On Gutting Chickens, Praying Six Times a Day, and Raising Small Children
An Interview with Mark and Lisa Kutolowski about Metanoia Vermont
How do you respond when you feel called to center your life around an ancient rhythm of prayer, and care for the land? The obvious option is to become a Benedictine monk or nun. But what if you also feel called to marriage and raising children?
Seven years ago
and created Metanoia Vermont in Strafford, Vermont to live out these multiple calls. (In full disclosure, I am a friend of Mark and Lisa’s and a former board member of Metanoia). On a few dozen acres they welcome guests and interns, and seek themselves, to “live the Way of Christ through prayer, work, and study in relationship with the land.”1 This means raising livestock, growing a garden, tending a woodlot, caring for children, and, in between all that, praying six times a day (read more about their life at and see their typical daily schedule).What led them to create Metanoia? How are they up to something beyond, in Lisa’s words, “doing monasticism poorly with kids running around”? How have their young children enhanced the community’s prayer life? What have been the blessings and challenges of the ministry on their marriage? What are the “shadows” of Metanoia, the temptations and dangers of a life of prayer and work on a Vermont hill farm? How do they think about wealth and poverty and their choices around money? At the cost of inclusion, what have been the benefits of creating a community that is not interfaith, but specifically rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition? As they reflect during their sabbatical after the start up chapter of Metanoia, what are their hopes for the next chapter? I talked about these questions and more with Mark and Lisa this past week.
One image that stands out from the conversation is Lisa’s description of how the community aims to embrace the “immanent and the transcendent”; in the same day a guest might be gutting chickens and spending hours in silence. Even if you don’t live near Vermont, or have a call similar to Mark and Lisa’s, I hope that, in their love for their place and their vocation, you hear in their story some transcendent wisdom that relates to your own place and vocation.
You can listen to the podcast below or find it on your favorite app via my website:
Helpful Links
Learn more about Metanoia, including how to visit, at the Metanoia Vermont website.
The Metanoia ministry relies on donations. You can donate here.
You can read Mark’s regular reflections from the homestead and ministry at
. His Ash Wednesday Post, “The Gift of Ashes”, reflects on the “task of living into something good, true, and beautiful in an age of upheaval, dislocation and loss.”Lisa mentions the work of Sister Mary Margaret Funk as helping her think about money and possessions.
Mark and Lisa refer to the “Liturgy of the Hours”, the daily prayer of the church. Specifically they mention the services of “lauds” and “vespers”, morning and evening prayer respectively. Read more about this ancient rhythm of prayer here.