There are a lot of new things blossoming here at the Abbey.  Just last week I accepted a halftime position as the Program Coordinator for the Ignatian Spirituality Center that begins later this summer.  I am delighted to be a part of the mission of this organization.  While I reflect a lot here on Benedictine spirituality, Ignatian […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Creativity | 10 Comments »

Moon
The moon is full tonight
an illustration for sheet music,
an image in Matthew Arnold
glimmering on the English Channel,
or a ghost over a smoldering battlefield
in one of the history plays.
It’s as full as it was
in that poem by Coleridge
where he carries his year-old son
into the orchard behind the cottage
and turns the baby’s face to the sky
to see […]

Posted in Creativity | 7 Comments »

A couple of weeks ago, in my interview with Heather Williams Durka, she used a phrase to describe her work as an artist that has stayed with me: “Serving the Mysteries.”  I was really entranced by that image, because for me the spiritual journey is not so much about growing in certainty as it is about learning […]

Posted in Creativity, Lent | 8 Comments »

This past week I was feeling pretty overtired from teaching all the previous weekend while recovering from a bug.  Finally by Friday I began to feel like myself again.  So it was a gift to have already planned to spend the morning meeting one of my favorite artists. 
I first discovered Miska’s work at the Priory […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 5 Comments »

The Fountain
Don’t say, don’t say there is no water
to solace the dryness at our hearts.
I have seen
the fountain springing out of the rock wall
and you drinking there. And I too
before your eyes
found footholds and climbed
to drink the cool water.
The woman of that place, shading her eyes,
frowned as she watched-but not because
she grudged the water,
only because […]

Posted in Poetry, Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 10 Comments »

I am honored to be included in this compilation of quotes by artists speaking about their art as a part of a grant project to explore creativity and spirituality.  Some intriguing words for reflection found there, not to mention links to some fabulous artists’ websites.  Click on over to find some inspiration.
How would you articulate […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 11 Comments »

I had a dream the other night:  
In the building where we live one of the condos is going to be rented out for a couple of months, so I decide to go take a look at it. When I first walk in, there is a small cramped kitchen with a stairway going up from the […]

Posted in Creativity, Dreams, Art and Spirituality | 10 Comments »

“After all, the goal is not to make art, but to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable.” -Robert Henri from The Art Spirit
“I don’t believe in it. . .Plumbers don’t get plumbers block, and doctor’s don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 5 Comments »

The other essay in the Theological Aesthetics book I am reading that has especially moved me is by the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff from his book Liberating Grace:
“The poet, the musician, and the writer feel overtaken by inspiration.  On the one hand, it is they who do the work. Their energy and their deepest selves […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 7 Comments »

Driving Under the Influence of Poetry
Scribbling on scraps of paper
On the seat next to me
As my car sails down
The freeways.
Words tumbling out
Around that sharp turn.
Poems dashed off at stop lights
They will not wait for me
To sit politely at a desk.
Poems on the run.
No speed limit for them.
They race in my head
As I keep one eye […]

Posted in Poetry, Creativity | 6 Comments »