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Monk in the World Guest Post: Martha Van Vactor

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read one for Martha Van Vactor’s reflection That Night. That night as predicted, there was the beautiful huge, very larger-than-life moon lighting up the night in an ever-so-peaceful and quiet time. I felt an instant, overwhelming rejuvenation in the sight of that large moon seemingly close enough to reach out and fearlessly grab!   Then I looked around at my surroundings, so well-lit for a change in the darkness of normal nights in the desert. Just a short time ago here was a

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September 2, 2026
Abbess love notes

I Will Live as a Monk in the World ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

I Will Live as a Monk in the World I awaken early as usual,have my little pot of breakfast and feed the dog,then she makes circles and squeals,knowing what is next. Morning prayer, walking the canal and river,quiet before the city hums,she stops every few feet to sniffmessages left for her on blades of grassand tree trunks,and I wonder at the messages imprinted here for me too,a feather floating,a leaf on my path,an acorn fallen.I pray with my feet, smell dawn’s freshness,the possibility of here and now,the swan glides up the waterand the duck quacks a warning to his companions, the blackbird does what he must

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August 30, 2026

Monk in the World Guest Post: Dena Jennings

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council Member Dena Jennings’ reflection and poem Just a Taste. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. — Letter to the Corinthians  These are troubling times. Uncertainty emerges in ways I never expected. I am sure this

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August 26, 2026
Abbess love notes

Ignatian Contemplation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

“For it is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.” ~St. Ignatius of Loyola Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, August 28th we are delighted to welcome Wisdom Council member Dena Jennings who will lead us in a retreat on Ignatian Contemplation—a means of seeking deeper understanding of the scriptures through our senses. Dena offers this reflection. Imagine that you are in the stories of the Gospels— not reading or hearing the Gospels, but actually imagine yourself in the stories. As the life of Jesus of Nazareth, from his birth to his ascension, unfold in

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August 23, 2026
Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World: Elizabeth Millar

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Elizabeth Millar’s reflection Walking, Pentecost, and Wild Wind. Click. My boarding pass has been automatically added to my digital wallet. It’s a modern miracle that being strapped into a huge gangly metal contraption for 5 and a half hours will magically transport me from my home on this little island in Canada to “the Isle of Saints and Scholars”. Tomorrow morning, I will wake up in the city of Dublin, take a train to the western side

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August 19, 2026
Abbess love notes

For Trust in Abundance ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

For Trust in Abundance*Spirit of Generous Abundance,remind us there is always more than enough—enough food, enough love, enough time, enough resources.Help us to see how our disconnected patterns of livingamplify our scarcity.Bring us into the joy and challenge of communitywhere bread divided multiplies, where laughter shared overflows.Empower us to share freely from our own abundancewith others in need. Slow us down to see how time expandswhen we breathe and pay attention.Bless us in our efforts to trustin your goodness and love pulsing through the world,sustaining it moment by moment.Give us the courage to speak outwhen resources are distributed unfairlyso that

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August 16, 2026

Christine Interviewed on The Healer with a Thousand Faces Podcast

Christine Valters Paintner had a conversation on Creativity, Chronic Illness, and Contemplation with Mike Petrow on his podcast The Healer with a Thousand Faces (also available through audio podcast channels). Joins us in Lent 2027 for the retreat The Wisdom of Our Wounds: Chronic Illness and Spirituality.

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August 12, 2026

Monk in the World Guest Post: Jaqui Eicher

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jaqui Eicher’s reflection and poem. After reading Christine Valters Paintner’s poem, “St. Gall and the Bear,” I responded in writing to the prompt: “Write about a time you extended kindness to someone or an animal being and they reciprocated in ways you did not expect.” My writing took me back twenty years to a moment that still sparkles in my heart; electric with love. What emerged brought tears to my eyes because I now recognize this animal encounter

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August 12, 2026
Abbess love notes

For Deeper Gratitude ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

For Deeper Gratitude*Spirit of Generosity,we come to you with heartsoverflowing with gratitudefor your abundant creation.As we awaken each morning,help us to rememberthis day is a gift,this breath is a grace,this life a wonder.Remind uswith every flower we see,every act of kindness,every moment of connectionto something so much biggerthan ourselves,to whisper, “Thank you.”Cultivate in us a sense of aweand trust in your lavish grace.Let each word of thankswe offer expand our heartsuntil delight inhabits usand we know loveas our sustenance. Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, One of the things that makes contemplative life so counter-cultural is the active resistance against

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August 9, 2026
Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Rachel M. Srubas

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rachel M. Srubas’ reflection and poems “Anchorheld: A Trinity (after Julian of Norwich).”   One spring day in 2023, feeling bereft and spiritually adrift, I turned to Julian of Norwich. Her fourteenth-century book, Revelations of Divine Love, had sat on my shelf, largely unread for years. At age thirty, near death, Julian experienced the sixteen mystical revelations that the book recounts and boldly interprets; it is the first known to be written by a woman in English. Little by little,

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August 5, 2026