The Catholic LocalLos Angeles

Day Trip Ideas

Day trip · By car

A Saturday of the Hours at St. Michael's Abbey

The Norbertines of Silverado Canyon sing the whole Divine Office every day, and the public is welcome at all of it. This is a day built around their bell, with lunch at the cafe down the road.

The Abbey's prayer schedule →Changes this monthContact and directions

Prayer, confession and tour times checked September 16, 2026 against the abbey's own daily schedule. The abbey posts changes to it month by month, so read that page the week you go. The cafe publishes no hours of its own; call ahead.

  1. 10:15AM

    Leave Los Angeles

    Silverado Canyon is in the hills east of Irvine, past the end of the freeway. Allow a good hour and a half from downtown, more on a Saturday, and fill up before the canyon. Share cars: parking is easier and the drive is better company.

  2. 11:45AM

    Arrive at the abbey

    Find the abbey church and sit anywhere. The canons enter in white habits and sing the office in Latin; the psalms are the same ones in your Bible, so a psalter or a phone is enough to follow.

  3. 12:00PM

    Sext, the midday hour

    Short, about a quarter of an hour. On Saturdays a tour of the abbey follows straight after it, led by one of the community.

  4. 1:00PM

    Lunch at the Silverado Cafe

    A few minutes along the same canyon road, at 28272 Silverado Canyon Road. Small, local and used to hikers, so a group is fine. It publishes no hours of its own, so call before you rely on it.

  5. 2:30PM

    Confession, if you want it

    Monday through Saturday, 1 to 4 PM, in the confessionals of the abbey church. The abbey grounds are quiet in the early afternoon; this is the time to walk them.

  6. 4:20PM

    None, then the Rosary

    The afternoon hour at 4:20, and the community Rosary at 4:30. Between them you have been in the church half an hour before Vespers begins.

  7. 5:00PM

    Vespers

    The evening office, sung. If the day has a centre, this is it. Most of the group will want to leave after this; the drive back is easier before dark.

  8. 7:30PM

    Stay on: Exposition, Benediction, Compline

    For those who can, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed at 7:30, Benediction is at 8:15 and Compline, the night prayer, at 8:30. The church is locked at 8:50, so that is the end of the day.

Where
St. Michael's Abbey
27977 Silverado Canyon Road, Silverado →