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Abbess love notes

Christmas and New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Christmas Blessing*This blessing dances at the doorwayof light and dark, knows both as sacred:fertile womb space, miracle of blooming.This blessing breathesthrough those moments of laborwhen you too birth the holyinto this fragile, luminous, hurting worldas Mary did two thousand years ago,eyes wide, hands gripping,waters breaking like crashing wavesof the primordial seasending a prayer through timethat echoes still,pulsing like starlightin an enormous sky.This blessing rests a handon the back of the lonely disoriented lost hungry despairing persecutedto say your humanity is not an obstaclebut a threshold, to remind youthat the wound is a portalthrough which your gifts pour forth,that raw

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Abbess love notes

Winter Solstice Blessing ~ A Love from Your Online Abbess

Winter Solstice*Holy One of the turning earth,we watch the daily pilgrimage of the sunas its journey grows shorter and shorter.Bears, bats, and hedgehogs restwhile swallows and swifts have already migrated south again. Cold air, bare branches, blankets and shawls,the growing quiet calls us to our own retreat. Then a bell rings out across the hemisphere,the diminishment pauses, then slowly shiftsand we imagine our ancestors standingin the heart of winter’s cold darknesswith faces upward in awe each year as your brilliance begins to brighten the sky for longer each day, gold beams tumbling like treasure. We know on this day the

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Abbess love notes

End of Year Giving

Your donations help us make what we do fully accessible to all who desire to be a part of this virtual monastery and gathering of kindred spirits. It is because of your generosity that we are able to offer many free resources – such as our prayer cycles, book club, and scholarship fund – to nourish everyone, regardless of financial capacity. Your donations to Abbey of the Arts also help fund free and reduced fee options on our sliding scale for programs, as well as offer additional scholarships to all who are in need of greater financial support.  Read about our commitment to

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Melanie-Préjean Sullivan

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Melanie-Préjean Sullivan’s reflection on her morning prayer practice. I have always been a student of spirituality. From the time I could read, my life was filled with books on the lives of saints and anything I could find on religious sisters.  Over the years, a few happy situations helped me to discern a different call― to research and teaching, to counseling, and eventually to campus ministry. But there was always a lingering desire to lead a more

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Abbess love notes

Community + Give Me a Word ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Friendship and Community*God of friendshipI come to know your love and carethrough the embodied presence of others.Weave me together with kindred spirits,knit me more closely with friends of the soul,cultivate in me a kinship with humanityso that I recognize my struggles and joys in others.In my loneliness reveal to me this communionand may I be a solace to others who ache for connection.Transform me through conversation and loving presence.Help me to see how I am part of a great circleof pilgrims, witnesses, ancestors, and mysticswho guide me to true connection with You.Gather me into your great wide

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Laurie vandenHurk

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Laurie vandenHurk’s reflection Mindfulness of everyday life – caring for children. Quote: Thich Nhat Hanh, “If you touch one thing with deep awareness you touch everything.” (1.) “Look out,” said the sign, so Jasper stopped to look out at the view. I stopped too. As I waited for Jasper, I felt a call to wake up and look out, to come out of my interior funk/fog and be present, mindful and fully embodied in the moment. Last

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Advent Christmas Epiphany

A Spirituality of Blessing for Advent ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Paradise*Sacred Source of Joy,help us to see glimpses of heaven all around us, in the urgency of each spring’s blooming,in the simple gifts of water to bathe in and drink,in our morning tea or coffee,steam rising in prayer,in the dog’s pleading eyes,or the warm embrace of a friend,in the food which nourishes usand the herbs given freely for healing. May we behold the way sunlight illumines and moonlight glows,may we treasure moments of laughter.May we see Paradise shimmering forth wherever we look, savoring moments of ease and hope in whatever forms they take, to strengthen and nourish

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Give me a word

Give Me a Word 2025

In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to the divine 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 was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered. Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word – this word or phrase would be something

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sharon Dawn Johnson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sharon Dawn Johnson’s reflection Body and Beading As Sacred Texts. Reading and Listening “You need to create your own recipe.” The orthopaedic doctor’s counsel follows the news that my fractured tibia has healed. After seven weeks of wheelchair confinement—mostly indoors—and almost total dependence on others, I no longer need to wear the bendable brace nor avoid weight-bearing. Amidst a surge of emotions, outdoor walking floats to the top of my multi-ingredient list.  The walker and I make

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Gratitude Blessing + The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 7~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Gratitude Blessing*Spirit of Generosity,we come to you with hearts overflowing with gratitudefor your abundant creation.As we awaken each morning, help us to remember this day is a gift,this breath is grace,this life a wonder. Remind us with every flower we see,every act of kindness,every moment of connection to 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 thanks we offer expand our heartsuntil delight inhabits usand we know loveas our sustenance. Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, The 5th century monk and mystic Benedict of

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