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Category: Monk in the World

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Entering Silence Through Breath Prayer ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Blessing for Silence and Solitude* Holy Source of Silence, beneath the clatter and din of the everyday you offer your mysteries to our hearts. You call us to pause, to slow down and listen to the true longing planted in each of us by you, a seed of holy desire. Support us in letting go of the inner and outer noise. Open wide in us a sacred cave for stillness where we can attune to your presence. Enliven us with the gift of your sweet music and allow us to encounter your holy presence flaming in each of our hearts.

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Listening to the Call of the Monk in the World + Prayer Cycle Day 6

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims,  Today we release the audio podcasts for Day 6 of our Love of Thousands prayer cycle with morning and evening prayer. The themes for the morning are cosmology, myth, and song inspired by the stories and music that has inspired our ancestors and still runs through our blood and bone. The evening theme is on becoming a wise and well ancestor ourselves, which means bringing our gifts fully into the world so those generations that come later will benefit (even if we don’t have children ourselves).  Each day when I awaken I listen to morning prayer of

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Pray with Us! (Prayer Cycle Daily) – Monk in the World

We now have four weeks of morning and evening prayer for you in audio podcast form (the video podcasts for Birthing the Holy and The Soul of a Pilgrim will be coming later in 2023). We invite you to pray in community with us. Each week will rotate through the four prayer cycles and we will provide the link to the featured one. If you subscribe to our daily emails, the links for each day’s prayer will be contained in those.  This week will pray with Monk in the World Prayer Cycle. We being today with Day 1 Silence and

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Please Help Us Sustain this Work ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, One of my heart’s great joys is the global nature of this community. To know that there are monks and artists spread all over the world who commit to this way of life brings me tremendous comfort and encouragement.  I feel grateful daily for this vibrant and meaningful work and the amazing people I get to collaborate with to help create our programs and offerings. I am thankful every day for you and for the many notes of encouragement I receive about what our work means to you.  We will be adding a fourth week to

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Monk Manifesto + Updated Artwork ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

Dearest monk, artists, and pilgrims, I want to share a brand new video for our Monk Manifesto principles! We originally had our wonderful companion illustrations created about twelve years ago. They were delightful but in recent times, with our own growing awareness, we have realized they could be even more inclusive of a diversity of people than they were. Abbey of the Arts is committed to its own ongoing growth and transformation! See principle #7 of conversion which is all about being on a lifelong journey of discovery.   So we were delighted to find illustrator Quynh Nguyen and loved her playful, colorful style (she

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Monk in the World: Moving with Mystery ~ Dancing Retreat with Betsey Beckman

February 5, 2022 9am-12pm Pacific with Betsey Beckman, hosted by St. Placid Priory $45, Partial scholarships available. Please contact the Priory for more information. What would it be like to be a Dancing Monk?  How might a practice of Moving with Mystery help us navigate these trying times?  Come spend a morning dancing your way through the Monk Manifesto*, a set of 8 principles for contemplative, creative, and compassionate living.  At Abbey of the Arts, we have created dances for each of the 8 Monk practices, and you will have a chance to learn and embody some of our favorite dances

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Monk in the World Moving with Mystery DVD Now Available

We are delighted to announce that the new Monk in the World: Moving with Mystery DVD is available for pre-order. The Monk Manifesto is a set of 8 principles for contemplative, creative, and compassionate living. It is the Rule of Life for the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks community at Abbey of the Arts. We embrace the practices of Silence and Solitude, Hospitality, Community, Kinship with Creation, Work, Sabbath, Conversion, and Creative Joy. This DVD includes 14 prayer dances for every-body that embody the practices of the Monk Manifesto written by Christine Valters Paintner. The DVD will begin shipping around December 15, 2021.

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