*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

Growing up in New York City, my favorite place was The Cloisters (a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with art from medieval European monasteries). I had fallen in love with the aesthetic dimension of monastic tradition long before I understood what that way of life really meant. The art, architecture, music, and illuminated manuscripts all [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina, Monastic Spirituality | 6 Comments »

Some of you have let me know that you are having trouble ordering my book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness from Amazon (they indicate a 3-5 week delay) and Barnes and Noble indicates it being out of stock.  I contacted Paulist Press and unfortunately they didn’t have any clear ideas about why this was [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina | Comments Off

To find the previous entries on lectio divina with scripture, poetry, and icons, just click on the “lectio divina” tab under the title.
To the Trinity be praise!
God is music, God is life
that nurtures every creature in its kind.
Our God is the song of the angel throng
and the splendor of the secret ways
hid from all humankind,
But [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina, Monastic Spirituality | 10 Comments »

“For the invisible things of God since the creation of the world are made visible through images.”
                     (John of Damascus, On Holy Images)

The beautiful icon above is by iconographer Heather Williams Durka who lives in Olympia.  You can find her website here.  Heather offers icon workshops and has affordable reproductions of her wonderful images available [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina, Monastic Spirituality | 6 Comments »

“People turn to poems for some kind of illumination,
for revelations that help them to survive,
to survive in spirit not only in body.”
-Denise Levertov, “Poetry, Prophecy and Survival”
Poetry is language illuminated.  When we read poetry we are reading the same words we use for prose, but because of the compactness of images and the poet’s way [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina, Monastic Spirituality, Poetry | 7 Comments »

Lectio divina is an ancient prayer practice, meaning sacred reading.  It is a way of being with the sacred texts of our tradition in a contemplative way.  Lectio invites us to enter into silence and stillness to listen deeply for the stirring of the holy in scripture and in us.  Here is a simple overview of the [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina, Monastic Spirituality | 11 Comments »