QUESTION: Why do we encourage guests to engage in physical work while they are On Retreat?

Within the daily rhythm of life at Iona House are two blocks of time devoted to physical work / manual labor. Each day our residents engage these times doing tasks as diverse as caring for the garden, splitting wood, raking, painting, cleaning gutters, scooping manure, and more; guests are warmly invited to join in as well. It might seem completely bizarre to go on retreat somewhere and then be invited into some form of manual labor. Isn’t the point of going on retreat to NOT work? Yes and no. We strongly discourage people bringing their normal work to Iona House; that is best left at home. However, there are actually a variety of reasons why we joyfully invite guests to join in the physical work of the Iona House campus.

Some context might help:

First, there is a very long tradition of valuing physical work in the Jewish/Christian story. Judaism, historically speaking, has a high view of working with one’s hands. Christianity took its cues from Judaism on this subject. While Greeks and Romans looked down on mundane tasks or manual labor as something befitting only slaves, Christians saw these activities as dignifying and valuable. As is well-known, Jesus worked for the majority of His adult life as a laborer (Greek: Tekton - can be translated variously as carpenter, stonemason, craftsman, handyman). His father is known to us affectionately as “Joseph the Worker” - that’s his official title in Church Tradition. St. Paul, who was highly educated, was also a person with a physical trade: tent-making. He commends working with one’s hands in I Thessalonians 4:11-12 - “aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands…”

Second, not only is this work befitting of Christians and generally dignifying, according to the Great Tradition of Christianity, physical work has SPIRITUALLY formative potential. There’s an interesting story about St. Basil the Great - the father of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. Basil was initially resistant to doing physical work. Coming from an upper class family, he didn’t have to do it. But he found himself convinced by his older sister Macrina about the spiritual value of doing so. Basil set aside the benefits of wealth and the trappings of an ostentatious lifestyle to embrace a regular spiritual practice of doing manual labor. Macrina was extremely persuasive with her efforts and managed to get a handful of family members to engage manual labor as a means of Christian formation. The result was that, at least five members of this family embraced a life of asceticism that involved manual labor. The experience of St. Basil and his relatives was that manual labor, far from hindering the contemplative life, actually fostered it. This high view of the spiritual value of physical work found its way into St. Basil’s philosophy of monasticism, which has profoundly shaped the Eastern Christian monastic tradition.

Something similar can be said about the Western tradition of Christian monasticism: St. Benedict’s Rule famously addresses this question in chapter 48 where Benedict says, “Idleness is the enemy of the soul.” In the Benedictine tradition, work is a necessary part of each day - alongside prayer (private and communal), study, and silence & solitude. The Benedictine mantra is “ora et labora” (pray and work).

At Iona House:

We offer two blocks a day (9:30am-noon /1-3pm) in which work happens on campus; guests are welcome to join either, neither, or both - whatever is good for the soul of the guest. There is no compulsion. Though we always have needs for help with the care and development of our 71 acre campus, the invitation to join the work is not because we have a need for more labor. It is for the sake of the formation of our guests. Truly. We have seen the fruit again and again. It’s amazing how God has met people and spoken to them while they were doing the mundane work of weeding in the garden, splitting wood, demo’ing something, helping with a bonfire, raking wood chips, etc. Sometimes there is renewal in the work itself - being outdoors, using your body, learning a new skill, etc.; other times there is renewal in the conversations and solidarity that come from working side-by-side with others for a common cause bigger than oneself.

So, if you come as a guest to Iona House, you will receive the warm invitation to join the physical work of the campus. There will be no pressure or guilt if you choose not to. It’s really up to you. But at least now you know the why behind the invitation.

This is the first question in our “Why” series of blog posts:

Question: Why do we gather to pray at certain hours at Iona House?

The Village Prayer Chapel at Iona House

Some history might be helpful: The practice of stopping to pray at certain hours of the day goes all the way back to the Old Testament where we read about Daniel, while in Babylon, praying three times daily. It is such a regular and noticeable practice that it causes him to be the recipient of persecution (see Daniel 6:10-28). This practice seems to be firmly rooted in the life of Judaism at the time of Jesus, and we suspect it was His practice as well. We read about Peter and John, in the book of Acts, going up to the temple to pray “at the hour of prayer”, which was approximately 3pm (see Acts 3:1). This is after Pentecost - demonstrating that the early church continued the practice of Judaism of stopping for three times of prayer each day.

This continues to be the normal practice of Christians into the apostolic and post-apostolic era of the Church. These prayer times were corporate prayers and utilized a simple liturgical form that included Psalms, Scripture readings, and the Lord’s Prayer. Some Church Fathers also encouraged a simple private devotional time at the beginning and end of the day. Scholar Andrew McGowan refers to this as the “three plus two” pattern of the church: three corporate times of prayer and two private times of prayer shaping each day. We can assume that some variation of this was the practice of the Church in the first three centuries.

With the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the early 4th century, the Church went through some significant changes as it suddenly became culturally and politically acceptable to be a Christian. Many people flooded into the Church, causing some to lament the lack of discipleship and formation of these masses of new converts. Though the story has many contours and nuances, essentially it is around this time that we see large numbers of individuals leaving metropolitan areas to go out and seek God in the Egyptian Desert. These people became known as the Desert Fathers and Mothers. They longed for a more demanding and more rigorous faith, a more contemplative faith focused on really learning to pray, a faith that reflected more of the vitality of the Church threatened by martyrdom in the first three centuries. These folks, in many cases, formed communities that became the first fruits of what we know of as the “monastic tradition” which emerged in the 4th century as a distinct feature of Christianity. The monastic tradition was keen to focus on prayer; their goal was to learn to pray unceasingly (I Thes. 5:17) as St. Paul exhorted Christians to do. But to learn to bring the remembrance of Christ back to their mind at all times, they needed to start with specific times. In the Benedictine tradition (the monasteries that followed St. Benedict’s rule), the number of prayer and worship offices became seven times a day, drawing inspiration from Psalm 119:164 that speaks about stopping to praise God seven times a day. So it is the monastic tradition that preserved what was a universal practice of setting certain times aside to pray and worship God each day.

