OUR LADY of the HOLY SPIRIT
✥ Vocations ✥
OPEN to the SPIRIT!
Welcome to our vocations website! The Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit is a dynamic and spirited community of twenty-five Catholic monks living in Conyers, Georgia, who are part of the global Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, commonly known as the Trappists.
We believe in the power of deep, contemplative prayer, and we pursue it wholeheartedly by following the Gospel of Jesus Christ as expressed in the Rule of St. Benedict. In simplicity, silence, and separation from the dominant culture, we balance the practices of prayer, study and work. Our deep interior life, distinct daily rhythms and shared spiritual journey become a continuous prayer of love—to God and for the world.
We love our life and want to share it with you!
SIMPLICITY and SINCERITY
Empowered to seek God together and to offer our lives for the restoration and renewal of humanity, we encounter beauty, joy, and transfiguration through the Holy Spirit in a life wholly ordered to contemplation. We embrace meaningful paradoxes: silence that deepens our prayer and study, work that strengthens our hearts and minds, and separation that nurtures our vibrant communities. Ours is an intentionally ordinary life that makes room for the extraordinary—grace from God and our brothers and sisters that stirs immeasurable gratitude in the heart of the Catholic Church.
PRAYER and WORK
Solitude and community.
We live, pray, work, eat, and die together because we are one family united in one purpose: bringing to fruition the Kingdom of God.
Liturgy, lectio, labor.
We seek to transform the whole person through the love of Jesus Christ in our practices of liturgy, lectio divina, and labor.
Service and sustainability.
We strive to honor God's purposes for creation and honor our sacred calling as stewards of God's gifts in service to our brothers and to the world.
HUMILITY and NOBILITY
PHOTO: Johnathon Kelso of The Georgia Bulletin
Deep interior life.
A Cistercian monk seeks to let go of daily distractions in order to free the mind and heart for deep contemplation. Our activities and attire are simple and humble. Our grounds are profoundly silent save for purposeful speech, spirit-filled song and the sounds of nature. We maintain decided degrees of separation from the outside world—so that we may continually renew ourselves and the world through prayer.
Distinct daily rhythms.
Cistercian life balances the spiritual, intellectual and physical with a life of steady rhythms. Days are punctuated with frequent prayer and worship, the study of sacred texts, and simple, honest work that sustains our earthly mission. Each activity enriches the other, keeping our hands, hearts and minds fully alive—so that we are always ready to listen and respond to God’s call.
Shared spiritual journeys.
Cistercian communities bring together people of diverse ages and backgrounds who share a deep desire to know God, discern his will, and to give ourselves over to his love. We grow in friendship, support each person’s ongoing formation and well-being, and draw inspiration as we encounter the presence of Jesus Christ in community.
Are you being called to Our Lady of the Holy Spirit?
If prayer is your way to touch the world, you should consider a vocation to Cistercian life.