Notes, Homilies, and News
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On Schedule, Our Cholla Cactus are in Bloom for Solemnity of Saint Benedict on July 11th
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time—Cycle C—2019
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time--Cycle C--2019 FIRST READING Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Moses said to the people: "If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the...
50/50 Raffle Winners
On June 30th we had the drawing for "50/50 Raffle." Total ticket sales amounted to $1,585.00. That amount was then divided in half, so the monastery got $792, and the three winners got, respectively, 75% of $792; 15% of $792; and 10% of $792. One hundred seventy...
Summer Newsletter
Renewal in Christ Jesus The Right Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, presided over the Solemnity of the Annunciation of Mary coinciding with the Abbatial Blessing of Abbot Christian Leisy, OSB on March 25, 2019 at Christ in the Desert Monastery....
Mount Athos: Part One
Dear Friends in Christ, This year marks the fortieth “anniversary” of the transformative pilgrimage I made with the late Brother Xavier McGough of our monastery, to the Holy Mountain of Mount Athos in Greece. I promised the monks we met and befriended there in 1979...
Independence Day Prayers and Greetings from the Monks.
Lilies Now Blooming in Our Cloister Garden.
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time–Cycle C–2019
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time-Cycle C-2019 FIRST READING Isaiah 66:10-14c Thus says the LORD: Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her; exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her! Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk...
On the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul Greetings and Prayers from the Monks of Christ in the Desert
Thirteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year C
Scripture Readings: First Book of Kings 19:16-21; Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Gospel According to Saint Luke 9:51-62 Whether young or old, poor or rich, people normally wish to be treated with respect and fairness. Jesus encountered a lack of...
Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist
Every year on June 24th the Church remembers in a special way the birth of the great prophet, John the Baptist. This is also the day of our yearly recalling the beginning of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, on June 24th, 1964. On that day our three founders,...
On Obedience
Dear Friends in Christ, An important aspect of the monastic way, but really a part of every living and loving community, family and relationships, is obedience. Saint Benedict, the sixth century author of the “Holy Rule,” or way of life, that we Benedictines embrace,...
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord (Corpus Christi), Year C
Scripture Readings: Book of Genesis 14:18-20; First Letter of Saint Paul the Corinthians 11:23-26; Gospel According to Saint Luke 9:11-17 On the night before giving His life on the cross, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the gift of his Body and Blood, in the form of...
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Scripture Readings: Book of Proverbs 8:22-31; Letter to the Romans 5:1-5; Gospel According to Saint John 16:12-15 Each year on the Sunday following Pentecost, the Church celebrates the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, our belief that God is One and yet Three Persons:...
Happy Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua.
Trappist Hermit
Dear Friends in Christ, As a high school seminarian, from 1969 to 1971, when I was 16 to 18 years old, we students sometimes made retreats at the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe, about forty miles from where we lived and studied at Mount Angel Seminary. While...
Pentecost Sunday
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 20:19-23 The Solemnity of Pentecost is a splendid reminder of the universality of the love God has for us. At Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, the Church celebrates the powerful presence of God...
Brothers David and Columba, Out Standing in Their Field
Our Calling
Dear Friends in Christ, It has been said that if we spent less time comparing ourselves with others, we would have fewer rivals. And there is the rhetorical question: why do we spend so much time living in the comparison? In making comparisons with others, we may in...
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"Let everyone that comes be received as Christ."
— The Rule of St. Benedict
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