Last week I spent a few days with Trappist Monks at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. This beautiful monastery was founded in 1944 when a group of monks came down from the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky to start a new community. They purchased a large property and the first monks lived in the barn of the old farm while the monks themselves built the church and monastery. The abbey church took fifteen years to build and it’s made completely of concrete.
The monks begin their day by praying Vigils at 4am along with thirty minutes of meditation. One day I joined them for their early morning prayers and quickly returned to bed. Mass is celebrated at 7am with Lauds, followed by Mid-Day prayer at 12:15pm, Vespers at 5:20pm and Compline at 7:30pm. Faithful to the Rule of Saint Benedict, work and prayer are the two guiding principles of a monk’s daily life.
The grounds of the monastery are quiet and peaceful. At one time, the peacocks of Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor were kept on the monastery’s grounds after she died. The retreat house offers an opportunity for anyone to enter into the prayer and silence of the monks.
Above is the refurbished original barn where the first twenty monks lived while the monastery was built.
The monks have an excellent bookstore filled with great Catholics books and products made by Trappist monks. Next to the bookstore is a gardening store with bonsai trees as well as the Monastic Welcome Center which features the history of monastic life and this particular monastery.
Pictures are mine, all rights reserved.
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