To enter the environs of St. Joseph Monastery in northwest Kentucky is to walk on holy ground.

A peace that transcends all understanding pervades the property. It’s so palpable that it draws deer, wild turkey, ducks, geese, butterflies — and an increasing number of retreatants, who make their way along the winding lane off Crisp Road in Daviess County to reach it.

Located in the town of Whitesville, in the Diocese of Owensboro, the monastery is home to 19 Passionist nuns. Cloistered and contemplative, they have been celebrating their 60th year here throughout 2006.

Entering their quiet corner of the world via the monastery gate, you round a curve that takes you to the top of a wooded hill. This looks over a four-acre lake. On the far shore is the monastery, with its 82-foot cross of stainless steel reaching above the tree tops from behind the monastery chapel.

At night, the cross is lit with floodlights. In keeping with ancient Christian tradition, the chapel faces east to greet the rising sun, a symbol of the resurrected Christ. The chapel and retreat house wings reach outward from the monastery area in a gesture of welcoming hospitality.

The swift ascent of the chapel’s roof reflects the human heart’s ascent to God in prayer. An arched monastic arcade, reminiscent of the Italian culture in which the Passionist community began, leads directly into the chapel, which is also easily accessed interiorly from the guest area and retreat house.

Christian art symbols, many of them crafted by artist benefactors, grace the monastery grounds and interiors. Only a few are within the 30-acre cloister of the 170-acre campus. (The cloister, of course, is not open to the public.)

Set in the gently rolling, wooded hills, the grounds are finely manicured. Paths built by monastery friends and other volunteers wind through the shade trees, the lawns and the mature woods.

A stream meanders along a walking path, which leads back into the woods to shrines and many resting places with chairs and benches.

Inner Vision

Everywhere in and around St. Joseph Monastery can be found artwork designed to gather visitors to the Lord, quiet restless spirits and prepare all to meet the Lord in prayer.

The stained-glass windows in the chapel’s nave, behind the sanctuary in the Eucharistic chapel, celebrate God’s saving love throughout the Bible. Designed by Angelo Gherardi of Chicago, these windows are filled with crosses, crowns and the paschal lamb. Proclaiming salvation history, they’re meant to be not just admired but prayed.

The baptismal font, illuminated by a skylight, is surrounded by a crowd of witnesses — a host of hand-carved statues of Mary, Joseph, and St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionist order.

The baptismal font is the origin of a water channel that flows down the middle of the nave toward the altar, providing a separation necessary to set off the cloistered side of the chapel from the space reserved for guests. The nuns are visible to guests, and guests are invited to participate with the nuns in Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

A 10-foot, hand-carved crucifix hangs in front of the tabernacle window, through which you can see the glorious paschal lamb window of the heavenly Jerusalem — “indistinctly, as in a mirror” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The design is a powerful expression of the inner vision that faith gives a Christian contemplating the meaning of human suffering.

Looking at this recently, it occurred to me that, as Christians, we have a sort of double vision: We suffer with Christ but we know we will be glorified with him. To make a retreat at a Passionist monastery is to open oneself to the gift of hope that comes from the cross of Christ — hope that suffering is not the last word, hope that our present trials will bring us one day to the joys of heaven.

Joyful Re-Entry

A Stations of the Cross path meanders through the front grounds. Calvary Heights is a large crucifix up on a hill, lighted at night. Mary’s Way curves through the woods on paved walks with various shrines along the way. St. Joseph greets each person entering the monastery in the circular front drive.

Visitors frequently tell the nuns that they relate to the cross in their own suffering in this oasis of peace that’s set apart from city sounds and sights. Because it’s relatively small for a retreat center, there’s plenty of opportunity for retreatants to find solitude. Less important things fall away as one starts to see life in clearer focus.

“As I prepare to go back into the world,” one recent retreatant wrote to the nuns in the guestbook, “I’m relieved and hope-filled because of your prayers for the world.”

If you come to St. Joseph Monastery in Whitesville, Ky., you too may experience what a visitor named Mary observed:

“I surely experienced the fact that you all have that directive down pat — the one about treating all guests as the Lord himself! May God bless you all.”

Mel Howard writes from

Whitesville, Kentucky.

Planning Your Visit

The monastery gates open at 5 a.m. Central Time and close at 10 p.m. year-round. Mass is celebrated at 6:30 a.m. weekdays; Sunday Mass is at 8 a.m. For more information, call (270) 233-4571 or go to passionistnuns.org on the Internet.

Getting There

The monastery is about an hour from Evansville, Ind., two hours from Louisville, Ky., and 2½ hours from Nashville, Tenn. From the North, take Interstate 64 to Owensboro, Ky., then follow U.S. 60 Bypass south to Route 54 in Kentucky. Head southeast 15 miles to

Crisp Road

and turn right. The monastery is about two miles down. From the south, take the

Natcher Parkway

to the U.S. 60 Bypass, north to the KY 54 exit, then to

Crisp Road

.