In the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer attempted to re-normalize the notion of daily corporate prayer by consolidating the 7 monastic times into two major “offices” (times of prayer) designed for everyday / ordinary Christians - Morning and Evening in the Book of Common Prayer that he compiled to guide the 10,000 parishes in the British Isles under his leadership. Others following Cranmer advocated for two other minor / shorter prayer times to be added as a daily option as well: midday prayer and compline (compline is the prayer time before going to bed). These got preserved in English Church and have been passed down into our setting.

At Iona House, we seek to echo the practice of the Early Church by once again offering three times of corporate prayer a day, while encouraging guests, residents, and all within our community to also practice morning and evening personal times of prayer. We’re not making this up; we’re not trying to do something extraordinary or heroic; we’re just echoing the earliest normal practice of the Church.

Why does this matter and what does it accomplish? Gathering together as a community to hear the Scriptures read, to listen in silence, to confess our sins, to offer thanksgiving and intercession is a simple but power act of setting first things first. We structure our day in reference to Christ… not meals, work deadlines, entertainment, or anything else. The day at Iona House is structured around worship and prayer. It’s countercultural and deeply formational to our souls. Regular participants will sometimes find that they don’t always feel like they want to be there. But something happens when you do something, not because you surface-level want to, but because you know it is right and good and ultimately vital to your soul’s formation into Christlikeness. The long term effects are undeniable. We become people who learn to pray with “sturdy words” - tried and true words given to us in scripture and by the Church. We learn to set aside our own agenda and more quickly attune ourselves to the presence of God throughout the day. We are reminded that we are not alone; that we belong to a large family of others who are similarly praying. These are just a few of the good things that happen when we set aside intentional, regular, communal times of worship and prayer.

Why 9am, noon, and 4:30pm? There’s nothing sacred about these precise times. But they do nicely anchor our day at Iona House with work starting after Morning Prayer, work ceasing at midday prayer and our daily time of silence and solitude ending with Evening Prayer before people go off to prepare dinner and start their evening.

You can join into prayers with us at Iona House from wherever you are by using the simple prayer app: https://www.dailyoffice2019.com/ (2019 refers to the year of the Book of Common Prayer this is adapted from)

For the next couple of months we will run a series of blog posts that explore the WHY behind a lot of what we are doing at Iona House. We acknowledge that not everything we do here at Iona House is intuitive. But pretty much nothing is happenstance or random. There has been a substantial amount of thought and prayer that has guided the reasons why we do things the way we do them. We think readers might appreciate some simple, but thoughtful explanations. People often ask us some variation of the following questions.

• Why do we encourage people to work with their hands and do physical labor at Iona House?

• Why do we pray at certain times at Iona House?

• Why do we use liturgy at Iona House?

• Why do we practice silence & solitude each day at Iona House?

• Why do we have animals at Iona House?

• Why do we fast and feast each week at Iona House?

• What is a prayer labyrinth and why do we have one at Iona House?

• Why do we offer confession at Iona House?

• Why are buildings / cottages named after saints at Iona House?

• Why is this place called “Iona House”?

• What is spiritual direction? Where does this practice come from?

• Why are we so interested in all things “monastic”?

• What is “The Great Tradition” that we often talk about or refer to here at Iona House?

And more… (if you have a question you would like us to address, please email ryan at ionahouse.org)

Stay tuned for blog posts every week or two.

The newest addition to the Iona House farm are the arrival of seven Rhode Island Red hens. They are content to wander around scratching and looking for grubs. The bring lots of joy to our guests, especially kids. Collectively they lay about 4 eggs a day, which the Residents often share with guests. In a time when egg prices have gone waaay up, it’s great to have these little layers.

The chickens were the gift of Jason Entgelmeier, who was our campus manager from November through January. We are so grateful for his investment in Iona House. We and his wife Emily and their daughter Felicity moved to Connecticut to be near family as they prepare to welcome the newest member of their family in a month or so.

A guest blog post by Amy Lee (reflecting the experience of Autumn Lee, her daughter)

My brother and I are supposed to be at school, but…
today is a special day!

Mommy and Daddy said we are going on an Autumn adventure! Autumn is my favorite season because we have matching names, and the leaves look like sunsets.

Today we are going to Iona House, which is very far away, but I don’t mind. 

We stop to get yummy pastries from a nice lady named, Mary.  Di-Di and I both get to pick a tiny pumpkin, too. Di-Di means little brother in Chinese. 

The car ride feels long, but I like getting to see the cows and horses on the way. 
Daddy plays my favorite songs, too. 
When I feel bored, I think about all the fun I will have at Iona House.

I imagine waking up to the sound of Festus, the mini mule, greeting me from across the farm, “HEE HAWW.” I think he means to say “PLEASE COMEEE.”

When I walk out of my room, I am greeted by a tall Oak Tree. 
I feel myself growing roots in this quiet forest.  

