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Category: Abbess love notes

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The Sacred Gifts of Poetry ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dreaming of Stones In the world before waking I meet a winged one, feathered, untethered, who presses in my palm three precious stones, like St. Ita in her dream, but similarities end there, her with saintliness and certainty, me asking questions in the dark. All I know is I am not crafted from patience of rock or gravity of earth, nor flow of river, I am not otter with her hours devoted to play. I am none of these. At least not yet. The stones will still be singing centuries from now, made smooth by all kinds of weather. If

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Feast of Epiphany – Follow the Star ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The Feast of Epiphany is celebrated today. It is one of my favorite scripture stories as it offers us a series of powerful invitations. The last few lines of the gospel text, offer us a template for an archetypal journey, that is, one we are all invited to make. We can find ourselves in the text if we have ever longed to follow an inkling into the long night knowing there were gifts awaiting us. 1. Follow the star to where it leads The story begins with the magi calling upon the grace of night

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New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Stop by this link to read W.S. Merwin’s poem “To the New Year” Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I offer you a reprise of my reflection on Embracing Mystery in the New Year: Ten Essential Practices. Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. -Henri-Frederic

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Christmas Blessings from the Abbey ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, All of us here at the Abbey – John, Christine, and the Abbey Wisdom Council – wish you a most wondrous Christmas feast. This is the time for holy birthing to happen in unlikely places, a time to listen to what rises in the stillness, a time to trust in the darkness that seeds are sprouting deep beneath the fertile earth. We live in a world hungry for such truths. What a gift you each are to be a bearer of this wisdom. To support this knowing in your own heart, I offer you a

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Feast Day of Thomas Merton ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today is the feast day of Thomas Merton and I share with you this excerpt from my book Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics: “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.” (Merton in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander) I first read

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Join us for our online Advent retreat (starts today!) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today the season of Advent begins and I offer you a brief excerpt from our online retreat Signs in the Sun, Moon, and Stars: In the Celtic tradition, one of the central teachings is the idea that there are two books of revelation – one is the written scriptures and the other is the book of Creation. Both reveal the face of the divine to us, both have profound gifts to offer. The gospel reading for today talks about looking for the “signs in the sun, moon, and stars” which forms the title of this

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Feast of Dorothy Day ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, On Thursday is the feast of Dorothy Day, so I share with you this excerpt from my book Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics about her: In an editorial, she described the mission of the Catholic Worker she helped to found: “For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight. For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain. For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work. For those who think that there is no hope for

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