“Be Still and Know That I Am God”
~ Psalm 46:10
We hope your time here will be peaceful and renewing. In silence we may feel God’s presence, experience guidance, restore our energy, and be filled with insights.
As you leave the fast pace of daily life, may the quiet in this place, the design of the building, and the beauty in nature bless you on your journey.
JOURNEY
The building and grounds are designed to take you on a journey, where you can begin the process of letting go of daily life and entering a prayerful/contemplative frame of mind.
The path through the woods leads to Room I — the outdoor entry garden. Silence begins at the door from the entry garden to the building.
Entering the building in silence, you arrive in Room II, the pre-meditation room, which provides a transition from the outer to the inner and a place to leave shoes and belongings.
Shoes are removed or covered before entering Room III, the round meditation room. This is a movement into even more quiet. In addition to a round meditation room with chairs and floor cushions, off this room are three individual small prayer niches where you may sit on a bench for silence and prayer.
Moving into Room IV, the meditation garden, takes you back outside, into nature, near a large fountain. Now you are preparing to return to the world and daily life.
At some point, you will exit through the garden, retrieve things left inside and return down the path to your car. You may find another order or rhythm that works for your journey through the House of Prayer.
This suggestion of progressing through the four rooms is one way to approach the use of the building.
SHOES AND THE MEDITATION ROOM
Please walk into the round meditation room in socks, bare feet, or with shoe covers only. Upon entering the House of Prayer, visitors will come into the pre-meditation room. There you may leave your belongings. This is where you remove shoes or put on foot coverings (provided) over your shoes before you move from the premeditation room to the meditation room. Shoes may be retrieved from Room II after leaving the meditation room.
SILENCE
Please observe silence as you move through all indoor rooms of the building. The House of Prayer is an interfaith haven, set apart in nature, dedicated to contemplative prayer, meditation and quiet, where all are welcome. There will be no talking, singing, liturgy, teaching or chanting inside the building. Cell phones need to be turned off at the entrance. There will be silence — blissful, lovely, blessed quiet.
SCHEDULING
If you wish to schedule a place for a workshop, check with Katherine Strother, Parish Administrator at St. Margaret’s, to see if a room is available inside St. Margaret’s. A class could take place inside St. Margaret’s and then people may walk over to the House of Prayer for silence off and on during the day of a workshop.
While using the meditation room, other meditators may perhaps come in and have silence at the same time as perhaps a group. Also, a class could be taught in another location, another church, a synagogue, or the Buddhist center, and the participants could drive to St. Margaret’s to sit in silence at the House of Prayer.
Since all are observing silence, there is no need to schedule the use of the House of Prayer. People may flow in and out of the building as they wish.
GARDEN
P. Allen Smith, our garden designer, graciously donated ten thousand daffodils that were planted in the fall of 2008 and first bloomed in the spring of 2009.
LIBRARY
The House of Prayer includes a small reading library. We are in the process of establishing a collection of books on prayer, meditation, and the spiritual journey. If you have a book to suggest or a book to donate, please email us or drop off books in the church office. Please do not remove the books from the House of Prayer. While you are at the House of Prayer, enjoy the books in the library, perhaps write in your journal, or reflect on your meditation time.
VISITORS
Visitors to the House of Prayer on Monday through Thursday should go to St. Margaret’s Church to meet with Katherine Strother and receive a key for the House of Prayer.
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors may go directly to the House of Prayer, which will be open. People under 21 years of age must have an adult present in the building to use the House of Prayer.