Our Life

We are a group of men who have heard the Lord’s call to labor in His harvest fields and have responded wholeheartedly. Following the Rule of Saint Augustine, we live in common and pray the Divine Office together seven times a day, dedicating our lives to a rhythm of prayer and communal life.

Our community has been residing in the small village of Concho, located in Eastern Arizona, since 2021. Known by some as a “living Ghost Town” with only about thirty-eight residents, Concho has a few homes, a law office, and several old, crumbling buildings. Yet, at its heart stands the church of San Rafael, the lifeblood of Concho. Guided by the Lord, we initially came to Concho for a three-week retreat, but after much prayer and discernment, we felt called by God to stay. With the permission of the Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, the Most Reverend James Wall, we have been blessed to live and pray in Concho for the foreseeable future.

Since moving here, we have been actively involved in the community. We live in the rectory next to the church and care for both the grounds and the buildings in the churchyard. Our primary ministry is the praying of the Divine Office and serving in various liturgical roles at San Rafael, as well as at the neighboring parishes of Saint John the Baptist and St. Rita's. We also contribute to the community through teaching CCD, offering parish missions, retreats, and delivering talks and conferences on the Church’s Sacred Liturgy and the Blessed Sacrament. In addition to teaching at the local Catholic school in Show Low, AZ, we have opened a thrift store, a Catholic shop, and are currently in the process of launching a coffee shop and a Catholic radio station. These endeavors are all run by dedicated parish volunteers, reflecting our commitment to serving both the spiritual and material needs of our community.

Before embracing religious life, each of us was studying for the diocesan priesthood. After receiving some formation in religious life, we discerned a call to establish a new religious order while continuing our path to the priesthood. Alongside our desire to pray for and serve the Church as priests, we felt a strong call to live a life of poverty and to minister to the poor. Often, when people think of poverty, they imagine the homeless in large cities. While this form of poverty is significant, it is also the one most often ministered to. However, the poverty found in rural areas like Concho is often overlooked.

In rural America, physical and monetary poverty are present, but even more so, there is a profound spiritual and relational poverty. Many in these areas feel forgotten or left behind due to their remote location. We have felt called to serve these people and to live out the Canonical Life among them, sharing the spiritual fruits of our prayer and lives with those we encounter.

We warmly invite anyone and everyone to join us in our prayers at the parish church, whether it’s praying the Breviary with us seven times a day or joining us whenever they can. The church bells in the steeple call the faithful to pause, pray, or come to the church to pray with us. Through this regimen of prayer, our lives are ordered toward a deeper relationship with the Trinity and with one another.

We hope to continue our studies for the priesthood in the near future, striving to live out the Canonical Life with the blessing of the hierarchy as Canons Regular according to the rule of Saint Augustine. Our main ministry and calling will always be centered on prayer and living in community, seeking to fulfill the universal call to holiness that Holy Mother Church desires for all her children.

We sustain ourselves through our handiwork and primarily through the faithful financial support of benefactors. We sell items at fairs and bazaars throughout Eastern Arizona to raise funds for our daily needs. However, the majority of the financial support needed for our work of prayer and ministry comes from the generosity of the Christian faithful through donations and monthly giving. Our confraternity, The League of the Blessed Sacrament, is a registered 501(c)(3) religious nonprofit, and all donations are fully tax-deductible, supporting our life of prayer and ministry.

If you feel called to this way of life, we encourage you to reach out to us. We would be delighted to share more about our community and discern together whether the Lord is calling you to join us in this sacred mission.