Laudato si
While many parts of the United States are in the grips of inclement, or perhaps more accurately, horrible, weather, with record-breaking freezing temperatures, we in New Mexico are enjoying mild daytime temperatures, around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, or higher. This is...News
“The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth the work of His hands,” Psalm 18(19).1We Are in Ordinary Time Once Again!
Raise up in Thy Church, O Lord, the spirit with which our Holy Father Saint Benedict, Abbot, was animated, that filled with the same spirit, we may strive to love what he loved and to practice what he taught. This we ask through Christ our...Mother Rose Teresa
On the Feast of the Epiphany this year, January 6th, a dear friend of our monastery died. She was a Carmelite nun who had been Prioress of her monastery in Santa Fe for almost fifty years. Her religious name was Mother Rose Teresa of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and...It is Still the Christmas Season!
We are celebrating now the days between the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord and the Baptism of the Lord. With the Magi of old, come let us adore the Lord! * * *The Abbot’s Notebook: December 15, 2019
Dear Friends in Christ, This has been a busy week for me! I left Rome on Sunday, December 9th, to return to New Mexico and my Monastery of Christ in the Desert. After the First Sunday of Advent early morning Offices of Vigils and Lauds, followed by Holy Mass, taking...Abbot’s Notebook
“Our Monk in Rome” is now “Our Abbot in Abiquiu,” or something like that. There will no longer be new postings on the “Our Monk in Rome” page, but please proceed to the “Abbot’s Notebook” page for my news and views. At least to begin with, there might not be a weekly...The Abbey of Christ in the Desert Elects Dom Christian Leisy as our new Abbot
On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, the monastic community of the Abbey of Christ in the Desert elected Dom Christian Leisy as our new Abbot. He succeeds Rt. Rev. Philip Lawrence, who had served as superior of Christ in the...Impressions of Rome: Humor in Habit
Just as every school probably has its share of “class clowns,” many monasteries have their share as well. Possibly the same goes for Curias or Generalates, such as ours in Rome. I would like to recount some stories of “humor in habit” in this week’s posting. In the...Impressions of Rome: Saint Mary Magdalene
Each time that I go to the Vatican, or its official title, “la Citta’ del Vaticano,” some twenty-five minutes on foot from where I live, I pass by the large church of Saint John the Baptist of the Florentines, or in Italian, “San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini.”...Impressions of Rome: Circo Massimo
There is possibly a logical explanation, such as “historic preservation,” and let us hope that is the reason, but I confess my surprise that such a huge tract of land right in the historic center of Rome remains undeveloped. It is the size of at least a couple of...Impressions of Rome: Book Presentation
Dom Roberto Ferrari, a forty-something Italian monk who is completing his doctorate in spirituality, lives at our Curia Sant’Ambrogio here in Rome. Ferrari has published a number of books, and most recently, one on the relationship between State and Religion in Italy,...Impressions of Italy: Medieval Memories
Though I am perfectly happy to have been born in the mid-twentieth century, 1952 to be precise, when many of the conveniences we now take for granted, such as cars, air conditioning, central heating, modern plumbing, reliable medicine, health care, the telephone,...Impressions of Rome: City of Churches
As those who regularly read, “Our Monk in Rome,” already know, I have visited many churches in the Eternal City over the past two years. Have I been in hundreds of churches? Maybe not, but probably I have been to dozens. The city of Rome has some nine hundred Catholic...Impressions of Italy: Sleep
Why do we sleep? Scientists tell us that it is a time for important brain processing, blood restoration and regaining strength. All the information we take in during the day is somehow organized, processed and stored during sleep time. Put another way, information is...Blessed Colomba Gabriel
A few blocks from our Curia Sant’Ambrogio in the “centro storico” (historic center) of Rome is a convent and guest house of the Benedictine Sisters of Charity. They are an active or apostolic Congregation of religious sisters who live in common, pray the Divine Office...Impressions of Italy: Monastic Products
I have said it often enough over the past forty-seven years as a monk to have gotten tired of hearing myself say it, but here I am actually writing it: monks (and nuns) don’t receive a monthly pay check from the Vatican for being good monks and nuns. Therefore, in...Impressions of Italy: Bismantova
In August I spent part of a day in a national park in the region of Reggio Emilia of central Italy I was there escaping the blistering heat of Rome, where air conditioning is largely absent. The place is part of the National Park of the Tuscan-Emilian Appennines,...Impressions of Rome: EUR
Rome: EUR Those who live and work in Rome are presumably aware of, but perhaps rarely visit, a place called “EUR.” The three letters are an acronym for “Esposizione Universale Romana,” that is the “World Exposition in Rome.” And what exactly is that? As a place, EUR...Impressions of Italy: Our Lady of Capo Colonna
Italy is a country of beautiful shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well to angels and various saints. The sanctuaries are numerous, and I presume number in the hundreds. Almost everywhere in Italy, and in some cases not so far from each other, one can...Impressions of Italy: Blessed Maria Luisa Prosperi
It seems that almost anywhere you go in Italy, at least at shrines, monasteries and other holy sites, a saint or blessed of the Catholic Church is connected to the place in some way. A recent visit for the funeral of one of the Benedictine nuns of Santa Lucia Abbey in...Impressions of Italy: Elvis Presley
It really took me by surprise, when recently, while reading a periodical published by the Carmelite friars in Italy, called, “Il Carmelo Oggi,” that is, “Carmel Today,” to find a two-page editorial article in the May 2018 issue about Elvis Presley! The piece was...Impressions of Italy: Sister Death
Saint Benedict exhorts his monks to “keep death daily before one’s eyes.” In the original Latin, the phrase is: “Mortem cotidie ante oculos suspectam habere.” As one of my friends would likely ask if reading the phrase in English or Latin: “What is that all about?”...Impressions of Italy: Saint Francis of Paola
I confess that until fairly recently I knew very little about another important Italian saint, Francis of Paola. I could have told you that he was a fifteenth century hermit monk, the founder of an Order and was not Saint Francis of Assisi. Other than that, I might...
"Let everyone that comes be received as Christ."
— The Rule of St. Benedict
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