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.
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:...
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...
Daily Martyrology for March 29, 2024
In 326 or 327, in Persia, the martyrdom of Sts. Jonas and Barachisius, monks and martyrs. When they encouraged imprisoned Christians, they were themselves arrested. Jonas was flogged, kept out all night in the cold, thrown into a tub of burning pitch, and finally crushed. Barachisius was tortured with hot pitch, suspended during the night from one foot, impaled, crushed and then had burning pitch poured down his throat.Around 1195, St. Berthold, founder of the Carmelite Order. 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.
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 Holy Thursday, March 28th, 2024, 5:00 am
Forest Service Road 151 leading to the Monastery is now dry, though rutted in places.
Four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles are recommended 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.