our rule of life

Have you ever felt stuck in your walk with Jesus? We all come to this place in our spiritual lives where we need to move off the cycle of spiritual highs and lows and into something directed towards sustainable growth over the long term. We need a Rule of Life.

How do we experience the abundant life?

Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life." These three things, way, truth, and life, are inseparable from one another. Sometimes we can be tempted into believing that we can experience the joys of Jesus' life without embracing His way or His truth. The route into the life of Jesus for the long term is the way of Jesus and the truth of Jesus - in other words, discipleship.

Discipleship, or following Jesus, can really be thought of as orienting your whole life around two goals: practicing the presence of God and the imitation of Christ. These goals form the basis for how we think about living a Rule of Life.

This Rule is also not just something to be embraced individually. It can certainly be lived out and adapted to your individual circumstances but it's also something that guides and shapes the life of our community. When this Rule ceases to become something individuals do from personal motivation and instead becomes baked into the culture of our community, it exponentially increases in its potency.

The Practices

Our Rule of Life is very simple and is based on 4 core practices. These four build on and flow into one another and are meant to be embraced communally. Individuals might have ways they live these practices on their own but in our context, we seek to live these together - thus each practice is expressed in terms of something we do in our life together.

  • Prayer is how we develop friendship and intimacy with God on a day to day basis. As a community, we seek to become a people rooted in prayer through the Daily Order of Prayer. Learn more here.

  • Sabbath is the practice of a weekly day set aside for rest, delight, and worship, both alone and in community. It’s also the day we celebrate Our Lord’s Resurrection in the Holy Mass. We become a people of Sabbath rest by keeping Sundays free of events in the community and attending Mass together.

  • Simplicity is the practice of removing things from our lives to make more space for God and for community. This has many expressions from fasting to voluntary poverty but in our community, we become a people of simplicity by taking intentional times of retreat together away from technology so as to deepen in relationship with God and one another.

  • Contribution is how we help God’s Kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It involves the restoration of earthly life to come back in line with God’s original intention. As a community, we contribute to the Kingdom through mission work and justice, partnering with other organizations labouring in these vineyards.