Reflections

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Tina Thompson’s reflection on the path to Roman Catholic Women Priesthood. Have you heard of the international movement, Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP)? Until April 20, 2022, I knew nothing about this movement. Since that day, however, I have come to love this group of women (and men) whose mission is to prepare, ordain in Apostolic Succession, and support primarily women (although men are included), who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to a

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Mary Bellon’s poem and reflection Return to the Ocean. This poem reflects a journey back to origins, which for me includes the Pacific ocean. But origins are funny things because in some sense they also appear in the now and the immediate, allowing the nature of Presence to hold memory, recognition, new life and expectation. Return to the OceanHere I am gathered at the edge of the Pacificsheltered in a cove behind the beige California bluffssculpted as

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest posts series from the community. Read on for Elaine Patterson’s reflection on walking labyrinths. Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys. ~ H. Richard Niebuhr I have always thought of myself as a ‘pilgrim’. I have never thought of myself as particularly ‘monk-ish’. But I loved the invitation to write about being a ‘monk in the world’ which would not let me go. And as I found myself reading the Abbey’s definition of a monk as someone ‘who lives in the world, immersed in