While I was visiting Christina and her family in the Oceanside, CA area about a week and a half ago, I took the opportunity to visit the Prince of Peace Benedictine Abbey. It was certainly peaceful up there, although it was windy that day. The place was remarkably vacant, not that I would have expected it to be bursting with activity. I did see one or two people milling around, and I did have a brief conversation with the porter after I tried to get into the gift shop, which was closed at that time (through the window, I did spy a fairly good selection of Pope Benedict XVI's works laid out). After exploring a little bit, I spent some time in the chapel with the Blessed Sacrament, walked the Stations of the Cross prayer walk along the outside of the abbey, and after that, I went to the library to read some periodicals and study their book collection. It might be nice to come back and make a retreat.
Apparently the abbey has been in existence in the Oceanside area for about 50 years, after it was founded by monks from St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana in the 1950s. The abbey church wasn't constructed until the 1980s. It was nice, though the architecture was decidedly more modern than what I am used to seeing -- but then I haven't been to many places like this. Have any of you been to Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside before?
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