My inner monk adores this Lenten season, this invitation to walk straight out into the desert and be present to all of the ways my inner demons (those forces that keep me from being free) wrestle inside of me. One of my favorite Biblical passages is the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel and [...]
Posted in Lent Easter, Lenten Online Retreat | 1 Comment »
Are you longing for a meaningful way to commit to contemplative practice for Lent?
Would you like to integrate a retreat experience into your everyday life with guided daily email support from an experienced teacher of prayer?
Are you wondering if there’s still time to sign up?
I have had several inquiries in the last day about whether [...]
Posted in Lenten Online Retreat | Comments Off
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and you [...]
Posted in Lenten Online Retreat, Poetry | 3 Comments »
Valentine for Ernest Mann
You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two”
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,
write me a poem,” deserves something in reply.
So I’ll tell a secret instead:
poems hide. In [...]
Posted in Lenten Online Retreat, Poetry | 1 Comment »
Listen to the long stillness:
New life is stirring
New dreams are on the wing
New hopes are being readied:
Humankind is fashioning a new heart
Humankind is forging a new mind
God is at work.
This is the season of Promise.
-Howard Thurman
A week from Wednesday the Lenten journey begins. On Ash Wednesday we always hear the words of the prophet [...]
Posted in Lent Easter, Lenten Online Retreat | 3 Comments »
The Spring Session of Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist filled up a couple of weeks ago and now Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Contemplative Practice is also FULL for the Spring Session dates.
Summer dates are still available – both classes are offered July 19-August 29, 2010 and are currently [...]
Posted in Abbey Online Classes, Lenten Online Retreat | Comments Off
Last week I offered 50% of the profits from registrations for my Lenten E-Course on Benedictine Spiritual Practices between January 25-31 to be donated to Haiti relief efforts. I am so delighted to report that we raised $500! I will be making a donation of half that amount each to Partners in Health and to [...]
Posted in Lenten Online Retreat | 1 Comment »
The flock thickens
over the roiling, salt brightness. Listen,
maybe such devotion, in which one holds the world
in the clasp of attention, isn’t the perfect prayer,
but it must be close, for the sorrow, whose name is doubt,
is thus subdued, and not through the weaponry of reason,
but of pure submission. Tell me, what else
could beauty be [...]
Posted in Lenten Online Retreat, Visual Meditation | 12 Comments »
It takes clear space, contemplative time, and good conversation to engage complex problems. Busyness, consumerism, and their accompanying anxiety can easily become substitutes for meaning and clarity of purpose, numbing our capacity to act responsively. Allowing us to be selectively attentive and to filter out complexity and ambiguity, they foster superficial thinking, short-term perspectives, and [...]
Posted in Abbey Online Classes, Art, Creativity, & Spirituality Retreat, Lenten Online Retreat | 3 Comments »
In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert [...]
Posted in Abbey Online Classes, Advent Christmas Epiphany, Cycles and Seasons, Lenten Online Retreat | 140 Comments »
