by Abbot | Mar 18, 2025 | News
Having had a dryer than normal Winter 2024-25, we were happy to have gotten recently some consecutive nighttime snowfalls of an inch or two. Each time the snow was completely melted by midday, but it provided at least some moisture to our land. Sometimes we even say...
by Abbot | Mar 13, 2025 | News
Spring cannot be too far off, with the return of robins to our cloister courtyard and the days growing longer and warmer. Indoors, the orchid in today’s photo is nearly in full bloom and will remain so for the next few months. The liturgical color of Lent is...
by Abbot | Mar 10, 2025 | News
Although we occasionally make and enjoy pumpkin bread here, we don’t sell it. However, we do know a source of excellent pumpkin bread for sale, coming straight from Hollywood, California! See today’s photo and the contact information below, and give Carlos a call or...
by Abbot | Mar 3, 2025 | News
Several times each week two of our monks prepare and bake bread for the monks and guests on retreat to enjoy. One brother prepares the “no-kneading crusty bread,” and another bakes the loaves in our new trusty Southbend Convection Oven. As a means to...
by Abbot | Mar 2, 2025 | News
The blooming of the abbot’s orchid, featured in today’s photo, holds hope of the coming of Spring. Daytime temperatures here are now reaching near 60 degrees, though nights are in the low 40s. Clearly the earth is awakening from slumber as the days are...
by Abbot | Feb 15, 2025 | News
We are grateful for having received some snow both the nights of February 13th and 14th. The snow tends to melt rather quickly after sunrise, as the earth is beginning to warm up. In any case, even minimal moisture is very welcome at this time. A mixture of snow and...
by Abbot | Feb 14, 2025 | News
Three saints are especially remembered on February 14th each year, whose heavenly intercession we seek. The first saint, popular in both religious and secular realms, is Saint Valentine, a valiant Roman martyr who died for his faith around the year 270 A.D. First...
by Abbot | Feb 12, 2025 | News
Despite predictions and promises from forecasters, we’ve yet to see snow or rain in the Chama Canyon, but we keep hoping and praying for a reversal of fortune. We have been having gusty winds of late, which acts to dry up the land even more. It is by no means a...
by Abbot | Feb 10, 2025 | News
To those on retreat here and day visitors, we monks might seem like “carefree creatures,” who simply file into and out of church and refectory throughout the day, and not doing much else in between. Behind the scenes, though, we all have jobs, some with...
by Abbot | Feb 9, 2025 | News
Each year on February 10th, Benedictines around the world recount the memory of Saint Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict. They both lived from about 480 to 547 AD, natives of Nursia (present day Norcia), in the Umbrian region of Italy, north of Rome. Some posit...
by Abbot | Feb 3, 2025 | News
While over the past weeks we have been experiencing some near record-breaking cold weather, this week we are seeing temperatures climbing into the 60s, near record-breaking as well for this time of year. We often experience “false Springs,” as they are...
by Abbot | Jan 28, 2025 | News
We are praying for snow or rain, and there is a chance of it appearing soon, so say the forecasters. For this reason, in anticipation, we post a photo of “silence made visible,” as the Swiss philosopher Max Picard (1888-1965) described snow in his book,...
by Abbot | Jan 18, 2025 | News
We are blessed with some excellent cooks and bakers among the brothers. One such example is found in today’s photo, apple pies for this Sunday, January 19th. The pies will be enjoyed at the Sunday evening meal, when the monks gather for a less formal supper,...
by Abbot | Jan 14, 2025 | News
Our Founder and first Prior, Father Aelred Wall, OSB, who lived from 1917 to 1984, was a strong proponent of combining simplicity and beauty. He used to say, “simplicity does not have to be ugly.” The principle of “keeping things simple,” yet also beautiful, is...
by Abbot | Jan 10, 2025 | News
Often we’re asked about the many one-of-a-kind vintage items in our Giftshop. We are blessed with a source that is on the lookout for such items, and they tend to sell quickly in our shop. Sometimes we’re asked if we have more of a particular statue or crucifix,...
by Abbot | Jan 5, 2025 | News
For several years our monastery kitchen has featured a non-functioning convection oven. It was broken and beyond repair and needed to be replaced, and so it has been, thanks to the generosity of a benefactor. Often associated almost exclusively with baking bread,...
by Abbot | Jan 3, 2025 | News
This Christmas we were given a most unusual gift: a 4,400 piece Lego “build your own Notre Dame cathedral.” One of our monks valiantly took up the challenge, and his handiwork is displayed in today’s photo. He calculates that it took about twelve...
by Abbot | Jan 1, 2025 | News
Today the Church rejoices in the continuation of the Christmas season and in veneration of All-Holy Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today’s holy image is a contemporary Coptic Orthodox icon, used on the cover of the November/December news magazine of...
by Abbot | Dec 31, 2024 | News
On this last day of the civil year 2024, many people sing the Scottish-origin song “Auld Lang Syne.” And what does that mean? Literally, “Old Long Since,” or less literally “for old time’s sake,” with the first words,...
by Abbot | Dec 30, 2024 | News
We continue our celebration of the Christmas Octave and also recall that we are drawing very close to the end of the civil year 2024. In the Church’s liturgical calendar, January 1st, the beginning of the New Year, is kept as the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of...
by Abbot | Dec 29, 2024 | News
Each morning at the Office of Vigils during the Christmas Octave, we chant “Christ is born for us, come let us adore.” The refrain is repeated several times as we pray Psalm 94(95), which calls us to “Come, ring out your joy to the Lord, hail the...
by Abbot | Dec 28, 2024 | News
The winter thus far (admittedly only a few days old), has been very mild, with no snow to speak of or even rain. We can use both, of course, and pray they might arrive sooner than later. Among our “neighbors” is a family of deer. Today’s photo is of...
by Abbot | Dec 27, 2024 | News
Continuing the Christmas celebrations without ceasing, today the Church in the Liturgy also commemorates the Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, often called “the Divine,” for his sublime words in his Gospel narrative and Letters regarding the “Word...
by Abbot | Dec 26, 2024 | News
The Christmas Octave consists of eight days of celebrations, which we observe beginning on Christmas Day. In a sense, the Church is telling us that one day is just not sufficient to express our joy and wonder at the mystery of our dear Savior’s birth. We...
by Abbot | Dec 24, 2024 | News
“The hands that made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of cattle.” G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) May you and your loved ones have a blessed and Merry Christmas. Be assured of the prayers of the monks of Christ in the Desert throughout...
