Iona House is consciously seeking to echo the life of a traditional Christian monastery. This can be seen in our commitment to three-times communal prayer, daily silence & solitude, physical work, and communal life. Beginning here in Lent, we have added yet another dimension to our common life in the weekly rhythm: Contemplative Arts. Each week on Friday morning we gather our community to work together on some kind of creative and yet contemplative art form.

This past Friday was the first attempt to do this. We made candles in the traditional way - dipping a wick again and again in hot wax in order to slowly layer wax into the shape of a candle. We did this while being reminded that as we are in a season often associated with darkness (Lent), we are preparing to celebrate the Light of Life - Jesus the resurrected Lord - in the Feast of Easter (this year celebrated on April 5).

We have other ideas about contemplative arts we’d like to incorporate into our rotation:

making pottery
stringing together prayer beads
iconography
illuminated manuscripts
breadmaking
woodworking
and more!

If you would like to join us for Friday morning contemplative arts, please RSVP with Rika (hospitality@ionahouse.org) and we can give you the details.

Introducing Contemplative Arts