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.
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.
April 24th: Spring Sustained
We are enjoying an abundance of new life in the Chama Canyon wilderness. Today's photo shows one of the signs of this, three flowering trees and one "still on the way" in our cloister garden. The warm daytime temperatures indicate that there is unlikely to be any more...
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B
Scripture Readings: Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31; First Letter of Saint John 18-24; Gospel of Saint John 15:1-8 Maybe few or none who read this have grown grapes, though perhaps some have. Even if we have not grown grapes, we are familiar with the notion of a tree...
Daily Martyrology for April 24, 2024
In Switzerland, in 1622, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, martyr. Born Mark Roy, he earned a doctorate in philosophy at Freiburg in Breisgau, then became a tutor. He earned doctorates in civil and canon law in 1611. He quickly gave up the practice of law, became a priest, and joined the Capuchins. At the request of the bishop of Chur, he was sent to the canton of Graubünden to preach to the Protestants under the auspices of the new Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. One day... read morePrayer 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.
Our Chanting
We have recordings of our chants available on CD and MP3.
Ave Maria
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 Monday, April 22, 2024, 7:10 am.
Forest Service Road 151 leading to the Monastery is now dry. The road is in exceptionally good condition because it is freshly graded. A reminder that with the warmer weather, there is more traffic on the road due to recreational users.
Although most vehicles will have no problem with the road with current conditions, four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles are best for traversing Forest Road 151.
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.