Monastic Reflection, preaching at a Sunday Mass, and conducting a session for the Diaconate Formation class. At the Morning session our time included chanting portions of the Daily Office, presentations about monastic life, discussion of one's spiritual journey, and information about our flourishing community, along with ways to visit and support the Monastery.
The donations given for the morning program will benefit our projects at the Monastery for environmentally sustainable water, solar power, and heat.
Celebrating New Guest House Windows
From our beginning, we at the Monastery have had a strong interest in environmental and ecological concerns. In mid October we were able to replace our old, singled-paned windows at our main Guesthouse with new energy efficient ones, thanks to a generous grant of nearly $7,000.00 from the Catholic Foundation of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
This help for improving the Guesthouse, which is such an important work for us and the primary source of income for the Monastery, is very much appreciated.
If you haven't visited us in a while, we welcome you to come for the day, or plan on a private retreat (two nights or longer) in our Guesthouse and rejoice with us in the beauty and warmth of our new windows!
For more information about helping us fund the improvement of our buildings, water system, or solar system, please contact Subprior Christian, our Cellarer at the Monastery.
We also invite you to visit the Catholic Foundation's website to learn more about the essential work they do throughout the Archdiocese. www.thecatholicfoundation.org.
Relic of St. Jude
St. Jude was one of the Apostles and was a brother of St. James the Less and a cousin of Jesus Christ. He ministered in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea (Edom), Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Lybia. He was martyred in Armenia. Not much else is known about his life.
Starting on October 15, The Arm Relic of St. Jude was displayed here at our abbey, as part of a "tour" of New Mexico.
This Major Relic of St. Jude Thaddeus was permanently displayed at the Shrine of St. Jude on January 28, 1999 to inaugurate the 70th Anniversary year of the Shrine. It consists of a major portion of the Saint's arm bones and is encased in a silver arm casting. The relic was brought to Turkey in the early 18th century by Armenian Dominican missionaries who were fleeing persecution in their own country. It was preserved first in Holy Rosary Church in Smyrna and then in Turin Italy. In 1949 the Turin Dominican province generously gave the relic to the Shrine of St. Jude Thaddaeus with the hope that it might be treasured by more of the faithful.
October 3, 2008
Today our postulant was received into the Noviciate. His new name in religion is Br. Bruno. When he isn't doing dishes, he helps process Thank You letters and also updates the Website.
September 17, 2008
Today Br. John Dat Nguyen will be buried. He died suddenly Sunday morning in his cell. There was a Requiem Mass for him the next day. His Funeral Mass will be held at noon today with burial right after. We put together a Memorial Page for him.