From the Editors

Writing for America Magazine, naturalist Leath Tonino reflects on the closure and sale of St. Benedict's Monastery in Colorado's Elk Mountains after seven decades of Trappist prayer and labor. Tonino considers what local communities lose when a contemplative order departs, framing monastic devotion not merely as religious ritual, but as an irreplaceable form of ecological and cultural stewardship that anchors human life in patience, silence, and reverent attention to place.