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 »

I Go Back to May 1937
I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges,
I see my father strolling out
under the ochre sandstone arch, the
red tiles glinting like bent
plates of blood behind his head, I
see my mother with a few light books at her hip
standing at the pillar made of tiny bricks with the
wrought-iron […]

Posted in Poetry, Family Systems | 12 Comments »

The Hammock
When I lay my head in my mother’s lap
I think how day hides the star,
the way I lay hidden once, waiting
inside my mother’s singing to herself. And I remember
how she carried me on her back
between home and the kindergarten,
once each morning and once each afternoon.
I don’t know what my mother’s thinking.
When my son lays […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Pilgrimage | 8 Comments »

“But when the shadow is given conscious recognition we will find that it has much of positive value to add to our personality, often giving us the earthiness, or instinctuality, or zest for living, or humility that is exactly what we need to complement our personality and become a complete human being.” -John A. Sanford, Dreams: […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Abbey Bookshelf | 4 Comments »

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Dropping Keys
The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He
Knows.
While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners.
-Hafiz
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(a simple meditation this week — photo is of a collection I have of old keys from Austria) 
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts
** Come back Monday for our next Poetry Party […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Visual Meditation | 6 Comments »

Into the Wild
The cancer began so small,
just a hummingbird
caught in the house.
It could be gently removed
without much fuss,
flying from the window, opened.
But, a whole other nest was found.
Hiding in the corner,
this cancer was not so innocent.
As the eggs cracked
and babies grew,
they brought a frenzy and chaos within.
Although these were
just small wrens,
the surgeon wielded his knife.
Poison […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Visual Meditation | 10 Comments »

No Abbey Bookshelf today, too much work these last few days to think about reading!  So instead, here are some beautiful words from David Whyte:
Tilokal Lake
(”The Frozen Lake”)
In this high place
it is as simple as this,
leave everything you know behind.
Step toward the cold surface,
say the old prayer of rough love
and open both arms.
Those who come […]

Posted in Poetry | 3 Comments »

I want to reflect here on two deaths that happened at the beginning of the year–within four days of each other–of two people whom I have never met. 
One is the great Irish poet and contemporary mystical writer John O’Donohue who died peacefully in his sleep on January 3, 2008.  He was only 53 years old and […]

Posted in Poetry, Grief | 10 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 »

The Earth will be going on a long time
Before it finally freezes;
Men will be on it; they will take names,
Give their deeds reasons.
We will be here only
As chemical constituents-
A small franchise indeed.
Right now we have lives,
Corpuscles, Ambitions, Caresses,
Like everybody had once-
Here at the year’s end, at the feast
Of birth, let us bring to each other
The […]

Posted in Photos, Poetry, Epiphany | 10 Comments »