Retreat & Learning Opportunities
A quick note to let you know that my Teaching Calendar has been updated with several upcoming retreat & workshop opportunities. A reminder to join Betsey Beckman and me for a wonderful Art & Movement retreat to Honor Our Ancestors over the weekend of Halloween, Samhain, and All Saint’s. This will be a beautiful time […]
Blog Sabbatical
Tomorrow I will fly off to distant landscapes to begin my time of pilgrimage and be attentive to the summons between heartbeats. I will carry with me my camera, my journal and pen, and most important, an open heart ready to receive whatever gifts are offered. My blog and the Abbey Shop will be on sabbatical for most of October (although […]
Abbey Bookshelf: An Altar in the World (on belief and practice)
“Welcome to your own priesthood, practiced at the altar of your own life.” (xvii) “Christianity ‘is not a set of beliefs or doctrines one believes in order to be a Christian, but rather Christianity is to have one’s body shaped, one’s habits determined, in such a way that the worship of God is unavoidable.’ (quote […]
On Prayer
On Prayer You ask me how to pray to someone who is not. All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge And walking it we are aloft, as on a springboard, Above landscapes the color of ripe gold Transformed by a magic stopping of the sun. That bridge leads to the shore of […]
Mandalas – Part Two
Stop by Patheos for the second part of my article on Mandalas in the church.
Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire
I just got the cover design in the mail for my book Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements from Ave Maria Press (coming in March 2010!). I really like the design a lot, especially the four symbols for the elements in the upper right (not as clear to see in […]
Happy Feast of St. Hildegard
Hildegard of Bingen was my doorway into the Benedictine life. While in graduate school I was studying for my “History of Christian Spirituality” comprehensive examination (a fearful and awesome task if there ever was one) and actually had a slight disdain for those ancient monks. My spirituality up until that point had been quite infused […]