Whoever you are – friend, oblate, guest or seeker – you are welcome to participate in our journey of faith, expressed in our daily liturgical prayer, meditation, Eucharist, and on other occasions when we gather to celebrate the creative action of God’s love in our hearts, community, city, and planet Earth.
We Camaldolese Benedictine monks are part of the great river of the monastic tradition that flows through all ages and spiritual paths, and have been nourished by the Benedictine Christian experience of Saint Benedict (sixth century), and renewed by the charism of Saint Romuald, an eleventh century Italian monk. In his existence he integrated what has become the characteristic of the living Camaldolese tradition: community, solitude, and evangelizing forms of life.
The Camaldolese Benedictine monks came to the United States in 1958, with the founding of New Camaldoli Hermitage in the Santa Lucia mountains of Big Sur, California. Twenty years later, in 1979, two monks planted the seeds of an urban community in Berkeley, California. In 2015 we have received another Benedictine community into the Camaldolese family. The Monastery of the Risen Christ is located in the rolling hills just north of outside San Luis Obispo on Highway 1.
Incarnation Monastery is located in the urban context of Berkley, in the Bay Area, offering a welcoming space for all people who wish to join us in our daily rhythm of contemplative life and prayer.
Our mission is to provide a peaceful and prayerful atmosphere for oblates, friends and guests who are looking for a community dedicated to the ever-new monastic and spiritual life, which is also in tune with the best aspirations of today’s human consciousness: ecumenical, interfaith, and intercultural dialogue, multiracial and multi-gender diversity, concern for justice and peace, solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters, and a growing care for the ecological environment.
We offer liturgy, prayer, Eucharist, meditation, hospitality, retreats, and spiritual direction.