Monks in the high desert, Norbertines in a canyon, sisters who run a bookstore with a chapel in Culver City. These are the religious communities around Los Angeles you can actually visit. Pray with them, volunteer, or go and see whether the life is for you.
Benedictines in the high desert past Pearblossom, praying the Office together five times a day, from Vigils at 6 AM to Compline at 7:30 PM, and you are welcome at all of it. The retreat house takes private retreatants, mostly on weekdays, and you eat with the monks. A separate youth retreat center hosts parish, college and young adult groups. Also: the ceramics.
Carmelite prayer plus real jobs. These sisters teach, run retreats and care for the elderly across Southern California. Their discernment retreats in Alhambra are for single Catholic women 20 to 30. If you would rather help than discern, they take volunteers at the retreat house, at Marycrest Manor in Culver City and at Santa Teresita in Duarte.
Next discernment retreat: October 15 to 18, 2026, in Alhambra
The friars have been at the Mission since 1786, and the province still sends its novices here for their first year, so the men in brown you pass are often just starting out. Tour the church, cemetery, gardens and museum, or come to Mass with St. Barbara Parish in the Mission church. With the Daughters of Charity they also run an outreach center for people in need.
Jesuits have run this Boyle Heights parish since 1980: a school, small faith groups, neighborhood clean-ups and peace walks. Sunday Mass is mostly in Spanish, with English at 9 AM. Volunteering here is real, and so is the paperwork: safeguarding forms, fingerprinting and VIRTUS training before you start.
The Western Dominicans run St. Dominic's in Eagle Rock. Weekend Mass, confession on Saturday afternoons, adoration on Fridays. If you are a man seriously thinking about the Order, a Come and See weekend means actually living with the brothers for a few days.
Next Come and See weekend: October 9 to 11, 2026. Ask the friars where it is held.
Matthew 25 as a rule of life: whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me. The friars live it in East LA, in community, prayer and service to people in need, and they sum it up in six words: "Jesus our all, all for Jesus".
Franciscan sisters founded in Brazil in 2001, now in San Gabriel. Street ministry, retreats and works of mercy, one person at a time, for people facing homelessness, addiction, poverty and prison. Women 18 to 35 can arrange a Come and See visit at the house.
Come and See visits for women 18 to 35 can be arranged at their Los Angeles house
More than sixty priests and forty seminarians in a canyon in Orange County, living the common life St. Norbert set out in 1121. Anyone can pray with them: Sunday Mass at 7 and 9 AM, a sung Latin Mass in the Norbertine rite at noon, and Vespers every day at 5 PM. Young Adult Evenings, for ages 21 to 35, run from Vespers to Compline a few Saturdays a year.
Next Young Adult Evening: Saturday, October 3, 5 to 8:30 PM, $30
Sisters whose mission is media: books, music, film and the arts. Their Culver City home on Sepulveda is a bookstore with a chapel, and Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament there during store hours, so you can stop in and pray between errands. They also run retreats, talks and book signings through the year, and Pauline Media Studies is based here.
Next Come and See Day Retreat in Los Angeles: October 10, 2026, for single Catholic women 18 to 30
Don Bosco's order, built around young people, especially kids who are poor or at risk. In LA that means a youth center on East 4th Street and three parishes, including St. Mary and St. Isabel. Schools, camps, youth clubs: if you want to work with teenagers, this is the order that does it.
Sisters, associates and lay partners in healthcare, education, immigration, prison and housing work, with a particular focus on migrants and care for the earth. Women exploring the life start with an inquiry period: prayer days, retreats and time with the community.
The sisters are moving this fall from Carondelet Center in Brentwood to Villa Carondelet near downtown.
Know a community that should be here? Tell us.