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Monk in the World Guest Post: Elaine Breckenridge

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Elaine Breckenridge’s reflection on Saint Brigid. I went to Ireland last year and met Saint Brigid: monastic leader and pastor, protector and companion, soul friend and healer. Oh, I had known about Brigid as there are no shortage of books detailing her life as a person in history and her tradition as a goddess of the land of Ireland. But on this sacred journey, experience expanded knowledge as throughout my two week journey, time and again I met Brigid. My visit to

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January 25, 2017

Dance with Miriam on the Shores of Freedom ~ A love note from your online abbess

Miriam on the Shores “All the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.” – Exodus 15:20 Her skirt hangs heavy with seawater, staccato breath after running from death. She can still feel soldiers reaching out to seize her blouse before the waves caved in. Collapsing on dry earth for a moment, the impulse to dance begins in her feet, spreads slowly upwards like a flock of starlings rising toward a dawn-lit sky. So many dances in secret before, night-stolen movements after exhausting days heaving stones and harvest. She finds herself now upright, weeping. To stand here, face to

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January 22, 2017

Monk in the World Guest Post: Erin Marie Clark

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Erin Marie Clark’s reflection on conversing with the wisdom of the tarot. It was towards the end of my time training to be ordained as an Anglican priest that I was tackled by a mischievous and confounding spiritual practice: namely, reading the images and stories in tarot. Five months before I was due to be ordained, I stumbled on a blog post written by a tarot card reader. The warm, generous, pastoral tone of the post surprised me. It echoed the tone

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January 18, 2017

St. Ita and What is Most Essential ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Today is the feast of Saint Ita.  She was a 6th century Irish saint and is the second most significant woman saint in Ireland after Brigid. Her hagiographer even called her a “second Brigid” and her name Ita means thirst.  She established a church in Limerick called Killeedy, which means Church of Ita. When she was young she received a dream in which she was gifted three precious stones. She was unsure as to its meaning and pondered it. Later, in another visitation, it was revealed to her that throughout her life she would receive many

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January 15, 2017

Monk in the World Guest Post: Keren Dibbens-Wyatt

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Keren Dibbens-Wyatt’s reflection Shining for God. I may not be a Catholic, but I have had the honour, once or twice, of adoring the Christ as he is held within the monstrance. One particular time, sitting in the Cloister Chapel at Aylesford Priory, this was quite overwhelming. It was heart-warming and awe-inspiring, and my soul sang inside me even as I kept silence and held gaze with the moon-wafer in the golden sun. It felt for those precious minutes like everything in the

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January 11, 2017

My Word for 2017: Hermit

Dearest monks and artists, I have been grateful for this last season, a time of descent into the outer darkness and then the stillness that comes during those in-between days from Christmas to Epiphany. There has been a bronchial flu going around Galway which I came down with a couple of weeks ago. It amplified the mood of going inward and just embracing the gift of rest. We had a very full fall with four wonderful groups on pilgrimage, including in our beloved Vienna. Then we bought an apartment in Galway and moved house. Even though it was within the

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January 8, 2017

Give Me a Word 2017 Drawing Winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2017 Give Me a Word invitation! We had almost 1000 participants take the online retreat to help a word choose you. Above is a word cloud made from all the words submitted by January 6th. Please note some appear larger when they were submitted more frequently. Some are quite tiny but are there in the spaces between. We have done our random drawing and are delighted to announce the winners: One space in our upcoming New Year’s online retreat – Spiraling Inward: Seven Celtic Spiritual Practices – Carol Moyle (Openings) One signed copy

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January 7, 2017

Feast of Epiphany – Follow the Star

The Feast of Epiphany is celebrated today. It is one of my favorite scripture stories as it offers us a series of powerful invitations. The last few lines of the gospel text, offer us a template for an archetypal journey, that is, one we are all invited to make. We can find ourselves in the text if we have ever longed to follow an inkling into the long night knowing there were gifts awaiting us. Follow the star to where it leads The story begins with the magi calling upon the grace of night vision.  Navigation in ancient times was

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January 6, 2017

Monk in the World Guest Post: Teresa Blythe

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Teresa Blythe’s reflection on finding God in desire. Desire is not something I was brought up to respect. To insist on fulfilling one’s own desires was seen as selfish, petty and certainly not Christian. Still somewhere deep within me from the earliest of times I can recall I knew that if I operated out of desire, I was joyful, and if I did something because someone made me or pressured me—I was miserable. This is important information for spiritual discernment, but I

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January 4, 2017

New Year Blessings! What is your word for the year? ~ A love note from your online abbess

To the New Year With what stillness at last you appear in the valley your first sunlight reaching down to touch the tips of a few high leaves that do not stir as though they had not noticed and did not know you at all then the voice of a dove calls from far away in itself to the hush of the morning so this is the sound of you here and now whether or not anyone hears it this is where we have come with our age our knowledge such as it is and our hopes such as they

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January 1, 2017