featuring the neighbors of my community...

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The images used for this post were taken at the Chapter room and the cloister garden fountain of my monastery when I was asked by my Prior to tour them to the enclosured cells and chapter room of the monks during our first Sunday of the month recreation with them.The Roman Catholic nuns of the Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert share the high desert environment of a 275-acre canyon near Abiquiu New Mexico with the monks of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert. Surrounded by miles of National Forest wilderness, through which a river runs (the Chama River,) our seclusion is assured. The village of Abiquiu (population 300) is about 27 miles away.

Our Lady of the Desert was founded on February 2, 1990 to reflect the feminine expression of desert monasticism. As contemplative nuns, we desire to live a life of silence and solitude seeking God by observing the rule of St. Benedict.

Currently we are a dependent daughter house of the Abbey of the Presentation of the Lord, Jamberoo, New South Wales, Australia. The nuns of this abbey, founded in 1849 (now aggregated to the Subiaco Congregation), are responsible for our monastic formation. Although geographically a long way from New Mexico, with the communication technology of the 21st century it is easy to be in regular contact.

February 2nd is the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. We celebrate that day with the traditional Festival of Lights procession. Lighted candles are carried in procession to the church as a symbol that we too may be presented to God with pure and clean hearts. The story of the Presentation is told in Luke 2:22-29.

Our life in Abiquiu is secluded but our many contacts with the guests and other monks and nuns who come to the canyon for retreat and day visits keep us in touch with the needs of the world as well as the needs of the individual people for whom we pray day and night.

The charism of Our Lady of the Desert is a secluded life of prayer. This means steadfast attention to communal and private prayer. Prayer holds the first place in our daily life: nothing must be preferred to this activity. In addition, as the title of our monastery implies we are especially devoted to Our Lady, who is prefigured in the Book of Revelations as the woman who fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God. (Rev 12:6). She serves not only as a model of silence and obedience for us, but also as a model of discipleship.

Finally, we strive to imitate her in her most ardent relationship to her Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We meet seven times a day to pray the Divine Office as structured by the Rule of St. Benedict. All 150 Psalms are chanted in the course of the week at the canonical hours of Vigils, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. We chant the Office in English, but the melodies we use are traditional Gregorian chant.

We have one hour of private prayer every afternoon before Vespers, and at least five days with the Exposition and one day with Benediction. One of the priests from Christ in the Desert Abbey serves as our chaplain for daily Mass in our chapel but we join the monks at the Abbey for Mass on Sundays and solemnities.