As a community, we recognize that being a good sister to each other means creating a healthy balance of community prayer time and personal prayer time. Our personal prayer time allows us the opportunity to deepen our personal relationship with God. These times of personal prayer are available to us daily: before our Morning Prayer begins at 7:30 am; during our hour of personal time after our Noon meal; and after Night Prayer at 7:30 pm (see Our Community Prayer Schedule). We also have a personal prayer day (a "hermit" day) one day a month, so that we may spend quiet reflective time alone. A Community Prayer day and Community Renewal Day during the month also allow us personal prayer and reflection time.
Every month, we have the opportunity to meet with a personal spiritual director to share our personal spiritual journey and seek direction for our life of on-going conversion.
Following our Franciscan spirituality, you can often find us spending personal prayer time walking in our woods or sitting inside and gazing out at the beauty that surrounds our monastery. Many of us have prayer spaces in our bedrooms, and we also have our main chapel and a small chapel area within the cloister that we may use for personal prayer.
As contemplatives, our life of prayer is a life of "mindfulness" and being always "present" for whatever happens throughout the day. In this way, all that we do creates a rhythm of prayerfulness and contemplation. Many of our visitors and retreatants tell us that they can feel this contemplative atmosphere the moment they arrive at our monastery.
