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Invitation to Photography: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?

button-photographyWelcome to this month’s Abbey Photo Party!

select a theme and invite you to respond with images.

We began this month with a Community Lectio Divina practice with our reflection on Kinship with Creation (the fourth principle of the Monk Manifesto) with a quote from Psalm 104 (read them here).

I invite you for this month’s Photo Party to hold these words in your heart as you go out in the world to receive images in response. As you walk be ready to see what is revealed to you as a visual expression of your prayer.

You can share images you already have which illuminate the theme, but I encourage you also to go for a walk with the theme in mind and see what you discover.

You are also welcome to post photos of any other art you create inspired by the theme.  See what stirs your imagination!

How to participate:

You can post your photo either in the comment section below* (there is now an option to upload a file with your comment – your file size must be smaller than 1MB – you can re-size your image for free here – choose the “small size” option and a maximum width of 500).

You can also join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group and post there. Feel free to share a few words about the process of receiving this image and how it speaks of the harvest for you.

*Note: If this is your first time posting, or includes a link, your comment will need to be moderated before it appears. This is to prevent spam and should be approved within 24 hours.

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7 Responses

  1. I walk through neighborhoods and natural areas, discovering Art created by Nature, as with this rotting tree, which looks like a colorful painting.

  2. I’m sitting here admiring this beautiful day, and all around me there are noises of lawn-mowing and house construction. Inside, there’s a fly flying around, and my dog snoring…what do you think I’m listening to? Thanks to you, inside.

  3. a request to attend meeting for vets tonight
    housing…war wounds…healing balm for body and soul
    torrents of jets, macho motors and bikes
    i am too reeling in my own pain
    escape back to Big Sur and Ocean Mother
    waves of comfort and song
    the soul wound of our Native peoples
    how to restore psalm 104 to our earth
    lawn mowers shatter the earth silence
    how can grass live much less humans
    gardeners tend not only to the job
    listen to the cacophony of sounds you bring
    the sunrise and sunset cannot shine mystic light
    if the harmony of nature is lost to civilization
    listen to nature untouched… hear… heal your soul wound
    and ours… Jesus, the Risen One, is the Gardener
    “How brightly deep… how Glory sprung
    Creation’s Lord unbound
    the mystic longing heart of things
    in charged unspoken sound
    He came to walk our restless winds
    to make our flowers grow
    to hear our colors laugh and sing
    to rub our sunset glow.
    and we would touch the Spoken Word
    and walk with Him His ground…” (cannot remember words of this lovely song!)

  4. Your photograph is beautiful. Thank you for this statement “I am trying, a little more each day, to alter the created world around me as little as possible.” I have never thought of small things, like taking shells, picking up rocks as altering. Thank you for that aha.

  5. There is this little beach near my Spiritual Director’s home that has stolen my heart. It invites me to linger, soak in it’s particular manifestation of God’s creative design, leaving nothing of myself behind but gratitude and taking nothing with me but deep joy and peace. I am trying, a little more each day, to alter the created world around me as little as possible, except to be a companion pointing the way to Christ. I took this photo to capture and carry a little of the joyful invitation this beach affords me. There is no mark of intrusion, only peace.