New Camaldoli Hermitage, a monastery of Camaldolese Benedictine monks, is located on 899 acres high above the Big Sur coast. It’s gorgeous. It’s serene. And best of all, it’s quiet.
Used to be you’d have to book months in advance, but I recently reserved a single-occupancy room for two nights ($145 including meals) a mere few weeks out. Other options include five private hermitages, three of which can accommodate couples; private cells (male retreatants only) within the monastic enclosure; and a guest house with two twin beds. No kids under 16 allowed — like I said, quiet.
Advent had just begun, and everything about the place was conducive to contemplating the birth of Christ and the coming of a new year.
The whole front wall of my room was taken up by windows that overlooked the Pacific and a private outdoor sitting area planted charmingly with trees, bushes, and flowers. The spic-and-span communal kitchen, two doors down, was fully stocked with coffee, tea, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, toast, jam, fruit, milk, juice, and peanut butter.
Dinner was a hearty soup and salad. Lunch, the main meal of the day, was soup, spanakopita, baked chicken, rice pilaf, a green salad, and a red cabbage and pepper salad, all homemade.
Each room has its own toilet and sink. Adjacent to the kitchen area are two communal showers, also very clean and with steaming hot water.
The view, the fresh clean air, and the stars at night were simply splendid.
In winter my circadian rhythm tends to a rise-at-4 a.m., retire-at-9 p.m. cycle, which afforded many hours of complete silence and prayer.
During the day, you can walk to the bottom of the very steep and windy drive, about three miles round trip. Sycamores, coastal chaparral, and toyon blanketed the hills. Scrub jays chattered from the trees, flashing blue as they swooped from branch to branch. The air smelt of wild fennel. Stands of tall, pale gold pampas grass rippled in the sun.
From above, the Pacific was smooth as glass, silvery in the distance and deep aquamarine in the shallows. A line from the Divine Office’s Invitatory Psalm sang in my heart: “He made the sea; it belongs to him.”
The Fence Loop Trail, a mile or so long, meanders into the woods and hills above the Hermitage in the opposite direction. A bookstore, draped with purple wisteria in spring, sells icons, monastery-made preserves and creamed honey, and titles by such authors as Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, and Bede Griffiths.
The chapel is open 24/7, and visitors are invited to pray the Divine Office along with the monks: lauds at 5:30 a.m., vigils at 7 a.m., a brief noon prayer, and vespers combined with Mass at 5 p.m.
The aesthetic leans Zen, but on the feast of St. Andrew the priest gave a wonderful homily. We’re called to leave behind not just the “nets” of our plans and our possessions, he invited us to ponder, but our resentments, our petty jealousies, and our fears as well.
We’re called to respond to Christ’s call even if we feel inadequate, awkward, unsure, and not up to the task.
“Let’s be silent for a moment,” he concluded. “Is Jesus calling you?”
Outside, it was dark already. Rain was predicted for the next day with an 80% chance at noon, the time I’d planned on leaving. The only way in or out of New Camaldoli is Route 1, the coast road, which is dramatic, majestic, rugged — and even under the best of circumstances also a teeny bit scary….
Full story on Angelus News
Things have changed quite a bit, if memory serves, from the time of my visit there around 1980. The guest accommodations were single rooms with vegetarian meals placed on a two-sided box — one opened the door facing the interior of the room to access the meal, which was delivered to the unit by a monk opening the door on the outside. That way you never saw the monk– only the meal. I don’t recall any interactions with the monks at meals as indicated in the story here.. I do remember going to the Church around midnight for the office of vigils (matins). For me this was the hardest part of following the monastic regimen. Here it is indicated vigils is at 7:00 a.m., which is very late by monastic standards.
My stay was a profoundly contemplative experience. I remember on arriving that I was thinking the presence of God was so “thick” one could cut it with a knife. It hope that the changes wrought since my time there has not altered that one characteristic. If the monks are as prayerful now as they were then, I am confident that best part of the monastery remains as a tremendous gift to the retreatants and indeed, to the world.
When I last visited the hermitage, the caretaker’s window next to the bookstore was displaying a large, in-your-face Obama “Hope” political propaganda poster.
The bookstore had pro-gay books.
Fr. Cyprian Consiglio writes bad music for OCP.
The monks chant poorly.
I don’t trust the Camaldolese in spiritual matters.
Not Richard Rohr again. MIght they exercise some discernment?
I prefer the spiritual classics, not the modern authors of the books listed in the article. Except, I liked reading some of Thomas Merton’s earliest books, many long decades ago– before the 1960s era. They were true to his Catholic Trappist monastic calling. The author, Bede Griffiths, was a British Catholic Benedictine monk and priest, whose tutor, when a student at Oxford University, was C.S. Lewis– they became good friends. Griffiths later went to India, studied Yoga and the Hindu religion, and with a few other priests, started an ecumenical movement, the “Christian Ashram Movement.” Griffiths also took the Indian name of “Swami Dayananda,” in addition to being a Catholic priest, and wore the Indian swami robes, at his ashram in India. Not sure what the Vatican had to say about all of this. Griffiths wrote books and lectured in America and other places. This monastery– New Camaldoli– is said to be a sort of “New Age” experiment, combining Zen Buddhist thought and others, along with Christianity. It’s okay to study other religions. That promotes greater mutual understanding, harmony and peace in the world. But the practice of Catholic Monasticism is sacred. The Catholic monk must leave the world– like St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers– and commit his entire life only to Jesus Christ, with all his mind, heart and soul. I have never been to the New Camaldoli monastery, so I really don’t know anything about it, personally. It is located in a beautiful setting! In the 1970s, Ven. Abp. Fulton J. Sheen gave a retreat to the monks of New Camaldoli. He described how the monks, as well as himself, received their meals, in a special box, anonymously.
kinda like monastic Door Dash
Listen to the Rohr of the surf in Big Sur.
The aesthetic leans zen?
Wait…what?
I used to visit during the 1980s too. It was very monastic and very western. St. Benedict and St. Romuald were highly present in the thoughts and prayers of the monks. Many Catholic religious articles for sale in the book shop. You could buy a host of St. Benedict medals and St. Romuald medals that were made just for New Camaldoli. The last time I went there were more books on world religions than the Catholic faith. It is a disappointment when you travel a great distance and have car sickness. When I was a child I visited and the monks were very enclosed. True hermits they were. Of recent date the monks come and go according to desire. The weather usually forces the monastic enclosure a few months every year. The food and the monks were vegetarian. My father wanted to donate meat to them and was categorically refused. I love the monks and pray that they are able to truly do as Vatican ll stated to return to the charism of the founder. I doubt St. Benedict and St. Romuald were sanyasi eastern monks.