Contemplation, Chickens, Community - A New Life!

Peace. Peace. What the world needs now is definitely peace. We need a beautiful place where peace can be found. A place of silence. A place of deep reflection. A place of music. A place of beauty. A place of dialogue. A place of healing and transformation. Community of Peace in Louisa, Virginia is such a place (https://www.communityofpeace.org/). And we need your help.

Twenty years ago, I visited the Christian monastic Community of Taizé in France and everything changed. I was deeply moved by the thousands of young people there. Together with the monks they were praying every day, siting in silence together, sharing meals, working together, holding conversations about faith, life, peace. In that moment I felt a calling to create a similar community here in the United States. When I returned to the U.S. I quit my job and began to pray and work toward the fulfillment of this calling to create a new Community of Peace.

Three years ago, I found some lovely land in Louisa, Virginia - 260 acres of woods and meadow. People started to visit and some wanted to stay and a community grew. People who needed help were welcomed warmly. They were offered a bed and food and joined in the daily prayer, morning, midday, and night, in song and silence. They all helped working on the land and together they changed it for the better.

Together we created beautiful pathways in the forest, planted two gardens, built the second largest labyrinth in the state of Virginia out of quartz stones from the forest, started building small cabins in the woods, and raised about thirty chickens from baby chicks (https://youtu.be/w8uHkbEipMw).

We are now five core-members - Barb, Tim, Sharon, Mary Ann, and Br. Stefan. We share our incomes and resources to sustain our life together. We offer retreats and workshops for those seeking to get away from life's busyness. We offer mandalas, rosaries, CDs, and books in our online gift shop. We continue to warmly welcome visitors into our common life of prayer and work. Three times a day we come together to sing and pray (https://youtu.be/YcmsnAtgopY). We are becoming a little monastic community that warmly welcomes everyone without any judgement concerning gender, religion, ethnicity or political point of view.

At this moment we need your help. In order to keep going we must continue to make our mortgage payments. The month of March is critical. We need to raise a lot of money. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated!

PLEASE HELP us continue to offer to others a place of peace, beauty, prayer, music, silence, healing and transformation.

Thank you. From our hearts to yours - many thanks! Come visit when you can.

Grace and Peace to you and yours,

Br. Stefan