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Benedictine monks in Chama Canyon, New Mexico, encounter God through work, prayer and silence in the wildernessIn 1964, Father Aelred Wall, OSB (1917-84), and two other monks left Mount Saviour Monastery in New York to scout out remote locations to establish a new “daughter,” or off-shoot monastery. After visiting Maine and Minnesota, the monks came to northern New Mexico and laid eyes on a rancho in the wilderness of Chama Canyon, 75 miles north of Santa Fe. They declared, “This is it!” and established the Monastery of Christ in the Desert of Abiquiu (www.christdesert.org). At a time when religious communities...

(NJ) Abandoned baby boy laid to rest by Delbarton (Catholic High School) students

Dear friends, Around 7:40 AM, a powerful earthquake struck close to Norcia. The monks are all safe, but our hearts go immediately to those affected, and the priests of the monastery are searching for any who may need the Last Rites. The Basilica of St. Benedict, the historic church built atop the birthplace of St. Benedict, was flattened by this most recent quake. May this image serve to illustrate the power of this earthquake, and the urgency we monks feel to seek out those who need the Sacraments on this difficult day for Italy. Relying, as ever, on your prayers...

The centuries-old Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia — already damaged in a spate of strong quakes in central Italy — was "destroyed" early Sunday in the latest and greatest of tremors, its monks said. The monastery was among dozens of building in towns scattered throughout the mountainous region to collapse during the 6.6-magnitude quake that struck around 7:40 a.m., according to reports. There was no immediate reports of fatalities, but officials with Italy’s civil protection agency said there were injuries following the seismic activity. First responders rushed to piles of rubble searching for trapped victims after the tremor woke...

The Portiuncula (small portion) refers to the land in Assisi, Italy, that belonged to the Benedictines. On this land  was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God but abandoned. The great St. Francis had great devotion to the queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly and repair it.  He heard that the angels often visited it, so that it was called St. Mary of the Angels. The Benedictines wanted to give Francis the church but in order to remain faithful to Lady Poverty, Francis rented it from them...

Benedictines of Mary have been featured on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, Wall Street Journal, NPR, EWTN, Rome Reports, Billboard's #1 Classical Traditional Artist of 2012 & 2013, and are now set to release a beautiful collection of Lenten hymns entitled Lent at Ephesus.

(Vatican Radio) A community of contemplative nuns, their cloistered monastery located in the farmlands of Missouri, have released an album of sacred music to mark the beginning of the liturgical season of Advent. “Advent at Ephesus” debuted on November 20th in the number 1 spot on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Chart. The nuns featured on the album are members of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, a monastic order of sisters founded in 1995. All of the music was conducted and arranged by the order’s prioress, Mother Cecilia, a professionally-trained musician who performed in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra of Ohio...

The cloister was founded in order to inform the soul of the way to life. Will their walls receive the dark consecration to serve the cult of the body? (kreuz.net) It is unclear if the Abbey Michealsberg can continue as the spiritual center of the city of Siegburg. The Bonn paper, the 'General-Anzeiger' said on January 26th.

Editor: Another weirdo who is a disciple of Karl Rahner SJ. The Benedictine Monk writes in his newest book that Jesus wanted money for his talks -- a supposition which in any case lacks biblical support. Munich (kath.net) P. Anselm Grün, the famous Benedictine Monk and spiritual writer, has represented in his latest book "God, Money and Conscience -- Monk and Manager in Discussion" seemingly crazy theses about "Jesus and Money". So he says, without biblical proof, that Jesus it supposed to have had charged money for his talks. "Jesus had a purse", he said a few days ago at...

Plants from the herb book of Leonhart Fuchs from the year 1545. The representation is of high quality botanically speaking. The powerful towers of the Church of St. Michael reach into the sky. They overlook the cloister garden of the Oberzeller Franciscans. Sister Leandra Ulsamer grows lavender, sage and hyssop. The herbs grow faster in the hot summer weeks than at other times so that the Franciscans have all their hands full to bring in the rich harvest. "Primroses and lemon balm are ripe in the early part of the year for our herb trees", reported Sister Leandra. "We have...

As a lay Benedictine, I had to say something. Folks, I want to mark today's day in a special way, since I have "bought into" Benedictine spirituality and therefore, St. Benedict is a spiritual father to me. Before I move on to his biography (courtesy of MonasteryIcons.com), I want to say that St. Benedict should be counted as something more than a Father of the Church, but also as a Father of Western Civilization. If the two main threads of Western Civilization are Jerusalem and Athens, we also need to accept the fact that it was Rome, the Rome of...

There has been a lot of chatter around the Net concerning Pope Benedict's name and possible connections to prophecies of St. Malachy and St. Benedict. Is he, indeed, the "Glory of the Olive" or possibly the fulfillment of the prophetic idea attributed to St. Benedict that a member of his order would someday be Pope? I read at another website that Pope Benedict has spent a lot of time over the years making retreats at Benedictine monasteries. So here is my question: Does anyone know -- or does anyone know how to find out -- if Pope Benedict ever officially...

A prophecy by a 12th-century Catholic saint that predicted characteristics of the last 112 popes appears to have been strengthened by the election of the new pontiff today. The prophecy labels the new pope "the Glory of the Olive." The Benedictine Order is known as the Olivetans and has as its symbol the olive branch. The new pope, though not of that order, chose as his name Benedict XVI.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada author Clive Douglas Campbell and Phoenix, Arizona, USA publisher Selah Publishing Group are pleased to announce the release of Messiah: 2030. Nobody knows the day and hour of the Second Coming, but the following years are on the front cover: Messiah: 2030 Cluny: 1030 Jesus: 30 David: 970 Abraham: 1970 Noah: 2970 Adam: 3970 Messiah: 2030 claims the Bible prophesies a sixth Arab-Israeli war will be over in 2003 and include the following: --the Palestinians will be deported to Jordan --Israel will go to war with Jordan, possess Jordanian land east of the Jordan River and King...