Twenty years ago today, our first five sisters gathered to sing the first Vespers of Advent in the chapel of Rosemary Heights Retreat Centre in Surrey, B.C. In the early 1990’s, then-Master of the Order fr, Timothy Radcliffe O.P. had called for volunteers to help found a monastery in Western Canada. Several monasteries from America had graciously allowed their sisters to embark on this adventure up north, supported by our sponsoring monastery in Farmington Hills, MI. We lived in a small cottage at Rosemary Heights, and began to get to know our new home in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. We chose the name Queen of Peace for our new monastery, asking Our Lady’s protection and guidance to build a “house of prayer for all peoples.”
Our first chapel, in the carport of our cottage at Rosemary Heights.
Two years later, we moved to a property on the Agricultural Land Reserve in Fort Langley. We raised sheep to maintain our farm status, and tried to support ourselves through sculpture, icon mounting, a printshop and other monastic crafts.
On October 17, 2009, our community was canonically recognized as an established monastery of the Order of Preachers. Soon, the community began to run out of space. A room in the barn and a camping trailer were converted into cells, and a tiny house became a sewing room. We began to look for a permanent home where we would have the space to grow and welcome new members. We moved north to the Upper Squamish Valley, and stayed in temporary quarters for two years during the construction of our new monastery at the base of Cloudburst Mountain. During this time one of our foundresses, Sr. Maria Dominica, entered eternal life. Just a few days after her funeral, our monastery’s new bell was blessed and named Dominica in her honour.
Finally, on August 8, 2012, our chapel was blessed and we’ve been singing God’s praises here ever since! Seeking to live the life of the holy Trinity, having “one mind and one heart in God,” we are grateful for God’s lovingkindness and guidance over the past two decades. As our community continues to grow, we continue to pray for you and all our friends, near and far. Thank-you—and here’s to the next twenty years!
Our novitiate sisters are usually very quiet, but things have not been quiet in the novitiate over the past month!
On September 19, we welcomed Denise into our community as a postulant. During the ceremony, the postulant is led into our Chapter hall by our novice mistress. After two cantors sing "I rejoiced when I heard them say: 'Let us go to God's house" (Psalm 122) and the community responds, the prioress gives her a handmade postulant cross, a copy of our Constitutions and a rosary, “as a reminder of continual prayer.” Then, of course, there are hugs!
On September 21, the feast of St. Matthew, Sr. Olivia Marie received the habit of the Order of Preachers and the name Sr. Maris Stella of the Trinity. Originally from Trinidad and St. Lucia, Sr. Maris Stella grew up surrounded by the ocean, so “Star of the Sea” is very fitting! It is a joy to now have three white veils in our community. Please continue to pray for the perseverance and joy of all our young sisters in formation. As one sister remarked after the vestition, our novitiate is now large enough to form a real Canadian hockey team, if only we had someone to play against (perhaps the bears or elk?). God is good, and we are grateful.
Finally, a novitiate surprise! For the birthday of our novice mistress, whose mystery is “of the Holy Spirit,” the novitiate wanted to do something special to celebrate. “How about a new song by fr. André Gouzes?” said one sister. “Yes, and we could sing it for her in French!” said another.
Taking advantage of the novice mistress’s rest after our St. Dominic’s day picnic, the novitiate staged a covert raid on the liturgy room. A quick trip to the photocopier, and the books were slid back into the liturgy room with no one being the wiser.
Thus commenced a few weeks of practices—not an easy feat when the walls are thin! Our novice mistress accidentally walked in on two of the practices (which quickly became discussions of…other matters…resulting in some very crumpled hidden sheet music), and at least one solemn professed sister was perplexed at hearing sisters covertly humming a new Gouzes song without it being taught in choir practice. Meanwhile, the non-Francophone novitiate sisters were trying to master the French “r”, and other such linguistic foibles.
Finally, the big day arrived. “Surprise! Happy birthday!” In the end, the novitiate sung the song for the community as well, and brought so much joy we thought we’d share it with you.
