A   Foundation becomes a Monastery

‘My Peace I give to you’. These are the words of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel, words that have found a deep resonance in the heart of each one of us here at our monastery in Western Canada where Master General Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. requested volunteers.

It all began on November 27, 1999, for the first vespers of Advent when nuns came from different monasteries in the United States with the generous support of the Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament in Farmington Hills, MI as the sponsoring monastery.

We started out in Rosemary Heights in Surrey, BC where we lived in a very small house. Two years later we were able to acquire a home on Agricultural Land Reserve in the Fort Langley area. We raised sheep to maintain our farm status and tried to support ourselves through the sale of our monastic arts: of prayerfully created sculpture, liturgical linens, cards, and icons.

The foundation thrived and are now nine professed nuns along with two members in formation.

On October the 17th 2009 the Holy See, the Order of St. Dominic and the Archbishop of Vancouver, affirmed that the our community had reached maturity and could be formally recognized and “given the privileges and spiritual favours and obligations which all Monasteries of the Dominican Order legitimately enjoy.”

We outgrew our temporary home in Fort Langley and therefore have relocated north of Vancouver in the Upper Squamish Valley. On the feast of St Dominic, 8 August 2012, after 17 months of construction our Chapel and monastery were blessed by Archbishop Michael Miller and we are at last in a monastic environment. We are beginning to offer monastic welcome to those who are seeking a time of silence and prayer. It provides a beautiful sacred space where people can get away from the ‘rat race’ and experience the ancient monastic rhythm of life with it’s ebb and flow of liturgical prayer and silence. It is fitting that we should choose a place where the Creator of the Universe can speak to hearts in the silence of Canada’s awesome natural beauty