Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert

FROM OUR PRIORESS

April 30, 2012

Dear Friends,

You are invited to our 3^rd Annual Ice Cream Social Bingo with door prizes, on Saturday, June 23, 2012,  11:30 am – 2:30 pm, St. Mary’s Parish Hall, Bloomfield, NM.  Most of you will receive tickets in the mail, but you can also purchase your tickets at the door or feel free to contact us.  This gathering is also a time of thanks-giving to God for all the blessings since our community began this Journey of Trust at St Rose of Lima Parish in Blanco, NM, four years ago on the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua, June 13, 2008.  We look forward to visiting with you.

Brief update on our construction includes the new 4-cell Guesthouse modular which arrived safely with the first snow storm in December 2011.  We will be sending you more information later as to the grand opening.  Also, in 2011 the nuns from the Abbey of St. Walburga, Virginia Dale, Colorado, offered us their modular Guesthouse units as they are ready to begin plans to build their guest facilities. The first to come was the St. Joseph modular, on Friday, April 13, 2012.  This building (76 x 14 feet) will give us the much needed gathering space for our guests.  The two other buildings coming in the future will include an 18 room unit that will be set up on top of the mesa for the sisters to live in. This will free the lower level for the retreat center.

St. Joseph Modular Building

Please help us reach our goal of $20,000.00, to complete the set-up of the St. Joseph modular building, which includes footing, utility hook-ups, remodeling of the kitchen, adding two doors and windows, painting, furnishing, patio and walkways.  Together we can make this dream of a retreat center in Gobernador, come true.  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

After a long cold winter we welcome the season of spring, the greening of the fields, the budding of our trees, bushes and flowers.  This new life fills our hearts with hope as we begin our 3^rd summer in Gobernador, NM.  Great strides have been made in building our little monastery since our move to this mesa property August 2009.

It was a solemn Holy Week of commemorating the death and Resurrection of Our Lord, the mysteries of our faith.  The Easter Triduum ended with Sunday Vespers in the evening of April 8^th.  We pray that each of your families be blessed with the peace and joy of the Risen Lord during these 50 days of Easter.  

God bless you and know that we keep you and your loved ones in our daily prayers.