Abbot's Archives

True to form, our Christmas cactus are beginning to bloom. The delicate magenta- colored flowers always appear in December and usually once again in the course of the year. While the cactus is a distinctive Christmas visitor, we monks don't start decorating and...

Egg production typically slows down at the time of year, only increasing after the Winter Solstice, which occurs on December 21st this year. Because of the variety of breeds of our hens, we always have an array of color and size in the delicious eggs they produce....

Advent has begun, the "short but sweet" preparation for Christmas, the celebration of the Birth of the Redeemer, Christ the Lord. We have an Advent wreath, photographed below, prominently displayed in our refectory, the place where we take our daily meals. For each of...

Obedience Everyone on earth is expected, to one degree or another, to be obedient. When you think about it, many people have to be attentive to the seasons, as to when to plant and when to harvest. That is a form of obedience. Countless people in various walks of life...

Hopefully we all have something or even many things for which to be thankful. Every year on the fourth Thursday of November, Americans dedicate the day to giving thanks, and we monks celebrate Thanksgiving Day as well. On Thanksgiving we have our Mass, as we always...

As we monks of Christ in the Desert anticipate the return of guests in early March of next year, it was good to hear a conference by our Retreat-giver this year, Father Joel Rippinger, OSB, on the topic of hospitality. The art of receiving others into our lives or...

An unofficial motto of Benedictines is "Ora et Labora," pray and work. They are really two sides of one coin in being a monk. Or equally true, in being a Christian. All of us should pray and work, whatever our call in life. Our community retreat this year, directed by...

One of the retreat topics that Father Joel has discussed with us is the Benedictine vow of stability. For us monks, stability means belonging to a particular monastery. We don't simply belong to the "Benedictine Order," in the abstract, but to the Monastery of Christ...

Our community retreat continues, with excellent twice-daily conferences by Father Joel Rippinger, the first at 8:30 am and the second at 7:10 pm. Father Joel's Abbey, founded in 1933 and dedicated to Blessed Columba Marmion, OSB, boasts a three-hundred acre farm,...

On Monday, our Retreat-giver, Father Joel of Marmion Abbey in Illinois, emphasized that monks at prayer, either in common in church throughout the day or in solitude, are engaged in "sanctifying time." Praying faithfully year in and year out may be unexciting and even...

Our community retreat has commenced and our Retreat-giver, Father Joel Rippinger, OSB, pointed out in his opening conference Sunday evening the importance of fidelity leading to steadfastness, the crown of perseverance and the sister of patience. There are ideas from...

We are slowly but surely getting our "Saint Maurus Weaving Studio" organized and functioning. Saint Maurus, along with Saint Placidus, were early disciples of Saint Benedict and are both described in the "Dialogues" of Saint Gregory the Great, our only source of...

Each year monasteries typically have some days of what is called a "community retreat." It is a time with an altered daily schedule, affording more time for silence, solitude, prayer and reading. We carry on our round of the Divine Office and Conventual Mass each day,...

Like sunrise, sunset in the Chama Canyon wilderness is always silent, and sometimes simply splendid. Days are definitely waning, with the sun setting around 4:20 pm at present. This pattern will persist, of course, until the winter solstice, a little more than a month...

While the photo today is not of a monastery donkey, it nonetheless portrays one of God's cutest creatures on this earth. The burro in the photo is on the way to Santiago Compostella, Spain, one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the world. Many or even...