ABOUT US
MONASTERY OF BETHLEHEM, LIVINGSTON MANOR
"Jesus went up the mountain by himself to pray. At nightfall, he was there alone."
Matthew 14:23
The sisters of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno, have followed Jesus in this call: to love and adore God on earth as it is done in heaven, in the manner of the Virgin Mary, and in the manner of Saint Bruno.
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They were filled with gratitude when Cardinal O’Connor asked them to come into the Archdiocese of New York, and sought to fulfill God’s will through the project of this new foundation.
After three of our sisters visited the grounds for the first time in 1987, they sent this letter:
My little sisters of everywhere, you are very present during this trip: began only in faith in the human impossible of the All-Might of LOVE who did not cease placing a series of calls in our hearts : immense deserts await you. God wants to receive adoration, according to MARY and SAINT BRUNO in spaces where the CHURCH will lead you. Forests… immense… immense… lake… clearings… one house… one chapel… all is given with tenderness. It is always the same call:
COME ! AND WE WILL ERECT A MONASTERY
FOR YOU, WE WAIT FOR YOU…
Everywhere: exquisite people who are hungry for something else…
Oh! Pray please so that light and strength may be bestowed upon our little family before this call…
Fortified by their faith and their obedience to the Voice of God (the One for whom they offered their life), the eight founding sisters arrived at Livingston Manor on May 15, 1987.
With the help of many friends, the sisters transformed the immense and wild grounds of an old summer camp offered to them into a garden of the Holy Trinity, with a monastery of silence and solitude at its center.
"Master, where are you staying?” Jesus said, “Come and see.”
John 1:38-39