The Voice of the Bell: A Walk with the Ancient Celtic Monks

A wonderfully quiet and serene place to read, reflect and meditate. I especially enjoyed the stations of the cross amongst the forest.

This was a fun and challenging class with lots of creativity and clear guidance. I really enjoyed the time and learned some beautiful zen tangle principles.

Sister Monika is a wonderful teacher. She is kind positive and respectful to everyone. I loved my first experience with learning the art and prayerful practice of meditative zentangling.

I would recommend this experience to anyone and everyone.

From being welcomed by Lorraine, to the excellent meals and the grounding of the rhythm of services, I found my time at St Placid Priory to be exceptional. I've had the privilege to attend a number of retreat centres over the years and I can say that at St. Placid's I was immediately comfortable with the Sisters. The Priory stands out as a treasured experience in my life. The accommodations are comfortable with everything one needs, the grounds are beautiful, the forest comforting and the wildlife inspiring. What a remarkable group of professed women who demonstrated the value of community and fidelity to it. My favourite memory - our Soul Circle brought our biographies for the rooms we were in (I was in Heloise) to our evening prayer and we shared and reflected on the lives of these faithful women on whose shoulders we stand. Being with a community of women, immersing ourselves in the stories of the faithful women of the past, attending communion service where for the first time in my life a woman stood at the altar to lead the prayer - it was all so healing and inspiring - for continuing my journey as a woman of faith in the Church community.

On Saturday, July 20, Sr. Anna-Camille treated a group of us to a deep dive into the ancient prayer form of lectio divina. The first thing I noticed about Sister's approach to the subject was her quiet format for the day. We eased into our subject slowly and were therefore able to begin to immerse ourselves in prayer without the distractions that sometimes meet us in our daily lives. We talked about different ways to pray lectio by ourselves, which is the ancient and ongoing way monastics pray.

We really were immersed in prayer all day long, and the atmosphere in the room was deeply satisfying and reverent. We prayed through various pieces of scripture, noticing how the words, when deeply felt, made astonishing impressions on us.

It was a relaxing, quiet day of prayer that was both refreshing and restful. My daily lectio practice has been enhanced by our day of quiet, but powerful prayer.