Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery

Welcome to the Brothers and Sisters of Charity webpage! We are thrilled that you are here for we are a community alive in the Holy Spirit. Through this website we hope that you will be able to find out about our various community expressions, monastic and domestic, and our various ministries. And we hope that many of you will be called by the Spirit to join us!

In 1971 God gave John Michael Talbot a vision of community he simply called, “The Painting,” in which he saw a community in total communion with God, each other, and all of creation through Jesus Christ. God told him to stay in music and He would open and shut the doors to make it happen. And He did. After decades of prayer, study, guidance under Franciscan and Benedictine fathers and mentors, and lived experience, the community is now approaching its 50 th year of existence!

Today, we say that Jesus is our primary Founder, the Scripture is our Rule, and our primary law is love. Our primary charism is love, guided by truth that comes to us through the Church. We live at Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery as an integrated monastic community of celibate monks, sisters, singles, and families, and a domestic expression who live in their own homes or who can live in residence at the monastery. We integrate charismatic and contemplative spiritualities, and the ancient call to the solitude of the hermitage with communal life in the monastery, liturgical and spontaneous prayer, contemplative life and ministry.

Through the vision of John Michael, his leadership as Founder and Spiritual Father, and Viola Talbot’s leadership as Spiritual Mother, this community has grown to accommodate those of all states of life in the Church and beyond: Celibates, singles, and families in the integrated monastery, monastics, laity and clergy. Catholics and non Catholic Christians. All of this from a clear Catholic base. It has been a wonder to behold as it unfolds through the decades, for it is a work of God, not of human origin alone.

In a culture, and even in a Church that is so fragmented, we desperately need community to ground our Christian beliefs in a way of life that is solid and permanent. The Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery is one way on the Church to do that.

So please enjoy this website. Let it inspire you. Take advantage of our ministries. And if the Holy Spirit calls you, come and join us!

John Michael Talbot
Founder / General Minister
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity