Abbess love notes Archives | Page 3 of 70

Gratitude for Dancing Monks, Earth-Bound Angels, Self-Care, and the Contemplative Path

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Every four weeks I go to the hospital to receive an infusion of a biologic medication to keep my rheumatoid arthritis under control. Each time I go I am full of gratitude at the way modern medicine has allowed me to mostly keep my mobility 32 years after being first diagnosed. My mother, who also had RA, didn’t even live this long into her illness and was in a wheelchair the last several years of her life after several joint replacement surgeries. As many of you know, autoimmune illness is challenging. I have several chronic

January 9, 2024

The Heart of Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

“The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or [s]he will not exist at all.” —Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations Dearest monks and artists, In a week we begin our 14-week online companion journey through my book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness. When we speak of the saints, we do not refer to people inaccessible to us and our lives, but to friends of the heart who dwell beyond the veil between worlds. They call us to our own paths of holiness. This is an adapted excerpted from the book: At the heart

January 7, 2024

New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, I pray this note finds you well and thriving as we move through the season of Christmas and this turning point of the calendar to a new year. I have had a time of mini-sabbatical these last few weeks as my health continues to be a challenge. Rest is such a gift and I am grateful for the space to ease my fatigue and pain. As I sit in quiet moments, my heart always turns to this beautiful work I am privileged to do and to you, our beloved dancing monks, who make this work such

December 31, 2023

Winter Solstice Wisdom and Offerings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Of Price and Worth Let the ordinary be in your hand; hold it open and imagine a bird landing, offering all it possesses in trust to come to you. Learn to look for the little things that weigh nothing at all, but fill the heart with such light they can never be measured. -Kenneth Steven, Seeing the Light Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, We are delighted to be offering two programs this week to help you slow down and savor the gifts of this time of year as we wait for the tipping point of darkness to light in the

December 17, 2023

My Heart Feels Lean ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, On Friday, December 15th we are pleased to welcome Wisdom Council member and long-time forum facilitator Melissa Layer to lead us in the mini-retreat My Heart Feels Lean: Behold the Darkness, Cradle the Light. This will be a sanctuary space to be met with tenderness in these days of Advent and holy gestation. Read on for Melissa’s reflection on the grace of conscious grieving. December dusk falls early in Port Townsend on the wild Olympic Peninsula in Washington, where I live. This liminal time calls me to wander in forest and field and on beaches where powerful king

December 10, 2023

Give Me a Word Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to the divine and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered. Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word – this word

November 30, 2023

Preparing for Advent + Prayer Cycle Day 7

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today we share the final two audio podcasts of our 7-day prayer cycle on the theme of The Love of Thousands. The theme for morning is on ancestral earth and deep time, honoring that our ancestors are not just our human kin, but the mountains whose minerals form our bones and the seas that swim in our blood. We are connected to all of life. The evening theme is the love of thousands, bringing the whole journey through honoring angels, saints, and ancestors together. Advent begins in a week! Every year before Christmas since 2008 we have

November 26, 2023

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Gratitude for Dancing Monks, Earth-Bound Angels, Self-Care, and the Contemplative Path

The Heart of Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Winter Solstice Wisdom and Offerings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

My Heart Feels Lean ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Give Me a Word Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Preparing for Advent + Prayer Cycle Day 7

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Jennifer Scott Mobley

St Colman, Solitude, and Pilgrimage ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

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