REGINA CAELI HERMITAGE
Fr. Mollison (a priest of the Archdiocese of Denver) began the Regina Caeli Hermitage project in the 1980s, building small prayer cabins in order to let visitors experience God’s love and mercy in silence and solitude. The Regina Caeli Hermitage was passed on to the Brothers of Saint John in 2002. The community completed construction on the Dome House building begun by Father Mollison, and this became the Desert House for the U.S. Region of the Brothers of Saint John.
Apart from two months of novitiate experiencing the “desert,” which usually takes place from June to August, the Regina Caeli Hermitage, steeped in the fervent prayer of young religious, is available to groups and individuals that desire to hold retreats in a silent, peaceful place.
Surrounded by the beauty of nature and soaked with a monastic spirit, the Regina Caeli Hermitage offers a beautiful atmosphere for encountering God.
In order to safeguard – in the midst of its apostolic life – the demands of the contemplative life and of silent consecration to God in adoration, the Congregation of Saint John will preserve places of desert where the Brothers can live the mystery of Jesus’ solitary prayer, His adoration and His contemplation. In these deserts, which will be jealously guarded by the Congregation as its hidden pearl, each Brother will be able to discover the secret bond which unites his heart to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary so to live this bond more and more, and learn more deeply that there can be no fruitfulness in his life without an increasingly stronger bond with Christ, apart from whom ‘he can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5).
