I have been feeling tired this week, unwell, my body feels tender and fatigued and so I am taking extra care of myself. My spirit is also feeling tender, in part because my body is vulnerable, but also because of the tragic events in Haiti, my mother-in-law’s gradual decline with dementia, and some much smaller [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living, Grief | 11 Comments »
All beings
are words of God,
His music, His
art.
Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps
in our
souls.
Every act reveals God and expands His being.
I know that may be hard
to comprehend.
All creatures are doing their best
to help God in His birth
of Himself.
Enough talk for the night.
He is laboring in me;
I need to be silent
for a while,
worlds are forming
in [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living | 5 Comments »
*JUST ADDED: A NEW E-COURSE for LENT*
Join me for a transformative journey through the ancient contemplative practices of lectio divina, centering prayer, and praying the hours. This Lenten season, create a supported retreat for yourself. Click the image below for more details.
I have taught several different versions of this Benedictine spirituality course with enthusiastic [...]
Posted in Abbey Online Classes, Contemplative Living, Lectio Divina, Lenten Online Retreat, Monastic Spirituality, Praying the Hours | Comments Off
A couple of weeks ago I had my first Thai massage session. It is different than traditional Swedish style massage in that you are fully clothed and lay on a mat. The massage practitioner stretches your body in different directions to help release tension. There is also a lot of rhythmic rocking so that the body [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living | 5 Comments »
How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters. They form our contemplation. They instill us with virtue. They make us as stable as the land we live in. -Thomas [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living, Nature | 11 Comments »
Two weeks ago I went to a Shabbat dinner at the home of my good friend who is also a rabbi. On occasion she will invite her “women of faith” friends to celebrate this welcoming in of the Sabbath so central to Jewish life and ritual. There we were, one Jewish rabbi, one Benedictine Oblate, two [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living | 9 Comments »
On returning from our summer travels I recommitted myself to a deeper exploration of two practices — Sabbath-keeping and yoga. I believe so strongly in the power of Sabbath, as a witness to a different way of being in the world, as an act of humility that says the world will get by if I [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living | 4 Comments »
My article on “The Practice of Contemplation as Witness and Resistance” has been published in the October 2007 issue of The Way (a journal of contemporary spirituality published by the British Jesuits). They have been behind in their production because of the editor’s illness, but the issue is now available. Click on the link above to read the [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living, Fun | 16 Comments »
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning is a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
[S]he may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living, Monastic Spirituality, Poetry, Spirituality | 12 Comments »
What the Dog Perhaps Hears
If an inaudible whistle
blown between our lips
can send him home to us,
then silence is perhaps
the sound of spiders breathing
and roots mining the earth;
it may be asparagus heaving,
headfirst, into the light
and the long brown sound
of cracked cups, when it happens.
We would like to ask the dog
if there is a continuous whir
because the [...]
Posted in Contemplative Living | 12 Comments »
