Notes, Homilies, and News

We received some snow at dawn on Wednesday morning, December 15th. It all happened very quickly during Lauds and Mass and ceased as abruptly as it started. In these times we are grateful for moisture in any form, and even a couple of inches of snow is worth its weight...

Nothing quite lifts the spirits of the attentive as blooming flowers. While winters can be cold here, mostly in the early morning, sunshine usually abounds throughout the day. That gives a real boost for house plants, providing us with many hours and days of viewing...

On December 10th, the Abbot's 69th birthday(!) we had our first sighting of snow, in the upper canyon north of us. Moisture is much needed and appreciated in any form during this time of drought, so we were delighted when rain fell throughout the night of December 9th...

Someone recently wrote us: "Do you really have chickens?" That alerted us to the fact that maybe our flock is not getting enough face-time. In the photo below, our Kitchen Manager (though not the Chicken Manager), Father Zachary, is proffering the hens (and our lone...

We have a new car! More precisely, it is a 2012 Chevrolet, all-wheel, silver-colored cargo van, perfect for our weekly grocery shopping. It is pictured below. The van came all the way from South Dakota and is a "dream-come-true." We are deeply grateful and indebted to...

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...