As I make my way to the animals, I can hear the “tweet tweet” of the birdsong. I like it much more than the “beep beep” of the delivery trucks I hear back in the city. 

The air is different, too. My nose likes it here.
The trees sway left and right, left and right. 
I take deep breaths in and out. In and out. 
Time feels slower here, but it also passes faster

As I spend the whole morning feeding the animals, 
I am convinced their tummies never get full. 

They are at peace with me, 
and I am at peace with them.

“Ding, Dong. Ding Dong!” sings the church bell.

It’s time for morning prayer. 
I reassure Joanie, the llama, I will be right back. 
She nods. She knows. 

I listen to the tall people pray, they seem at peace, too.
They thank God, and they ask for His help. 
God sounds nice. 

Di-Di and I explore the land, finding hidden treasures: pinecones, curvy sticks, and smooth rocks. 

After I dig big holes and bury my treasures, 
I go check on Zeke, the baby goat. They call him the “runt,” which I learned is another word for being the littlest.

I give Zeke all my leftover apple slices and strawberry tops so he can grow big like me.
He told me I’m his favorite. He’s mine, too. 

“Ding, Dong. Ding Dong!” sings the church bell.

It’s time for afternoon prayer. 
I reassure Zeke, I’ll be right back. 
He nods. He knows. 

The tall people pray again. 
They thank God for more things and ask for more help.
God must be a good listener. 

Lunch time is outside.
I choose a seat where I can see all the animals,
just in case they need me. 

After lunch, me and Di-Di play in the sandbox. 
Mink, my funny horse friend, watches me from her stable. 
I think she wishes she could play with me, 
But the sandbox isn’t very big. 

We go to the garden after our nap, 
There’s lots of yummy snacks to eat. 

Peas grow next to flowers, 
tomatoes shine like rubies, 
and apples dangle just low enough for me to reach.

I learn a lot at Iona House. 
I even learned a new word, “strobili”. 
It’s the name for a pine tree flower. 

It also rhymes with “so silly,” 
Which makes sense to me. 

After my nap, I visit my friends again.
I think Joanie really missed me. 
I tell her I missed her, too. 

The animals are slower in the afternoon. 
I wonder if they need a nap, too. 
Or maybe a snack. (*shovels orchard grass*)

I walk over to Mink and call her name. 
She stops chewing and looks at me, 
Which makes me think she’s a good listener, too. 
Just like God. 

Mommy says I can read her a book.
I forgot my books so I make up one instead. 
Mink pays close attention. 

“Ding, Dong. Ding Dong!” sings the church bell.

It’s time for evening prayer. 
I reassure Mink, I’ll be right back. 
She nods. She knows. 

The tall people pray again. 
They thank God again and ask for His help again.
I thank Him too, for my friends, and ask Him to help me see them again soon. 

After dinner and a cranberry cookie, 
It’s time for choir practice. 
The tall people sing together in a small room with pretty lights. 
They all sound different, 
But they sing the same words. 

When no one is looking, 
I will sing, too. 
Not very loud, but that’s okay. 
God’s a good listener. 

I am imagining the smell of smores and the glittery stars when suddenly I feel the car slowing down. Daddy says, “One minute away!”

He parks the car and as I unbuckle my seatbelt, I hear, “HEE HAWW.” 

I jump out, “Coming, Festus!”

One of the great joys of Iona House is getting to see elements of the property redeemed and repurposed. This post is about one particular story: the wood stalls in the village barn.

Upon purchasing the property 18 months ago, we inherited a barn that needed some renovation. Within the barn were some stalls / dividers that were made out of rugged, rough-hewn lumber of an unknown variety - perhaps fir. These planks were more than 2 inches thick and as long as 10 feet. They are from slow-growth, high quality trees… beautiful lumber. When we took down the stalls, we set these aside as potential benches.

Fast-forward to this summer: we had a few guests begin to help us refinish a couple of these planks: cleaning, planing, sanding, cutting. But the work was slow. A little over a month ago, a new local volunteer named Kevin Park started coming on campus weekly to assist. I showed him this project and he jumped at the opportunity. Over the past 4-6 weeks, Kevin has poured himself into completing this project. It has been a labor of love and the results are stunning.

We now have 3 new benches with backrests along with two new bench seats. These have found a home in the village prayer chapel allowing us to squeeze in as many as 24 people for prayer. Like our own lives, which God is in the business of redeeming, we are seeking to redeem, restore, and repurpose everything we can on this property. It’s a key part of cultivating a place to reimagine all of life in reference to Christ.

It is written in Genesis 2:15:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

The one of the earliest instructions for humankind that occurs in the Scriptures is to assume responsibility for the stewardship of the land.  The Iona House community has been blessed with 71 acres of biologically-diverse forest land.  The tree species represented on the property include Douglas-fir, black oak, ponderosa pine, incense-cedar, sugar pine, Pacific madrone, and flowering dogwood.  In an effort to be good stewards of this land, we now have a forestry team that is currently conducting a preliminary inventory of our forest.  This team is led by Harlan Young, a Humboldt State University forestry graduate and a Certified Arborist, who began working in the forestry profession in 1986.  He is being assisted by two forestry aids, Catherine (“Cat”) Young and Joshua (“Josh”) Brindley, whom Harlan has trained in basic forest sampling methods.

