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Reflections

Category: Abbess love notes

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Monk in the World: Reflection Questions and Blessing (Silence and Solitude) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle One: I commit to finding moments each day for silence and solitude, to make space for another voice to be heard, and to resist a culture of noise and constant stimulation. Spend some time in quiet reflection on the following questions. You might take out your journal and pen and free-write in response

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Monk in the World Suggestions for Practice (Silence and Solitude) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle One: I commit to finding moments each day for silence and solitude, to make space for another voice to be heard, and to resist a culture of noise and constant stimulation. Just for today claim a window of time – even ten minutes is enough to begin – and rest into an

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Monk in the World Guided Meditation by Christine (Silence and Solitude) + AUDIO ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear pilgrims, monks, and artists, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. This week we pray Lectio Divina with a text from Psalms. You can listen an audio recording of the practice below. We will be praying with this text: Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10   First Movement – Lectio: Settling & Shimmering For now, find a comfortable

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Monk in the World Reflection by Christine (Silence and Solitude) + AUDIO ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear pilgrims, monks, artists, Please note: This reflection was written when we lived in Seattle and had a dog named Winter. We currently live in Galway, Ireland with our dog Sourney. If you’d prefer to listen to Christine on silence here is the audio version.   Being a monk in the world means, for me, choosing to live contemplatively in resistance to the demand for speed, to live mindfully and with intention instead of rushing through life, to savor my experience rather than consume it, and to remember that my self-worth is not defined by how much I do or achieve,

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Reflection by John (Silence and Solitude) ~ A Note from Your Online Prior

Dear pilgrims, monks, and artists, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Mark 6:31-33 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going

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Silence and Solitude 1: A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear pilgrims, monks, and artists, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. “Silence is never merely the cessation of words . . . Rather it is the pause that holds together-indeed, it makes sense of-all the words, both spoken and unspoken. Silence is the glue that connects our attitudes and our actions. Silence is the fullness, not emptiness; it is not absence, but

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The Jubilee Begins! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today is my 49thbirthday and tomorrow is John’s. We are entering our 50th year of life and eager for this sabbatical time of spaciousness to listen and discern the shape of our work going forward and to have more time for the writing we so love to do. I returned a week ago from teaching in Chartres, France. (The photo above was received one of my first nights there). The program was hosted by Lauren Artress and the wonderful folks at Veriditas who help promote the labyrinth worldwide. It was a powerful week of diving deeply

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