I had an epiphany a few days ago. I realized that since my highest priority is following Jesus, I need to surround myself with people who want to do the same.

Okay, so the picture on this post is not quite what the monastery I am starting looks like. But it reminds me of a classical monastery.

I want to live with people who share all my values and who want to engage in shared life of spiritual practices, celibacy, and shared income.

In the future we will start a monastery for men. There is a location that would be perfect for this in the valley. The model that I am looking at is very similar to that of The Little Portion which is located only 45 minutes away in Eureka Springs. The main differences is that we will make decisions by consensus inspired by the Quakers, use Sociocracy 3.0 as our governing system, and we will be non-denominational. People who are Catholic, Orthodox, and protestant are welcome to apply.

I envision that part of the 18 acres of land that I own will be partly dedicated to the vegan monastery, and part of the land will be dedicated to non-vegan or vegan families. The monastery will provide a common house, which we already have mostly completed. The “sisters.” will live in the common house in dormitory style. Eventually we will have a circle of domes where each sister can have a small dome in which to live.

Here is an excerpt from their website.
https://bscdomestic.org/monastic-expression

“We are a Catholic-based community of celibate brothers, celibate sisters, singles, and families, called as a monastic and domestic spiritual family into deep love relationships with, and in, Jesus Christ. We share common work and recreation areas while retaining appropriate separate cloistered areas for each expression. Our primary founder is Jesus, our primary rule is Scripture, and our primary law is love.”

This article and podcast describes how original monasticism was dedicated to prayer, spiritual practices, and service to nearby communities.

I found an ecumenical monastery made up of women, called Holy Wisdom Monastery. Based on the Rule of Benedict, I am in alignment with the majority of what they are doing. They have some major value differences, since they seem to align with the social justice movements which lean left. However, I am learning a lot from this very comprehensive website.

Here is an excerpt:

“At Holy Wisdom Monastery, our mission, vision and ministries are shaped by values drawn from the Rule of Benedict: beauty, balance, simplicity, silence and respect for all of creation. We express these values by:

• building community with all who come through our doors
• inviting guests to experience the rhythm of prayer as a way of seeking God and balancing busy lives
• offering hospitality to individuals and groups through peaceful, contemplative spaces, healthy meals and interaction with other people
• embracing justice by respecting the dignity of every person
• committing ourselves to stability by putting down deep roots, which calls us to care for the land on which we live“

I see our monastery as serving the families and singles living in land that is adjacent to monastery land, to the larger neighborhood called Living Springs that we are are part of, our nearby small towns, Kingston, Huntsville, and Marble, our state of Arkansas, bio-region Ozarks, America, and the entire world. We will prioritize the needs of our monastery first so we can better serve the wider community.

In the Mir House, where we will live initially, we will welcome people in the smaller community to use it as a common house where there will be regular rhythms that they can join in of worship, prayer, spiritual practices, bible studies, and vegan meals. Co-working, community gatherings/celebrations, homeschooling, can also happen here since we plan on having internet and electricity.

We will find meaningful work by growing all of our own food, making a nursery of permaculture helpful plants, having on-line and in person classes and retreats, and any other businesses that are in alignment with our values and beliefs. We can start an on-line and in person organizing business because I have a lot of experience in this area as you can learn here. I hope to attract at least one person with entrepreneurial skills who is excited about helping create businesses out of these ideas and the talents of those who join. Perhaps some will come with an already thriving online business that we can help with.

People will need to support themselves financially until we get to a place where we are self-sustaining. I will be working on figuring out those very important details.

We will join with other people and create an online and in person think tank to help solve every problem the world faces. I especially want to achieve the following goals:

*Inspire vegans to become pro-life

*Inspire conservatives/pro-lifers to become vegan

*Inspire Christians to become vegan

*Build bridges between conservatives and social justice warriors/leftists/progressives

*Demonstrate a way of living in community that can be easily duplicated and create a curriculum and training center to make it easy for future founders of communities.

*Help start other monasteries which are connected to householder communities.

*Create a homeschooling school that will help parents to learn how to homeschool, and provide a center for parents to gather in a learning-center environment

*Create a natural healing center

We will be unique because of our vegan and Christian universalist, beliefs. I align with these Christian beliefs and values found here. We will serve on a sliding scale so we can accommodate people of all income.

We will be practicing the 7 Sacred Pauses. Sister Mecrina Wiedenkehr, who passes away recently, inspired me to learn about this practice which the sisters at St. Scholastica practice. Read more here.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

“It is possible to develop a kindred spirit with these rich historical hours that does not require praying specific texts or going to a particular place for prayer. Each hour has its own unique mood and special grace. You can learn to enter into the spirit of the hour wherever you are. No matter what you are doing, you can pause to touch the grace of the hour.”

Here are the seven pauses which enable us to wake up: 

• The Night Watch is a pre-dawn prayer that calls us to vigilance, deep listening, mystery and silence, surrender and trust. 
• The Awakening Hour at dawn celebrates the new day with praise and resurrection, joy and delight. 
• The Blessing Hour is a middle of the morning prayer that challenges us to heed the coming of the Spirit and to bring breathe and blessing to our work. 
• The Hour of Illumination, at midday, is a time to nourish our bodies, recommit to our service of others, and to pray for peace. 
• The Wisdom Hour, at midafternoon, invites us to reflect on the impermanence and the graciousness of life. 
• The Twilight Hour, as evening begins, calls us to slow down as we make the transition from work to home and express praise and gratitude. 
• The Great Silence, the last hour before sleep, is when we review the day, ask for forgiveness and strength, and surrender ourselves to God.”

Here the the values that I hold dear, and people wanting to join will need to share these values. I am not forcing anyone to believe anything or adopt these values. This is just a way to find kindred spirits. I am still in the process of refining these values. Celibacy will be mandatory since we are all single women.

This book, Deep Church Rising is one that I want to study. Robin Parry, co-author, is my favorite Christian Universalist preacher. Now that I am a conservative, I realize that drawing upon past traditions is important. Here is a video where you can get to know Robin Parry and his views on universalist traditions in Christianity.

I hope to have the screening process up and running within a week or so, and to start getting to know people from a distance. I am not sure when people will be able to come and join me. I hope that at the latest it will be Spring of 2021. But I might be able to accept people earlier.

I intend to write at least one blog post a day to update people on progress and inspiration. I also want to create a virtual monastery where we can support each other in our spiritual life. This will help people get to know me and each other, and help them make a decision about joining the monastery or the domestic community.