In contrast to industrial forestry, which prioritizes maximizing the yield of merchantable timber and forest products, our team is practicing what is called ecological forestry.  Ecological forestry is primarily concerned with the perpetuation of healthy, diverse, and whole forest ecosystems.  With this approach, the harvesting of timber is designed to mimic naturally-occurring cycles of disturbance and recovery, such as a low to moderate intensity lightning fire, followed the germination and growth of new vegetation.  Such cycles not only promote the regeneration of trees, shrubs and forbs, it also helps prevent high concentrations of fuel that can cause high-intensity, catastrophic fires.  However, environmentally responsible timber harvesting can also generate revenue for the land owner.

The manipulation of the forest environment should never be done without a plan that includes specific management objectives.  Such a plan can’t be developed without a scientifically valid assessment of the current condition of the forest, which is the purpose of this forest inventory. A grid has been laid out consisting of 1/10th-acre plots which are roughly evenly-distributed throughout the entire property, providing a representative sample of the forest as a whole.  The combined area of all of the sample plots will equal 14.2 acres, which is 20% of the entire 71 acres.  Within each plot, the team identifies tree species, counts the number of trees, and measures the heights and diameters of merchantable-sized trees.  With this data, the team can determine tree species composition and calculate forest density (the number of trees per acre), basal area (the square footage area that is occupied by tree trunks), and the volume of potentially merchantable timber.  The tree height data also provides information about the forest canopy structure.  All of this information is essential for making management decisions that are ecologically and economically sound.

What’s particularly unique about our forestry initiative is that the spiritual formation and health of the forestry team is just as important as the care of the land.  Crew members take time out of their field work to participate in the morning, afternoon, and evening prayer offices, as well as special, Iona Community events.  

There’s room on the team for more volunteer forestry aides!  Anyone interested in gaining some knowledge and skills in forestry and desiring to contribute to the care of the land can contact Harlan by email at harlanyoung63@gmail.com.

From the moment we first laid eyes on what we have come to call the “village barn”, we knew it had potential to become something special. It was a diamond in the rough. Most of the “rough” was enormous amounts of junk, clutter, and filth that often take over a country barn. But it had great bones and was located in a central space. Over the past 18 months it has become the “watering hole” of the Iona House Village.

This week, the barn took a huge leap forward. It got a floor! We had a donor come forward who was willing to sponsor the floor and yesterday the concrete got poured. It turned out beautiful. The project was more complicated than we thought - involving jack-hammering out unhelpful old stem-walls, replacing rotting posts, setting new concrete bases, and much more. But now this space is incredibly usable. Timing couldn’t be better as rain is predicted next week!

Here are some pictures showing the barn transformation over time… (there’s still a lot more to do. Anyone want to sponsor new windows?!)

The barn as we found it when we purchased the land.

Full of lots of old, dusty stuff... much of it of no use to us.

Adding gravel to the barn floor to address the dust and mud

The volunteer crew from Holy Trinity Church in Silicon Valley

New paint and new front stained glass (the old window is now inside the barn featured with a light box)

getting ready for concrete

Over the past number of months have had a lot of random tools and supplies that didn’t have a home at Iona House - especially after we cleared out the barn to make way for some upgrades (a slab floor, new windows, etc. - a project coming soon, Lord willing). Our tool shed, where these things were supposed to live, was a disheveled mess. Our stuff was disorganized and hard to find. Nothing had a home and it was frustrating to any person who went looking for a particular item.

Enter Amy Lin, who was on retreat at Iona House and mentioned that she knew the amazing folks at Trinity - a storage / organization system company whose products you may have seen at Costco amongst other places. Anyway, she was able to make a connection to the owners of this business who then graciously and generously donated a bunch of phenomenal storage / organizational systems to Iona House.

The result: A transformed tool shed where everything fits and everything has a place. It has been an amazing gift. It’s one of the many gifts that makes Iona House happen - as everything here happens in an economy of generosity / gifts. We’re so grateful to Cze, Cindy, and the whole Trinity crew. Your gift has transformed one small, but important part of Iona House.

Pictured below are the folks who spent a few days building, sorting, and organizing all of our tool / storage shed.

We were blessed to welcome approx. 125 guests to joyfully celebrate a phenomenal first year of the village (the village being the 40 acres that have homes, outbuildings, animals, etc. on them). We offered tours, a chance to meet our animals, appetizers, evening prayer, and a delicious dinner. We also featured a couple of panels to hear about the experience of various folks: participants in Iona House and Residents at Iona House.

Executive Director / Cofounder Rev. Ryan Jones shared a few thoughts on the importance and purpose of Iona House at the event. You can find a transcript below.

Vision Comments - 1 Year Celebration (5/18/24)

When I think about Iona House and what we have to offer, it strikes me that what we have to offer might seem somewhat mundane or even trivial. We have land, a few houses, a bunch of animals, a garden, and a lot of trees. 

We don’t have a solution to world hunger; we don’t have an answer to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine; we can’t solve drug addiction, gun violence, political polarization, cancer or homelessness. 

What we have to offer is something far more basic and foundational… but I might argue important: We have a place to encounter God… a place to learn a way of life characterized by Communion. We offer sacred space and sacred time - amidst a beautiful, ongoing community of others who all desire the same.

We are convinced that amidst many challenges in our world, our most acute need is not first and foremost a solution to our next pressing set of circumstances or the next urgent crisis. Our most pressing need is union with Christ. Our most pressing need, the thing that is most important, most vital is to learn to abide in Christ. 

As Jesus tells Martha in Luke chapter 10 in the famous story of the two sisters from Bethany: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed - indeed only one.” He is, of course, referring to what Martha’s sister Mary is doing - sitting at His feet, completely enraptured by Him… totally attuned to Him.

