Dear Friends, Visitors to the Website of the House of Initia Nova:

GRACE AND PEACE to you from our Savior Jesus Christ.  It is a great personal joy for me to serve as Episcopal Companion for a new expression of Benedictine monasticism and welcome you to this website.  Whether you are merely surfing the web or are interested in the religious life, I pray that God will bless you and sustain you in your journey to the heart of God’s love for this world that Jesus came to save. The House of Initia Nova is unique within the history of Benedictine life, as you will discover in these web pages.  As its name means, this community is about new beginnings.  In thinking about this, some excerpts from a wonderful old hymn come to mind:

New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove…
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray… 
The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.

I am excited about the development of a monastic community centered in the midst of a large urban area but lived out in virtual reality as well.  This community lifts heavenward the Benedictine ideal of working and praying in all environments and surroundings so that in the midst of the daily, “trivial round” God’s Name may be praised and glorified. I am grateful that the House of Initia Nova community gathers regularly in prayer and extends itself in hospitality to God’s people for our strengthening in service and celebration of God’s presence with us in all we do.

Asking God to bless this new beginning and continue us in grace to seek God’s reconciling love, I remain

Faithfully yours,

The Rt. Rev. J. Michael Garrison