Greetings from Gobernador, New Mexico!  Welcome to the website of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert,  our newly redesigned site.  I hope that this site will be a useful tool that gives you information about our community.  Peace and blessings to you!

Mother Benedicta Serna, OSB, Prioress

MISSION – The Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert is a monastic community of women in the Benedictine tradition. We profess vows of stability, conversion of life and obedience. Our primary mission is to seek God through a life of prayer, silence and solitude. Our way of life frees us to give glory and praise to God, intercede through prayer for the needs of the world and also offer hospitality.

SUB TUUM – This hymn to Our Lady is probably one of the oldest verifiable prayers to Mary. It was found on a 3rd century papyrus in Egypt. It emphasizes the Blessed Virgin’s role as intercessor, and is one of the few non-European prayers to gain popularity in the Latin Rite Church. The words in our English translation which we chant at the main meal are:
Beneath your tender mercy, we take refuge Theotokos despise not our suplications in distress But deliver us from peril, for you alone are pure, you alone are blessed.

At the Office of None this hymn to Our Lady is chanted in Latin:

Sub tuum presidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix
Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus
Sed a periculis cunctius, libera nos semper
Virgo goriosa et benedicta.