In a world full of many, many needs and concerns, Mary of Bethany shows us the way. The long history of the Christian tradition tells us that one thing takes priority over everything else: Contemplation. Contemplation precedes action… both in priority and, ideally, in terms of chronology, because contemplation informs and guides right action. Our invitation is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to gaze upon Him, to delight in Him, and to make our home in Him. 

But here’s the thing, while many of us will likely nod our heads in agreement (in theory), what we discover in practice is that it can be quite difficult to live this way. We might learn a few disciplines and read some books. But to really learn to live this way, we need more. 

And this is where the vision of Iona House fits in. What we are partnering together to cultivate here is a place to learn this way of life. It’s a place where everything about what we’re doing is seeking to draw ourselves and others into the contemplative way of life. The way we talk about it is that Iona House is a place to reimagine all of life in reference to Christ. 

What we’re pointing to in that phrase is the Mary of Bethany way of life. Jesus is the reference point for everything. We’re a little village that lives not in reference to the agenda of your boss or in reference to the political drama playing out in our society. We’re a little village in which all of life is oriented toward Christ. And this little colony of heaven is not so much a retreat from the challenges of life as it is an advance toward what matters most in life. 

I might be a bit biased, but I believe with all my heart that what we are cultivating here matters. It has eternal weightiness to it. 

The vision that God gave me and Elizabeth nearly 6 years ago now was not merely a “retreat center”, but a place that had the potential to reshape imagination. Because what matters most about Iona House is not what happens here, but ultimately how it reshapes peoples’ lives back home in their domestic settings. 

And the key to this is imagination. Imagination is that unique capacity that we have been given by God to picture, feel, sense, and conceive of a life that is different from how it currently is. This is not primarily a cognitive thing. Imagination is rich and multifaceted. And if you drill into it, imagination is most potently shaped by experience, particularly holistic communal experiences. We are, after all, social creatures. 

It’s one thing to read a book. It’s another to go and taste and see a different way to live… to feel it in your body and to experience it in action. This is why Iona House is not merely the equivalent of a Christian AirBnB or a remote cabin in the woods. No, this place is a living community that can only happen because of on-site residents and a local community that is engaged in the rhythm of life happening here. The communal nature is essential… as is the rhythm of life that includes mundane things like manual labor and shared meals. 

Our vision does not merely stop at Iona House. It continues into households and churches. We believe that part of our mission is to inspire a richer, more beautiful communal life in churches back home. This is a place to see, taste, and experience that vision. 

We want people to be able to imagine a life that exists beyond consumerism and the greed of capitalism. This is why it’s not accidental that everything about Iona House happens according to a gift economy, which is anchored in the very character of God and is most prominently exhibited in the sacrificial generosity of Jesus Himself. 

How do we learn the way of grace and generosity that we know to be the theological heart of the gospel if everything about our life is transactional and driven by profit or motivated by fear of scarcity?

Anyway, the point of what I’m saying is that we must EXPERIENCE a different paradigm. And it must be a potent enough experience to reshape our paradigms. Otherwise all we’re left doing in life is trying to cram a little bit more of Jesus into an American, consumerist, individualist paradigm of life. 

We’re convinced there is a better way. A way that is filled with wonder and spaciousness and joy. A way of life that is shaped by hospitality and generosity. One that is rich in relationships and which requires interdependence. A way of life that is holistic… that honors the head, heart, and hands… not just one part of our humanity. And most importantly of all, a way of life that has as its reference point Jesus - not the news cycle; not technology; not economic profit or our boss’s agenda… and most importantly, NOT OURSELVES. 

We desire a place where Jesus is the center of everything - the One who is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Who is the bread of life, light of the world, who is life itself. 

If Iona House is doing things right, we will operate as a little colony of heaven… a place that gestures toward the future… toward the telos… the end of all things… toward the New Creation where Christ is all and in all. Toward a way of life that is defined by Communion and abiding in Christ.  

Here in the present we are easily confused about what matters and what life is actually about. So Iona House exists to bring clarity to what actually matters. 

So I say all of this to tell you that what you are partnering with us to do could not be more important. In the words of Jesus “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed - indeed only one.” 

Thank you for your incredible generosity, your enthusiasm, and for your participation in this mission. We are so overjoyed by the beautiful community that God is bringing together to make all of this happen. We are absolutely thrilled by what we see God doing in the lives of people here at Iona House. It’s hard to express the joy of getting to be on the front row of what is happening here.

The village barn

When we purchased the Village side of the Iona House campus a year ago, it came with a barn. In the barn was a beautiful stained glass window that featured an “omega” sign that almost certainly came out of a chapel at some point in the past. The interesting thing was that the previous owners of this land were not Christians, which might explain why we found that the window was actually upside down (probably unknowingly). The omega sign was flipped over and looked like a fancy “horseshoe”.

The original “Omega” window - now cleaned, repaired, and right-side-up

When we took ownership we quickly turned it right-side-up to remind us of the famous biblical title of Christ: the Alpha & Omega, the Beginning & the End, the First & Last (Rev. 22:13). We always wished we could find the corresponding window (the alpha), which we almost certainly knew existed at one point. Since we had no way of finding it, from time-to-time we casually mentioned to visitors of Iona House the possibility of creating an “Alpha” window to correspond to the “Omega”.

To our great surprise, two local volunteers jumped on the idea. Michael Jones and Jim Pimentel are local residents in the Placerville area who are part of the Placerville Seventh-day Adventist Church. They took it as their mission to create this missing Alpha window. Over the course of a couple of months they both repaired and cleaned the old window and created a new one! The results are beautiful. We’re now thrilled to have a barn with BOTH an Alpha & Omega stained glass window.

