Dominikanerinnen Vancouver ´Peace-Nuns´
Queen of Peace Monastery
in greater Vancouver, B.C. Canada
Visitors: We are about a 25 minute drive from Squamish, BC. We are 21 kilometers from the Alice Lake Junction.
On the Sea to Sky Highway (99 N) at the Alice Lake Junction you take the Squamish Valley Road. After crossing the Chekeye Bridge you stay left which remains the Squamish Valley Road. You wind through First Nations land and after about 15 kilometres you will cross a one way bridge. The community is living at Mystic Mountain Lodge which is about a 10 minute drive beyond this bridge on the left side of the road.
We sense that our prayerful presence will be another way in which this region is sustained in its original spiritual or mystical vocation. It is also our desire to be good stewards of this pristine land and to build our monastery in such a way that we make as little impact on the environment as possible. There is a beautiful creek flowing down the mountain through the property which already has generated electricity for the previous owners who homesteaded the land. We envision a small ‘Canadian Westcoast-ish’ monastery built from the wood and rock of the area.
What a gift it will be for our community to live our contemplative life in this sacred space.
We envision offering monastic welcome to our friends and all those who are seeking a time of silence and prayer. Our monastic community life, with its ancient rhythm of silence, work, sharing and prayer lived in a setting of such awesome splendour, will naturally lift hearts and minds to the presence of the Creator of the Universe.
Seek and you shall find !
After years of searching we have found a piece of property where we will establish Queen of Peace Monastery.
We envision:
- a monastic environment well set within and in harmony with Canadian’s spacious natural environment
- an environment that communicates the vastness and the beauty of God
- we envision a sacred space accessible yet apart from the “world’ and not an urban monastery
- within an hour and a half from Vancouver so as to be accessible to priests, the dominican family, as well as our friends, family, retreatants
- we would see it as an oasis, a destination ... a place where people come and dwell a while, a place to draw apart from their day to day world to be with God, to listen, to study, to take long healthy walks. We could offer them an accompanied solitude : support them by our monastic hospitality, healthy food, and simple, dignified liturgy in an environment which is full of natural beauty. We could provide different degrees of comfort and solitude ... from a double room in the guest quarters to cabins in the woods. We would want the grounds organized so that the guests do not wonder inadvertently into the monastic enclosure. For this was would need enough land and a certain assurance that it not be encroached upon in future generations. A monastery can remain in the same spot for hundreds of years if the location is well chosen to insure the quietude of the monastery.
Queen of Peace Monastery
Garibaldi Highlands, BC / Squamish
V0N 1T0 CANADA
1-604-815-0993
E-mail :peacenun.commun(at)xplornet.ca