Prayer Vigil
In April 1984, the Center began a 24-hour prayer vigil in the basement of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo's home in Kensington, Maryland, dedicated to the end of suffering. A year later, the Center formed a corporation, purchased an antebellum style mansion in Poolesville, Maryland, purchased numerous large crystals weighing hundreds of pounds and reinstituted the 24-hour prayer vigil at its new location.
Participants maintain two-hour prayer shifts, and as of 2005, the vigil remains largely unbroken. In 1999, Kunzang Palyul Choling began another 24 hour prayer vigil shortly after Jetsunma established another center in Sedona, Arizona.
Read more about this topic: Kunzang Palyul Choling
Famous quotes containing the words prayer and/or vigil:
“... it was religion that saved me. Our ugly church and parochial school provided me with my only aesthetic outlet, in the words of the Mass and the litanies and the old Latin hymns, in the Easter lilies around the altar, rosaries, ornamented prayer books, votive lamps, holy cards stamped in gold and decorated with flower wreaths and a saint’s picture.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“This day is called the Feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is nam’d
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours
And say, “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)