The result of this labor of love: A craftsman style Alpha stained glass window that features in the front of the barn.

Many thanks to Michael Jones & Jim Pimentel for their dozens of hours of labor in order to give Iona House this amazing gift! May the Village Barn - and all of Iona House - always be an icon directing us to Christ.

The following is a reflection and pictures by one of our beloved Residents: Danielle McGuire. A version of this was what she shared at the 1-year of the Village Celebration.

I slip on my work gloves and step out into a brisk winter morning. The chilled air shakes awake my senses and fills me with new mercies, as promised each day. Walking up the hill toward the Village that beholds our humble farm life, I hear Festus in the distance bellow out his signature bray, echoing across the acres. This quirky, restless mule - I’m on my way, sweet boy!

Mink, the twenty-one year old mare, gets fed first and she is already waiting for me, stomping a foot and whinnying with urgency. I toss alfalfa hay into her stall from a nearby stockpile and I marvel at how she doesn’t tire of the same meal as I do. How do I know? Because each time, she rips the bundle from her feeder and throws it to the ground for faster consumption. I admire her faithful fervency to go after the all-too-familiar. How she communicates and asserts her need that has grown louder overnight. And I pray for that same spirit of expectancy, that I may resist the temptation to think my daily bread will become stale to my sensibilities, that I too may eagerly receive. 

Next, Festus, the 17 Nigerian Dwarf goats, Joan the llama, and Mr. Duck. Their bales of feed are kept in a nearby shed. When they hear my footsteps and the shed door slide open, they lift up their voices in a chorus of bleating, quacking, and braying to announce their readiness for the day. I reflect on how black the night gets here. The darkness robs us of all vision, and the animals huddle in the cold waiting for the skies to light up their lives again. In the morning, their eager voices cry out for freedom. A simple lift of a latch and I have released them back into the light. They funnel out into joyful sprints and gallops, and I get a glimpse of what the entrance to Heaven could feel like. 

During the repetitive motion of moving orchard grass into the wheelbarrow, I’m burdened by a sudden thought: the entirety of humankind has had to carry out these tedious chores. Across timelines and timezones, countless caregivers have performed these necessary duties of sustaining animal life, a life not our own. Day after day, rain or shine, it needs to be done. Why must we shoulder this responsibility?

———  

In the beginning, before man was made, God created living creatures of water and land, blessed them, “and saw that it was good” (Genesis 1). These creatures breathed life before us, they prefaced our creation, yet it was humanity that was given dominion over all - the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Some call it the great chain of being. But I am beginning to see how our care for them brings us under submission to their tutelage. The horses, the goats, the llamas…no wonder they came before us. We have so much to learn from them. This duty to animal care was not meant to be burdensome. Their existence teaches us the role of priesthood - we are creation, and we are responsible to the rest of creation, and represent creation back to God. And in learning to attune ourselves to creation and its care, we begin to understand how God cares for us. It has always circled back to the Creator. 

Midday arrives and I’m looking for a nature walk companion - I halter Festus and lead him out of his gated pen. Once again, I’m amused by how short and gawky his stature is. At over 300lbs, he comes up to just my waist! And in that moment, the character of Jesus becomes realized: out of all the animals, the Lord of Lords showed favor to a donkey. He chose this animal (appointed, even) to escort him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Not a white stallion, not an elegant lofty horse like Mink, not a throne for a king. Instead, a short-legged, stooped-necked, slow-paced, unassuming creature known for its service and commonplace functions. And before this, Jesus in the womb was gently and vulnerably carried on a donkey into Bethlehem, held within his mother Mary and brought safely to his birthplace. Did these donkeys know the significance of whom they carried? Have I ever marveled at how God’s creatures played a part in ushering in the weight of salvation to our world?

Tearfully, I cradle Festus’ head in my arms to say ‘thank you’ for his blessing today - he leans into me in response. 

A reflection by Danielle McGuire
All Rights Reserved • March 2024

They finally arrived: five baby goats. We had two pregnant mama goats who gave us three boys and two little girls. They’re adorable.

The Village Chapel at Iona House

We had almost no snow this winter… it was a warmer winter than last year when we had multiple storms with 6+ inches including one with almost 18 inches. But this year it was just rain. Until last Thursday and Friday when we got a couple of inches in an out of season storm that came through. It made for some pretty pictures.

The presence of a resident community has always been foundational to the mission of Iona House and it is truly thrilling to be able to welcome the first cohort of six residents (including two children) into the fold. The communal life of Iona House, with it’s daily rhythms of worship, prayer, and care and stewardship of the campus, is inhabited by the residents. Guests and visitors are invited into these rhythms, led by the residents.

The residents arrived on January 3, 2024 (see photo above left) and began settling into the Resident House, aka “The Dome.” They quickly found themselves integrating into life on the 71-acre campus by caring for the animals, managing firewood, starting cozy fires in the guest houses’ stoves to welcome guests, assisting with construction tasks to complete the Village Chapel, etc. The Feast of Epiphany was hosted in the Resident House on January 6 (see photo above right), giving the local community a chance to meet the group, pray blessings over them and the home, and share a meal together. The residents’ daily schedules are filled with praying the Daily Offices together and with visitors, working around campus, group spiritual formation and direction led by Ryan and Elizabeth, silence and solitude, and undertaking a personal project to be completed during their residency.

