Last month, from July 13th to the 17th, Abbot Christian was able to be at the Monastery of Our Lady of Solitude (Nuestra Senora de la Soledad), in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, close to the colonial town of San Miguel de Allende.
The monastery property was previously the hermitage of our founding Prior, Father Aelred Wall, OSB, who lived there from 1973 until his death in 1984. After Father Aelred’s death, we at Christ in the Desert took over the management of the site and monks have been there ever since.
The community of La Soledad is now under the leadership of Prior Elias, who has been a member of the community for nearly twenty-five years. Composed today of nine monks, eight of whom are professed and one postulant, La Soledad is doing very well, with other men coming this year and next to “try the waters,” in the Benedictine life of prayer and work in a beautiful setting in Mexico.
In today’s photo nearly all of the community is present, though one of the professed monks is missing. He was tending to guests when the photo was taken!
The community is composed of men from Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Honduras. Of course the house language is Spanish, though some of the monks speak English as well.
Now 80 years old, Father Ezequiel, who was Prior of La Soledad for many decades, has retired from that job, but is still very active in a number of areas of the monastery, including being organist for accompanying the chant at the Divine Office, cooking, and giving classes to the men being formed as monks. Father Ezequiel has very graciously allowed his successor, Prior Elias, to lead the community, “letting go and letting God,” as the saying goes, providing an excellent example of this monastic virtue.
With our prayers and greetings in the Lord,
Abbot Christian and the monks
