Abbot's Notebook

Growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s, before the advent of color TV, let alone videos and DVDs or the movie channel, one the five Portland, Oregon, television channels televised the movie, “The Wizard of Oz” each year, one of Hollywood’s greatest films. As color TV was...

Dear Friends in Christ, Holy Week begins each year on Passion Sunday, usually called Palm Sunday, this year on April 14th. With the Church’s evening prayer of Vespers on the Saturday night before Palm Sunday, Holy Week actually starts. In our liturgical tradition this...

Dear Friends in Christ, More than a week has already passed since the Abbatial Blessing here on Monday, March 25, 2019, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. I am happy to report that everything went very well! The days leading up to March 25th were full and...

Once upon a time a father gave his little son some chewing gum, and the son took it but said nothing. “What do you say when you are given something good?” asked the father. “I want more,” replied the child. That is an understandable enough reaction of a little...

Dear Friends in Christ, It has been many years since I have been a regular teacher in the formation program at our monastery, but as abbot I am doing it once again. In the past, I mostly taught classes to the postulants and novices on the Books of Psalms, the Rule of...

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...

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...

Do you remember the day you were baptized? I certainly don’t remember mine. I was all of twenty-five days old when my Baptism took place, on January 4, 1953. It must have been a cold and quite possibly rainy day in Portland, Oregon, that Sunday when my parents,...

Dear Friends in Christ, Christmas greetings and prayers to you and your loved ones. I hope you are having a joyful celebration of the Birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We keep you in our prayers and ask God’s many blessings upon you. Remember, Christmas begins on...

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...

The Abbot’s Notebook for December 12, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  This is the day of the election of the abbot here in our Monastery of Christ in the Desert.  This Notebook goes out before that election happens.  If you want to find out...

The Abbot’s Notebook for December 5, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  We have had a heavy snow this week and it came on the very day of the diaconal ordination of our Brother Bonaventure here at the Monastery, December 2nd.  It did not stop...

The Abbot’s Notebook for November 28, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  Now we are only two weeks away from the election of an abbot here in our community.  Our Abbot President, Abbot Guillermo Arboleda Tamayo, has asked us to pray with these...

The Abbot’s Notebook for November 21, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  This past week we finished our annual retreat.  Father John Murphy, S.J., conducted the retreat for us and it was, at least for me, a very wonderful retreat.  Thanks be to...

The Abbot’s Notebook for November 14, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  This past week I have received a bad cold and sore throat as a gift from others.  I presided at the temporary vows of our Brother Emmanuel Dao Van Rinh, barely able to...

The Abbot’s Notebook for November 7, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  I am sitting at my own desk in my own office once again.  That will change pretty soon.  Tomorrow I begin to move into a normal monk’s cell so that the rooms of the abbot...

The Abbot’s Notebook for October 31, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  I am home once again at Christ in the Desert.  Sometimes I remember how I used to be able to travel and never feel any tiredness at all.  Those days are gone.  I can still...

The Abbot’s Notebook for October 24, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  I am writing to you from the State of Virginia this time.  Prior Benedict and I are here looking at a property that might work for a monastic community.  It has been a...

The Abbot’s Notebook for October 17, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  It has been a relatively quiet week, although some fairly important things have happened.  Brother Charles went to have his fingerprints checked by the FBI.  This is one of...

The Abbot’s Notebook for October 10, 2018 My sisters and brothers in Christ, Blessings to you!  Last Friday night, October 5th, we had four more men enter the novitiate here at Christ in the Desert.  First was Brother Seraphim who is 33 years old and comes from Kerala...