There is music in the whisper of leaves as a soft wind drifts through the trees and gardens surrounding artfully designed prayer and meditation spaces on the grounds of The Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery. It’s a sunny day in May, and the Brothers and Sisters of Charity are hosting an Open House with a lunch of soup and bread, and guided tours around the grounds, including a look inside the Charity Chapel containing a unique collection of hand-painted icons from Ukraine.
Outside, the Holiday Island Garden Club is on a tour, Pastors Keith and Carol Butler of the Assembly of God Church on the Hill; and David Bell, music minister at First Christian Church Disciples of Christ, chat with Sister Caroline at the table where the community’s baked goods are on sale. In the dining hall, founder John Michael Talbot shares a humorous point with a group enjoying lunch, while Mother Viola Talbot is in the kitchen overseeing the soup.
A visitor from Florida, Karen Willbanks, relaxes on a shaded bench in the gardens. “It’s very meditative and serene here,” she says, “I’m able to connect with nature – very comforting – I find much peace and stillness.”
It’s a halcyon, ecumenical, community-building afternoon in a place a lot of area folks don’t even know exists. So, how did it come to be here, just a few miles north between Eureka Springs and Berryville?
That story started 52 years ago. There was music drifting through the leaves then, too, but it was far from whispering. In May 1973 the Ozark Mountain Folk Fair was happening not far down the road. Some 30,000 people were out there listening to Earl Scruggs, John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Leo Kottke, Mason Proffit, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, among many others.
Talbot and his brother Terry, founding members of Mason Proffit, had taken their folk-rock-country band on the circuit with several major bands of the era, including the Grateful Dead, and were noted for hits including the protest song “Two Hangmen” (banned by the FCC) and “A Thousand and Two.”
During the Folk Fair, Talbot, Terry and a couple band members liked the area so much they decided to buy adjoining parcels of land here, and this eventually became home to the Little Portion. That year was to mark Talbot’s last tour with Mason Proffit. Today his worship music is sung in churches around the globe.
An inspired recounting of Talbot’s conversion, joining the Catholic Church, and the development of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity up to present day can be found at littleportion.org and by searching encyclopediaofarkansas.net for Little Portion Hermitage, John Michael Talbot, Ozark Mountain Folk Fair 1973, and Mason Proffit.
Today, the 10 Brothers and Sisters of Charity living at Little Portion Hermitage and Monastery go quietly about their days, rising early for private and communal prayer, their power source for all activity. Silence is broken after the table reading at lunch, which is followed by tasks such as office work, helping in the bakery, tending the vegetable gardens and fruit trees, groundskeeping, and more – often accompanied outdoors by Solomon, the community’s gentle, white Golden Retriever.
The day ends again in prayer as the community joins the church universal around the world in one Spirit. They pray for our world, for this country, and they pray for us. This is the real work for which they left their former lives behind.
At littleportion.org, all is revealed about life and ministry at the monastery. You’ll also find Talbot’s albums and books and how to order from the bakery along with info on day visits, personal and group retreats, daily schedules, vocations, community history and much more. Although hours and schedules are posted for open services and visits, a phone call is required to confirm in case a change has been made. (479) 253-0253.
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity are a Public Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Little Rock. Little Portion, or Portiuncula in Italian, refers to a parish church in Assisi, one of those that St. Francis rebuilt in obedience to Christ’s command to ‘rebuild my church.’ Little Portion Hermitage, 350 County Road 248, Berryville, AR, 72616.