Name: A New Mexico monastery where the silence calls
Uploaded: 2025-12-21T15:41:44.064Z
Duration: 6 min 29 s
Description: The Monastery of Christ in the Desert, in Northern New Mexico, is home to 15 Benedictine monks, some livestock, and a guesthouse for people looking for a little quiet in this turbulent world.

The Monastery of Christ in the Desert, in Northern New Mexico, is home to 15 Benedictine monks, some livestock, and a guesthouse for people looking for a little quiet in this turbulent world.

New Mexico

The Monastery of Christ in the Desert, located along the Chama River in northern New Mexico, is home to 15 Benedictine monks and offers a guest house for visitors seeking silence and reflection. Founded in 1964 and designed by architect George Nakashima, the monastery follows the rule of St. Benedict, emphasizing prayer, work, and hospitality.

Guests are welcomed without requirements and may participate in the monks' daily routines or simply enjoy the natural surroundings. The monks view their interaction with visitors as mutually beneficial, and the monastery's setting in a high canyon provides both physical and spiritual inspiration.

A New Mexico monastery where the silence calls

13 miles down an unmarked dirt road quietly sits the Monastery of Christ in the Desert along the Chama River in northern New Mexico. The monastery is home to 15 monks, some livestock, and a guest house for people looking for a little quiet in this turbulent world. The silence allows you the opportunity to hear that which you are to hear. The sound of bells and the sound of voices chanting seven times a day. When you chant that is prayer and what any monk probably aspires to do is that he doesn't want to just chant the psalm but one day he wants to be the psalm. He wants it to be a part of who he is and his being. This part of the world has always drawn people seeking. It drew artist Georgia O'Keeffe to settle just down the road and in 1964 it drew Father L. Red Wall, a monk, to found a Benedictine monastery here. Famed architect and furniture maker George Nakashima designed its church. When we visited Brother John Chrysostom was our guest master welcoming us among this order of Benedictine monks. As guest master I keep this rule basically we were to treat guests as if they are Christ. The brother happens to hold an undergraduate degree from MIT, an MBA, three more master's degrees and a PhD in political science. Monastery. He was a professor and I was an investment banker for a while so I mean that's not a very peaceful existence even in the best of times. But it was on a pilgrimage the famous Camino de Santiago that Brother Chrysostom heard a voice calling him here. Anyone can visit for a suggested donation and a willingness to participate in the silence. Here the monks followed the rule of St. Benedict, Ora et Labora, Latin for prayer and well work. Which of course you'll find on YouTube posted by Brother David. The abbot just finished cleaning the church, gave the floor a good wax. So the gist of the message is in everything that you do the work is for God. God bless everyone. When Charles Osgood reported on the monastery in the 1990s the monks had just begun working with a new invention called the internet. Brother Aquinas directs the union of inner space with cyberspace. Guests Mary and Joseph Roy from Washington State have found something here a five-star hotel cannot offer. Sun on the red rocks and the river Chama flowing by it's a good way to listen to God to listen to nature. What do you think you can take away from your visit here? For me being more aware of listening to that of God in each person as we talk as I experience their story and their life. You can sweep. The monks asked guests to help with the running of the monastery if they can Mirrors and windows. And Brother Chrysostom says their guests presence is fundamental to the monks calling. We need the world as much as the world needs us. Don't think we're escaping or moving away from the world because we don't need the world. We need the world. Do you need the world because it helps you feel like you're fulfilling what God wants you to do? I guess it harkens back to the desert fathers the early monks who lived in the Egyptian desert. You had monks living these holy lives praying and lives of asceticism and foregoing eating. It was remarked once like okay you're doing all this but whose feet will you wash out here in the desert? So you're doing these things for someone as well and with someone. I was struck by the fact that you ask no questions of anyone who wants to become a guest here. No you just show up as you are and you're not required to do anything while you're here. You're just required to be. You can pray with us if you want. You can eat with us if you want more. You can hike. We ask that you know maybe if you've chosen to come here that you spend some time with us getting to know the community and the place but our schedule is not your schedule. Maybe the quiet of places like Christ in the desert isn't an end in and of itself but by making space for a little silence you hear your calling a little louder. One thing you'll notice that we are in a canyon so we're at 66 hundred feet above sea level right now and so these hills and the cliffs stretch another thousand up and everything and these are all false horizons. Basically when you get up to the top of these hills or what you think is at the top you're just beginning to go up. It continues on so this is a false horizon. This is not the top it's just the beginning of something which is even higher. Perhaps a lesson for all of us on our own spiritual journeys.

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