Come for a Visit
We welcome all - to share our space of peace, prayer, and nature. We are always happy about people wanting to visit us. Here we want to present some activities to you that are available here at Community of Peace. Hopefully you will find some that you like. We cannot wait to meet you in person. See you soon!
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We always love to have visitors here but please respect our Nature Policy. Our monastic community is deeply melded with the Divine in Nature around us. Please respect this; look, listen, and even softly touch when appropriate - but leave nature where it is undisturbed, including animals, plants, fungus, and minerals.
Visitors are welcome to use the restrooms in the upstairs of our residence house. To get drinking water feel free to use our kitchen (well water). When in the building, if you are not attending sung prayer, please honor our times of Silence in the house during prayer at 8:00 am, 1:00 pm. and 7:00 pm, and Silence from 10:00 pm until after 8:00 am morning prayer. The upstairs is also open to hang out and to enjoy the peace here.
Sung Prayer is held three times a day every day. Anyone is welcome and invited to just stop in for prayer time.
Morning prayer is at 8:00 am. Midday at 1:00 pm, and Evening prayer at 7:00 pm. Each prayer time lasts approximately 45 minutes and is conducted by our Abbot, Br. Stefan. Sung prayer times follow the following format:
Sung Chants
Sitting in Silence for 10 minutes (15 minutes for morning prayer)
Reading Sacred Scripture or a relevant text or poetry, or storytelling
Shared exploration time of the read topic. Each is invited to share thoughts the reading invoked in them. There is no right or wrong and no discussion between persons of ‘what it means.’ This is a time for personal insights to be shared.
Concluding Sung Chants
If you want to get an impression of what our prayer sessions look like we recommand you go to our YouTube channel where we uploaded a few songs from our prayers:
Sung Prayer
On our 270 acres of wooded and meadowed land we have a lovely forest. One of our daily tasks is to build the most beautiful paths in this forest. We have a creek that flows through the middle of our property and it is peaceful to sit there and just relax, listen to the sounds of nature and explore all the different plants that are growing there and all the different animals that are living there. We are always happy about visitors walking the trails. You can visit us any time for that. Please stop at the Resident House (Sophia House) and let us know you are here walking the property.
Walk the forest paths
Saturday Mindfulness Group
Every Saturday Tim and Barb lead a 1 hour Mindfulness Group starting at 10:00 am. In this group they are sharing their experiences of how to be more present in the daily life.
We do a small meditation together and after that we are talking about what awareness means and how we can get into a state of presence throughout the day. We share our personal experiences of awareness from the past week and Tim and Barb try to answer all of our questions. At the end of every session Tim gives us a small task or a thought we should focus on in the nect week.
Everybody is welcome to join this group. You don't have to be there every week. Come whenever you like and if you want you are also welcome to stay for the Contemplative Nature Walk, lunch and prayer after that.
Every Saturday there is a scheduled 1 hour contemplative nature walk at 11:00 am. Those attending it are also invited to join us for lunch at noon and sung prayer time at 1:00 pm.
The purpose of these walks is to - relax - which sharpens our awareness of the present moment. It also puts us more in touch with our Inner Voice for better guidance in all aspects of our lives. The contemplative nature walks focus more on seeing the great kaleidoscope of Creation in nature - the interactions, and the beauty.
Visitors are also welcome to come and walk the paths in our fields and forest at any time on their own. Please stop at the Residence House (Sophia House) and inform us you are here walking the property.
Contemplative Nature Walks
Every evening at 6:00 pm we eat together. We sit at one big table and talk about the day, listen to funny stories and relax after an exhausting day. One person of the Community prepares supper for all. Every day another person prepares the meal. We try to take into account any allergies and preferences. Because we also have a lot of volunteers from other countries who share their traditinal meals from time to time it is always a great surprise to see what kind of food will be prepared. Visitors are always welcome to join us at supper and if they wish they can also cook a meal for the community. Please let us know if you want to join for supper or prepare a meal for the community by talking to one of our members.
Community Supper
Community of Peace has the second largest labyrinth in the state of Virginia made of 10,111 white quartz stones which are all from our property. The labyrinth is 100 feet in diameter and 2095 feet of walking from start to center. The paths are 39 inches wide and are accessible for wheel chairs. Allow plenty of unhurried time for this experience of walking our labyrinth in contemplation.
The labyrinth is available any time of any day. We ask for a donation but if you cannot afford it you can of course walk it for free. The labyrinth is a zone of Silence! Please respect this when on or near the labyrinth.
Our labyrinth is constructed of beautiful white quartz stone - please admire and enjoy but leave every stone where it is for the enjoyment of future visitors.
Labyrinth Experiences
We have a stone-dust floor in our barn making it a rustic setting for holding barn dances, drumming circles, poetry or story telling events. See our events page for any scheduled up coming events.
If you are interested in holding an event in the barn that would be compatible with the nature of our monastic community please contact us at communityofpeaceva@gmail.com or talk to Br. Stefan.
A Barn Fit For Dancing
We offer rooms for personal retreats of varying duration. We also have camping and space for self-contained RVs. Persons on retreat share our residence house for meals and bathroom facilities. In keeping with our core as a monastic community, we encourage all visitors to attend our prayer 3 times a day if they are in the building. Prayer times are also a time of silence for the entire building. We practice Silence from 10:00 pm each night until after morning prayer at 8:00 am. The times of Silence require real quiet - no talking, playing movies, music, or noisy activity. The practice of Silence is a powerful transformative spiritual practice.
If you want to know what other people think about their stay here, check our their reviews.
Contact us at communityofpeaceva@gmail.com and talk to our Abbot, Br. Stefan, to discuss creating a personal retreat specific for you.
Personal Retreats
Tent camping and self-contained RVs are welcomed on our property. If you are coming just to camp and not for a spiritual retreat, please reserve your time through our HipCamp link. We have a few tent sites but permit open camping in our fields and forest. Open fires are not permitted at campsites but we have a community fire circle by our pond that all visitors may use. Visitors may use our restroom on the upper floor of the residence house and obtain drinking water from our kitchen (well water). You must provide your own food and prepare it at your campsite and clean up and pack up all refuse when you leave.
Camping and RVs
Something's Happening! There is so much to do every day here. From cooking, gardening, building stuff or help with administrative tasks. We have work for every interest and are always grateful about people who want to help. So if you have time and want to work just stop by at the Resident House and talk with us. We will find some work for you that fits.