Lebh Shomea House of Prayer:
Our Mission, Our Ministry,
Our Charism
The interior of one of our solitary dwellings
Most simply put, prayer is Lebh Shomea’s mission to the world. Prayer is the quintessence of Lebh Shomea’s ministry within the Church. Our specialty, or more properly our charism, is communion with God in silence and solitude within a supportive community and within a vast ecological wilderness teeming with astounding beauty and creative possibilities.
The mission of the House of Prayer is to respond to the call of Jesus Christ heard through people’s need for a place to which they can go off in order to be alone with God. We are a “community,” a “house” and a “school” of prayer. Our lifestyle is contemplative-eremitical.
Since the earliest times of Christian Antiquity, contemplative communities have lived their life following one of two basic yet complementary focuses: cenobitic and eremitical. The cenobitic focus stresses the contemplative life lived in an interactive manner. A group of persons living the contemplative-cenobitic life spend considerable time each day praying in common, working, recreating and sometimes studying together. In most instances, the members of the group live under the same roof. The eremitical focus, on the other hand, accentuates the solitary dimension of the contemplative life. Persons living the contemplative-eremitical life live alone, pray alone, work alone and study alone for the most part.
In virtue of our mission, the Core Community of Lebh Shomea follows a collegial model of leadership in which men and women collaborate as equals in communal living and in Christian service. We focus our resources on the unmet needs of God’s People drawn to deepen their communion with the indwelling Trinity in a desert setting. Above all, we offer intense silence and solitude to anyone called to the House of Prayer. We afford competent spiritual direction and the support of a praying community, together with the possibility of indepth study of and research in both Eastern and Western spirituality.
People come to Lebh Shomea from great distances and occasionally at considerable expense. Some guests are grappling with the loss of a loved one, a recent divorce, a change of lifestyle or career. Other guests come to deepen their prayer life, to straighten out their priorities or to discern new vocational horizons. We are ecumenical in our appeal, prophetic in our stance and holistic in our approach to spiritual renewal and healing. Our ministry is hospitable, caring and focused on the needs of the individual.
The Core Community of Lebh Shomea and those who assist us represent all segments of God’s People. We embrace and model full participation and collaboration of both laity and religious in our lifestyle and apostolate.
Lebh Shomea House of Prayer
La Parra Ranch
P.O. Box 9
Sarita, TX 78385-0009
Tel: 361-294-5369 ~ Fax: 361-294-5791
e-mail: info@lebhshomea.org