The Monastery of Christ in the Desert

Our Benedictine monastic community near Abiquiu, New Mexico, warmly welcomes you to our Abbey on the banks of the Chama River.

Learn More About Our Monastery

The Monastery Church and Art Gallery,  will be open to daytime visitors, each Monday through Saturday, from 09:00 am to 5:30pm. The Giftshop will be open to daytime visitors from 09:00 am to 12:30 pm and 2:00pm to 3:30pm. 

On Sundays, the Conventual Mass is at 9:15 am and the Giftshop will be open from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm. 

Be our Guest

We welcome both day visitors and overnight guests for self-directed retreats. We celebrate mass daily, and invite you to pray with us.

Support Us

This monastic community is possible only by the generous support of friends like you. While the Monastery is an officially recognized Roman Catholic organization, it does not receive any direct financial support from the Church.

Explore the Monastery

We warmly invite you to explore a photo gallery that shows where we live and how we go about our monastic life.

Monastery News & Homilies

We invite you to subscribe to our newsletters to receive these directly via email.

Holy Week Schedule of Services 2024

Holy Thursday, March 28th: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper at 5:00 pm Good Friday, March 29th: Afternoon Liturgy of Good Friday at  3:30 pm Holy Saturday, March 30th/31st: Solemn Vigil and Mass of the Lord's Resurrection at 12 Midnight Easter Sunday, March 31st:...

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Holy Thursday

Scripture Readings: Book of Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; First Corinthians 11:22-26; Gospel According to John 13:1-15 Each Holy Thursday the Church recounts the evening when Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his closest disciples. At that meal Jesus inaugurated the...

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Daily Martyrology for March 28, 2024

At Jerusalem, around 450, St. Hesychius, priest. He was a monk and served several bishops as a priest. Some sermons and biblical commentaries attributed to him survive.

At Angers, 1794, Blessed Renée-Marie Feillatreau. During the Terror, she was arrested and brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal, where she declared that she would rather die than renounce her faith. She was guillotined the same day.

In 1924, at Przemysl, in Poland, St. Joseph Sebastian... read more

Prayer and Chant

Learn more about the Monastic Day or review our Daily Prayer Schedule.

Prayer Requests and Mass Intentions

We are glad to include your requests for prayer in our daily chanting of the psalms. Mass intentions (including the delivery of a Mass card) may be requested for small stipend.

Daily Prayer and Mass Schedule

All are welcome to join us at daily worship. Click here for our daily prayer schedule which begins at 4:00am and ends at 7:30pm.

Current Road Conditions

Updated on Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, 4:00 pm

We have been getting some "early Spring" rain these days. Forest Service Road 151 leading to the Monastery is being impacted by the moisture, making it muddy in some places.

Four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles should be used for traversing Forest Road 151 at this time.

Road grading is now taking place to improve the condition of the road. Beware of a large road grader at work.

For those who travel on the road, please be aware that there may be traffic traveling in both directions on the road, so round curves with caution. Be courteous and allow faster traffic ahead of you. Simply pull to the side of the road and let them pass.

Safe and peaceful travels.

Click here for driving directions