This summer has been rich in experience, epiphany, and insight and there is still another month to go.  I will be processing all of it for many months to come.  Going to Ireland in June was amazing, it connected me with a land infused with holiness that sings in my memory.  I felt a deep […]

Posted in Photos, Pilgrimage, Celtic spirituality | 9 Comments »

The week before last when I posted the Open Doors photos I was very moved by the enthusiastic response.  Pam made a great suggestion to use them as a writing prompt.  So I think I may experiment here with that once in a while — just post a photo or photo series and invite you wonderful readers […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Poetry Invitation | 24 Comments »

A great reflection by Robert Toth at the Merton Insitute: 
“Do you consider yourself a contemplative person? Would you say that you live contemplatively?”
Having asked these questions of hundreds of people, we find that most people do not see themselves as contemplative or feel they are living contemplatively. Most defined contemplative living as leading a less […]

Posted in Monastic Spirituality, Contemplative Living | 1 Comment »

I am back from several days on Vancouver Island where my husband and I took a Celtic Art and Design class together.  When we were in Ireland in June I was captivated by the woven strands and spirals in the art everywhere, so it was a gift to learn how to do this.  I thoroughly […]

Posted in Art and Spirituality, Praying with the Elements, Celtic spirituality | 6 Comments »

The Weighing
The heart’s reasons
seen clearly,
even the hardest
will carry
its whip-marks and sadness
and must be forgiven.
As the drought-starved
eland forgives
the drought-starved lion
who finally takes her,
enters willingly then
the life she cannot refuse,
and is lion, is fed,
and does not remember the other.
So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
The world asks of us
only the strength […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 2 Comments »

One of the elements of Celtic spirituality that most attracts me is its sense of kinship with all of creation.  I have written here many times about the connections between animals and spirituality.  While I was in Ireland I read several books on Irish history and Celtic spirituality.   In Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved […]

Posted in Photos, Nature and Creativity | 7 Comments »

The other essay in the Theological Aesthetics book I am reading that has especially moved me is by the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff from his book Liberating Grace:
“The poet, the musician, and the writer feel overtaken by inspiration.  On the one hand, it is they who do the work. Their energy and their deepest selves […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 7 Comments »

Saints Bowing in the Mountains
Do you know how beautiful you are?
I think not, my dear.
For as you talk of God,
I see great parades with wildly colorful bands
Streaming from your mind and heart,
Carrying wonderful and secret messages
To every corner of this world.
I see saints bowing in the mountains
Hundreds of miles away
To the wonder of sounds
That break […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry | 5 Comments »

Sister Laura Swan, the former Prioress of St. Placid, where I am an Oblate, was interviewed on our local public radio station, you can find the link here.
Sr. Laura has written several books on Benedictine tradition worth checking out:
The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women
Engaging Benedict: What The Rule Can Teach […]

Posted in Resources | No Comments »

I have been reading Theological Aesthetics: A Reader for a book proposal I am working on for a publisher. It is going to be a book about beauty and aesthetic spirituality inspired by an article I wrote once and I am very excited about this project.
The book is a reader which means many of the […]

Posted in Art and Spirituality, Aesthetic Spirituality | 4 Comments »