Whatever the size of the Community, the basic Benedictine life remains the same. The day alternates between prayer and reading, the celebration of the liturgy, and working in meditative silence at ordinary tasks. While the nuns work with their hands, their minds are free to ponder on the word of God, to reflect on daily events in the world, and to pray for the needs of humanity.

The large garden helps the nuns in another form of prayer, that of simple contemplation.

Benedictines are taught to see creation as the good gift entrusted to humanity to cherish and sustain. The world is sacramental, touched by God, and capable of revealing Him. This reverence extends to the work of human hands: indeed, in his Rule, Saint Benedict states that we should regard "all the monastery's utensils and goods as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar. " (RB 31).

"All guests are to be received as Christ."(RB 53). Guests are attracted by the warm friendliness of the nuns they meet, and the almost tangible sense of peace. Sharing in the Liturgy can be a profound grace to the ecumenical groups who come. The fruit of meditative reading or lectio divina is a constant awareness of God present in all circumstances, and this relationship with God is the heart of all Christian endeavour. Silence and solitude, life in Community, all foster the individual growth of those called to the monastic way of life.

The daily Eucharist nourishes and sustains every aspect of the nuns' community life, and the sense of communion is increased by sharing in work, recreation and study.

The rich liturgical cycle of prayer, the annual cycle of spring, summer, autumn and winter, all nourish the prayer life of the individual and keep all praying Christians in deep spiritual communion. Both solitude and Community are essential to all forms of balanced living, and monastic life provides that. In this, too, guests are happy to immerse themselves.

Our Holy Father     Saint Benedict

The witness of Christian monastic life is that of faith,
faith in the God who created the world and redeemed it,
and calls all into the fulness of being.
Benedictine nuns have the vocation to follow Christ in a way of life
which has endured in the Church for more than fifteen hundred years.
This is not an easy way of life to describe,
but for those who are called to it,
it is their way of loving God and their fellow human beings.

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