Below the residents share why they’ve decided to join the cohort. Please keep them all in your prayers as they live into this season at Iona House.

• The Thomas Family is excited to join the Resident Team as the first step of their permanent move to the Placerville region. They're looking forward to forming new family rhythms centered around prayer, community, and work, as well as more time in nature and helping Iona House grow. 

• Danielle first heard about the residency program during a group retreat, and she felt immediately compelled to learn more about it. At the time, she was longing for a career break and a space to be still and hear from God. With prayer and time, Danielle realized that she could spend her sabbatical purposefully at Iona House - resting and abiding in belovedness, building a sense of wonder, and reimagining her relationship to work/vocation.

• Although Jack could not have planned or foreseen doing the residency at Iona House, due to a series of circumstances over the past year, it felt that God was trying to get his attention. All normal activities of the year - his health, his job, his car - came to a rather abrupt halt. Yet, he was still alive and began to take a step back to see that this looked like a season of serious pruning. Jack saw that the opportunity to restructure his previous rhythms of life to one where regular prayer, silence, solitude, nature, physical labor, creative projects, feeding the animals, and the chance to grow in love and virtue - could re-shape his life upon returning home.

Learn more about Residency.

Pat and Becky Hudak have been sprucing up the garden in the Village since Iona House acquired the property in April. We are beyond grateful for their care and efforts. As you can read below, Pat and Becky have done so much and have big plans for the garden!

Q: What drew you to volunteer in the garden?

Becky: It’s a garden! I couldn’t stay away! I love gardens. I never refuse a garden tour. When we go on vacation, my family knows if there is a garden, I want to see it. When our daughter was in elementary and middle school, I loved volunteering in the school garden and seeing the wonder and joy it brought to students as well as their families. I knew that the Village Garden at Iona House was just waiting to bless many people and I wanted to help that happen.

Pat: 1) getting caught in the excitement of Iona house and volunteering with others there. 2) seeing the potential of beautifying this special place. 3) I think I am semi-handy, but I do have experience with irrigation and making garden beds that could be readily applied in the garden. 4) Becky made me!  ;-) Okay…not really but it was an opportunity for us to do something that we care about and enjoy doing as a family

Q: What is your experience with gardening?

Becky: Pat and I have been growing veggies on and off for 30 years. Our first backyard veggie garden was an enormous success and we didn’t realize until later that it was all due to the fertile soil of the valley we lived in. We just thought we were great gardeners, but we have since learned that veggie gardening can pose many challenges! Also, in the 22 years we have lived and gardened in El Dorado County, we have been learning about protecting and restoring native habitat. I have become very passionate about gardening in harmony with our ecosystem.

Pat: Making garden beds for our home garden and installing and fixing drip irrigation; planting trees

Q: What has been the most rewarding part of working in the garden?

Becky: I really enjoy observing the rhythm of seasonal changes in the garden. I appreciate the care that was taken by the former owners in selecting perennials for blossoms in every season. It’s been very rewarding this summer and fall to watch the garden produce a bountiful harvest to be shared, and to invite guests to explore and enjoy the garden. Also, I am so thankful to be able to work with Pat and our daughter, Jana, as well as all the special people on the garden team.

Pat: Fellowshipping and working with other volunteers; seeing children get excited about growing things and harvesting the bounty; hearing from others that the garden is looking better; it is a nice respite to do physical labor and get my hands dirty, especially when I was teaching; learning about new plants that I haven’t seen before

Q: How have you experienced God in the garden?

Becky: Nature and gardens always point my thoughts to God. I just have to walk into the garden to feel God’s presence, but when I have a huge to-do list on my mind, I have to remind myself to talk to Him as I work. Having time to fellowship with other volunteers as we work in the garden reminds me that God is with us. And the chance to witness growth, listen to singing birds or observe busy bees always feels like a gift from God.

Pat: through the fellowship of others and through the beauty of the garden—the trees, the fruits, the flowers, the bees, the birds…

Q: What are your goals for the garden?

Becky: We have too many goals! Some big ones are 1) taking good care of the soil by composting to restore nutrients and living organisms, 2) planting and harvesting as much food as the garden will give, 3) welcoming more volunteers to the garden team, 4) being a place where people of all ages and abilities can participate in creation care.

Pat: Oh so many…. Almost endless…re-doing the irrigation and extending it; pruning the grapes and fruit trees (winter activity); continuous clean-up of overgrown vines and dead branches; poison oak removal; fixing broken beds. Longer term: Adding more garden beds and extending irrigation to back area for possible-- summer crops and fruit trees; making the garden more educational—labeling plants and trees, making the pathways nice—DG?  Stones? Both?

It was a rainy and chilly day, but that didn’t put a damper on the Advent festivities! Highlights of the day included tours, a blazing campfire, a goat escape (don’t worry, we coaxed Cosmo the goat back to his pen!), and wreath making. Elizabeth’s cousin, Kathleen Fong, is a professional florist and was a fantastic teacher, instructing us how to create wreaths made of pine branches, holly, and pinecones foraged from the Iona House grounds. We wrapped up the day listening to the real story of St. Nicholas gathered around the heaters in the barn with Mink the horse looking on.

It was a true joy to gather with friends to prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming. We will continue the celebration on December 16 with Lessons and Carols in the Barn. Our animals will star in a manger scene while we have a service of singing, readings, and prayers. Visit the events page for more details and to RSVP.

Vivian and Brandon came all the way to Iona House from Philadelphia in late October. We asked them to share a bit about their stay with us. If you’re interested in a personal retreat, please visit the Retreat page.

