by MCID | Sep 16, 2021 | Homily
Scripture Readings: Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9:30-37 A very human trait that often leads to problems is comparing oneself to others. We may wish to be more like others or maybe less like them. We may wish we had what they have or glad that we do...
by MCID | Aug 29, 2021 | News
August 29th: The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God
by MCID | Apr 14, 2019 | News
HOLY THURSDAY—2019 4:00 am Vigils 6:00 am Lauds 8:00 am Terce and Meeting for Monks 9:00 am Work Meeting for Guests at Giftshop and Necessary Work 12:15 am Sext 3:00 pm None 5:00 pm Eucharist of...
by MCID | Feb 1, 2019 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Jan 28, 2019 | News
“The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth the work of His hands,” Psalm 18(19).1
by MCID | Jan 19, 2019 | News
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...
by MCID | Jan 19, 2019 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Jan 8, 2019 | News
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! * * *
by MCID | Dec 17, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Dec 17, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
“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...
by MCID | Dec 12, 2018 | Homily, News
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...
by MCID | Dec 10, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Dec 3, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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.”...
by MCID | Nov 26, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Nov 19, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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,...
by MCID | Nov 12, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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,...
by MCID | Nov 5, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Oct 29, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Oct 22, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Oct 15, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Oct 9, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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,...
by MCID | Oct 1, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Sep 24, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Sep 17, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...
by MCID | Sep 10, 2018 | Abbot's Archives
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...