Autumn Prayer

     We would like to thank everyone who joined us in prayer this summer.  Our gathering together is a source of joy and strength.

    As we move into a new season we need to make changes since we cannot use our Barn Chapel.  Given the great unknown of Vermont weather, and our own location in the mountains, October 3rd will be our last Sunday Eucharist.

    During the weekdays we will move into the Stone Chapel, beginning October 4th.  Eucharist will be celebrated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:15 pm. Seating will be limited to 20 chairs.  We ask persons who live near the Priory to limit their participation at Eucharist to one time per week.  If the Stone Chapel has reached its capacity number, we will not be adding more seats, and we apologize in advance for any pain this may bring to those who find themselves travelling a distance, only to encounter a full Chapel.

    The other monastic hours will be prayed as usual. The full posting of those hours can be found under the 'Visiting Us' tab on our homepage.  

    The word, "Eucharist" means "Thanksgiving" and we deeply value offering our thanks to God with the larger community.  Please consider these prayer changes, and the challenges of our time, as an invitation to offer ever deeper thanks to the God who has given us life in Jesus' name.  Offering praise and thanks has never been confined to one kind of prayer, or to a few moments of our day.  We are challenged, in Jesus' name, to live a life filled with gratitude.

    We continue to require that all who attend prayer are fully masked, fully vaccinated, and maintain social distancing.

Updates on our Public Prayer

     We would like to affirm what we had published earlier:

        - being fully vaccinated, wearing a face mask, and social distancing -

              are required at our common prayer, and in our Gallery Shop.

    We would also like to affirm that it is a deep joy for us to be sharing our home again.  

    Given the signs of our times we hope our clarity will help us to continue moving forward together.

Reopenings

Our Gallery Shop is now open at certain hours during most of the week. Please click here for the schedule.

Also, starting in August we will be receiving guests again- groups or individuals coming together. The manner in which our hospitality is now organized is a bit different than before. You may click here for more information.

Weekend Prayer

 We would like to thank all the persons who have come to our public prayer for following these requirements: that you be fully vaccinated, wear a mask during prayer, and maintain social distance.

With these requests still in place we will start having public prayer services on the weekends. This includes the Sunday Eucharist at 11:30 am. Please note there is no Saturday Eucharist nor Sunday Mid-Afternoon prayer. For a complete listing of all the prayers please visit the Prayer Schedule posted under the "Visiting Us" tab on our homepage or click here.

It is a deep joy for us to pray together again.

Public Prayer

     As we begin to gradually offer public prayer again we thank all persons who come to our common prayer for following these requirements: 

                        that you be fully vaccinated, 

                        that during prayer time you wear a mask,

                        and that we maintain social distance.  

    Note: If you are not able to be vaccinated due to health issues, we ask you to please contact us so we can make special arrangements for you during our prayer time.

    We hope our home is a prayerful and safe space for all who come, and we hope these precautions will enhance the hospitality that we offer to each other.

    A detailed schedule can be found on our homepage under the "Visiting Us" tab, and the heading Prayer Schedules. We want to mention that we still have our Retreat Days every month during which there is no public prayer.  Those dates can also be found under the "Visiting Us" tab.

    We are a pilgrim people, and this last time of pandemic has shown us how we always need to be ready to begin a new journey.  We hope that as we continue our pilgrimage that together we are sources of hope, strength, and courage for each other and for others.

    During this time we are not receiving retreatants and we are working to open the Gallery Shop soon.

2020 Part 2 Video

We hope you enjoy this video about our life at home during the very exceptional year of 2020.

Click here for the link.

Pentecost

 As a way of entering into the spirit of Pentecost together we wanted to share with you this Letter of Response to Abbot Primate Gregory Polan: responding to his question of our experience during this time of pandemic. 

God brought us out of the distress

and made the storm be still.

We were glad because we had quiet

and we were brought to our desired home…

Give thanks for God’s mercy is upon us.
                                                               -     Psalm 107: 28-31

As the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict says (vs. 11-12): The Spirit says… “Come and listen, and I will teach you the fear of God.” For our community this has been a time of deep learning and deeply recognizing that we together with all our brothers and sisters in this world are experiencing the same distress in varying ways. There are no ones of us who are exempt or more privileged. “God is calling us in love and showing us the way to live.” (RB Prol. v. 20) We have been called to let go of whatever arrogance and sense that we are in control that may easily creep into our life. We want to continue growing into the humility so central to our Gospel call and monastic spirituality.

Through the extended solitude of this time which has limited the usual guests to the monastery, we have experienced a strengthening depth to our brotherhood living in community with one another. We have consciously given priority to what is most important in our monastic witness: the searching and joy in our common prayer; the care for the beauty of creation that blesses and surrounds us; the inspired creativity of our craft work focused more simply and intently during this time; and the gift of this witness that we offer for the guests and friends whom we welcome in our monastic home.

We have also been aware that we have one another to live with and how so many others struggle in the isolation, distancing and anxieties of these moments. It remains continually an invitation to stay present to them offering our prayer, love and glimmers of hope “in the midst of the storm.”
Also, it has been a time for our friends and oblates to explore creative ways that they can be present to one another and not rely completely on our monastic community to support them and direct their prayer and witness to the Gospel call. This experience of independence has been a step forward for many of them to realize that the gift lies within them and among them as they reach out to one another. The Spirit continues to live and move equally in diverse ways through each and every one of us.

This has been a time of radical change, allowing our contemplative prayer and silence as well as our words speak to one another. It has been an opportunity to recognize more clearly that we do not always go forward but sometimes backwards or laterally to the side. However, we can still take small steps and discover together the answers are not always obvious right in front of us but slowly emerging as we attentively listen to the Spirit’s groaning response among and within us. This is the challenge of fidelity to our monastic way through stability, conversatio morum, and obedience.

Your brothers of Weston Priory

A New Video: With song and images of the joy of springtime at the Priory, we made this video as our Pentecost greeting to all. Click here for the link.