Q. How did you hear about Iona House?

Our connection to Iona House was a friend of a friend of a friend -- 3 degrees of separation! We were looking for places to go on retreat and a friend of a friend recommended checking out Iona House, even though they hadn't been themselves. When we read the description on the website, in some ways it reminded us of other ministries we've been blessed by in the past, but it also had a distinct vision that wasn't quite like anything else we had come across, so we were intrigued! And the farm animals had us sold.

Q. Why were you interested in visiting?

We had already known that we wanted to spend some time on retreat in October and were thrilled to discover Iona House. As part of her emergency medicine residency program, Vivian had an "elective block" in October, which is essentially unstructured time in her schedule without any hospital shifts. Her original plan was to go on a service trip in South Africa with other doctors. When the original plan had fallen through, Vivian tried to arrange other alternative plans to still make the most out of this opportunity. However, while at a wedding earlier this year, a friend encouraged her with a word they had received in prayer around "rest", and upon receiving that word Vivian knew immediately that instead of filling this time with activity, that God was inviting her to draw near to Him and experience rest. At the same time, Vivian also had a big decision to make related to career as well as where we would be in the future. Iona House felt like the perfect place to slow down, rest, and create space to contemplate this decision, as well as to receive anything else God would have for us.

Q. What were the highlights of your stay?

There were so many great highlights, it's hard to concisely summarize so we'll just list them out:

• The overall daily rhythm was truly restorative and rejuvenating. Being in that environment and disconnected from technology also meant that we went to bed naturally at 8:30 PM each night, which was extremely unusual for us high-strung East Coasters but also exactly what we needed. We felt amazing when we left. 

• Fixed hour prayer was not a familiar practice for us, but it ended up being surprisingly delightful, and we actually still do it back home at Philadelphia.

• Of course, feeding and spending time with the animals. Vivian enjoyed long walks with Festus the Mini Mule and Joan the Llama. Brandon is not even an animal person, but they were truly a delight (the duck that gathers with the goat herd was Brandon's favorite).

• Spiritual direction was super helpful. It helped us to identify some themes and points to focus on during our times of solitude and contemplation. Thanks Elizabeth!

• It turns out that Vivian just really enjoys raking wood chips. Strangely satisfying.

• Enjoying some delicious tomatoes from the Iona House vegetable garden. We also snagged some great produce and apple cider donuts at the nearby farms.

• We got to listen to a really compelling talk on creation care from Harlan Young (an arborist who volunteers at Iona House).

• Looking out at the beautiful landscape in the warm autumn sunlight.

• And finally, just being able to carve out some space for reading and contemplation.

Q. How did you experience God during your stay?

• We experienced a truly restorative rest that felt like the kind of rest God gives us as described in the scriptures. One reflection Brandon had while at Iona was that prior to coming to Iona, our lives were basically full of alternating between work and entertainment. We entertain ourselves as a reprieve from our work as our idea of recuperating, and then we work harder because we feel anxious about not having done enough. None of this, including entertainment, is necessarily restful. But while at Iona, it felt like we were able to break from this cycle with a third option of true rest. We were able to just receive God's care for us and experience a deep sense of peace and contentment.

• Vivian also received a lot of peace in particular with her decision involving future career direction. And she experienced a new warmth in her relationship with God the Father, something that was previously pretty unfamiliar and foreign.

• Brandon had some rich devotional times in Luke. He left with a new perspective on God's expectations for him, as well as a sense of freedom + patience with respect to the topic of "calling."

Q. What would you share with someone who is interested in having a personal retreat at Iona House? 

• For us retreat-ing at Iona as a married couple, it was actually really valuable to intentionally have times of solitude apart from each other. We still spent the majority of each day together at Iona House, but there was something to be said for also having our own time with God, especially for Vivian who -- as a strong extrovert -- was also processing her fear of loneliness.

It was a crisp fall morning when approx. 25 people arrived at Iona House to spend a day serving, praying, bonding, and fellowshipping together. We enjoyed delicious food, lots of laughter, celebrated two birthdays, and had a lot of memorable moments. Overall this was a fantastic day at Iona House.

The crew of workers was so industrious, I could barely keep up with the various projects:

• Prepping and Painting the barn

• Uncovering, cleaning, and moving tiles for the prayer labyrinth

• Moving, splitting, and stacking wood

• Cleaning the animal pens

• Organizing books in the library

• Spreading wood chips

• Building the drainage systems and foundation for the prayer labyrinth

• Cutting down dead trees

• Trimming back shrubs and greenery from the Dome

What was particularly enjoyable were the prayer times (morning, midday, and evening prayer) and the communal lunch. Getting to hear peoples’ stories, enjoying laughter, meeting new people - these were highlights.

We’re looking forward to more upcoming Community Days - Dec. 16 is the next one!

As you well know, if you have read this blog, the animals are an important part of Iona House. Also, you’ve probably gathered that the Christian saints are an important part of Iona House. On one particular day of the year these two important themes come together: the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (October 4). On this day, it is traditional for Christians to gather in order to bless animals - in honor of Francis’ renowned love and care for animals and all of creation. He is famous for preaching to the birds and seeing in creation “brothers and sisters” in the household of God.

So, this year we held our first-ever blessing of the animals. It was a delightful experience. We remembered the story of St. Francis, we read Scripture passages related to creation (Gen. 1, Ps. 148, etc.), sang “All Creatures of Our God and King”, and blessed the animals with prayers and holy water. We prayed for safety for these precious creatures, and that we would know how to rightly care for them.