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SILVER CITY, New Mexico (LifeSiteNews) — A joint community of Benedictine monks and nuns expect to see record sales of their popular “pro-life” coffee this Christmas.
Brother Bernard Obl.S.B. of Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Silver City, New Mexico recently told LifeSiteNews that their new “top-of-the-line” and “made in the USA” roasting equipment produces between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds of Abbey Roast beans every day. In 2020, Bernard told LifeSiteNews that they were producing about 43,200 pounds a year.
“We’re expecting to see record-breaking coffee sales this holiday season,” he said in late November by email.
“We’ve added more brothers to help in this busy operation, thank God!”
Bernard said that the new roaster has streamlined the monks’ job preparing coffee, making it quicker, more efficient and with the increased quality control that results in “far more consistent roasts.”
“If the overall taste has slightly changed, that is because we are tweaking a bit to get the larger roasts ‘just right,’” he added.
“It is a real art of love. And since we are interested in giving our supporters the best cup of coffee for the money, we are always working to make the roasts better and better. It is one of the many ways we practice fraternal charity.”
The Silver City Benedictines also practice fraternal charity by supporting the pro-life movement across the United States with profits from their coffee sales. Their Café4Life program ensures that pro-life endeavors, LifeSiteNews among them, receive proceeds from a variety of coffees. The Christmas Blend, whose profits will help to fund LifeSiteNews this Advent season, continues to make a good Yuletide gift, especially as the monks have kept costs down as much as they can.
“The cost of green beans has certainly gone up following the pandemic due to rising costs worldwide,” Bernard noted. “We had to slightly adjust our prices after almost 10 years with virtually no price increases. We continue to keep our retail prices below the market average so our loyal customers can continue to enjoy our coffee year-round.”
In fact, he added, sales have increased right along the rapid expansion of the two Benedictine communities in Silver City: the monks of Our Lady of Guadalupe and their sister order, founded in 2018, the nuns of the Monastery of St. Joseph. Together the two communities now have “50 to 60 contemplatives.”
“Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother have seen to our remarkable growth,” Bernard declared. “Deo gratias!”
The growth has indeed been impressive. Mandated by the famous Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre shortly before his death, and founded in southern Rocky Mountains in 1991, Our Lady of Guadalupe has over the past three years built a large new roasting facility and gift shop to meet the demand for their coffees. The monks have also expanded the range of their blends. The most recent addition to their line-up is Roma, an Italian roast meant to replicate the coffee pilgrims enjoy in Rome.
READ: Monks sell so much pro-life coffee they need to build new roasting facility
“Our favorite blends this season are our Christmas Blend, which is strong but balanced – perfect for cold weather – and our Roma, which has five Arabica beans to make it complex but a punch,” said Bernard.
He listed also their “amazingly flavorful but never burnt-tasting” Dark French Roast, their “Veracruz Coffee from the Land of Our Lady, the Guadalupana, Patroness of the Unborn,” and their “great tasting Swiss water processed Colombian Decaf.”
“So flavorful, you will not notice it is a decaf,” the monk enthused.
One motto associated with St. Benedict of Nursia is “ora et labora” (pray and work). Brother Bernard reflected that making coffee was only one of the ways in which the monks work, and that they do it – as they do all their other tasks – for one special purpose.
“Whether it is milking the cows after Matins, feeding the chickens, constructing our new buildings for our Brothers and Sisters, or just producing the best cup of coffee for our patrons, it is all the same to us,” he wrote. “Our Brothers and our Sisters perform all of their duties for one reason only: to glorify Almighty God.”
Writing about New Mexico’s traditionalist “pro-life” monks is becoming an Advent tradition, and Br. Bernard said that they appreciate it.
“We are so grateful to LifeSiteNews for their support of our work to restore traditional Benedictine life in America,” he wrote. “And we in our turn are blessed to be able to pray and sacrifice ourselves for the continuance of their generous pro-life work and to help raise funds for LifeSiteNews through the sale of our Cafe4Life pro-life coffee!”
Click here to order the monks’ Christmas Blend. Proceeds support LifeSiteNews!
Claire Chretien contributed to this report.