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Ascension Monastery

P. O. Box 397
706-277-9442

About us:
One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require : even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple. (LXX Psalm 26 : 4)

The Monastery of the Glorious Ascension, founded in 1977, is situated on one hundred thirteen acres of wooded, rural land in northwest Georgia, on Highway 41, between Dalton and Calhoun, Georgia, just forty miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Under the spiritual leadership of His Eminence, the Most Reverend DAMASKINOS, Archbishop of Jaffa and Arimathaea. Its Brotherhood is committed to the traditional monastic life of liturgical worship, private prayer, and work. Striving to bear missionary witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Orthodox manner, the monks embrace the monastic principles and ideals as set for us by the Holy Fathers of the Church, which form our Orthodox Christian legacy.

In view of this ancient legacy, we recognize that an integral and most necessary part of one's own spiritual growth is the acute awareness of one's shortcomings (amartia) and regular confession. Each day, the monk or novice must set aside some of his time for spiritual nourishment through reading the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers of the Church, lives of the Saints, and other spiritually uplifting and rewarding writings. In order to deepen his spiritual life and further his goal of union with God, regular participation in the Mysteries, corporate worship, study, and various means of individual discipline (under the direction of the Elder and / or one's Spiritual Father) are indispensable.

A monk's life is not to be seen as an escape from reality and a settling into a life of static and mundane monotony. Rather, it is the response to a calling, a vocation that is a dynamic and spiritually challenging asceticism (askesis), whereby one is ever vigilant and, thus, is aware of digressions, as well as regressions. A monk is ever striving, in hope and love, to ..." run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2). The monastic life is a life of prayer, intercession, love, and charity.