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Continuing Education Program and 2017 Ireland Pilgrimages | *Updates*

Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts November 13-18, 2016 with Kayce Stevens Hughlett, MA & Betsey Beckman MM in the Pacific Northwest Space has opened up in this program. Click here for more details>> May 2-7, 2017 with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD & Betsey Beckman, MM in Perth Scotland This program is starting to fill already! Click here for more details>> This five-day intensive immerses you in an experience of the bringing the transformative power of the expressive arts to spiritual settings. Join a small group of kindred souls to dive deep together

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July 21, 2016

Monk in the World Guest Post: Liz Hill

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Liz Hill’s reflection titled Going On Faith. Not long ago I ran into a woman who had taken my class on storytelling just before she left on an extended overseas trip. “You were right,” she told me. “Faith is a good airline.” I nodded and smiled, but I’m pretty sure she could tell I had no idea what she was referring to. The next day she refreshed my memory via email. She outlined the many remarkable, transformative things that had

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July 20, 2016

Savoring Summer’s Sweet Slowness ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During July we are sharing some reflections from the Abbey Archives (and in August we will be taking a break from our daily and weekly newsletters for a summer sabbatical): “The summer night is like a perfection of thought.” —Wallace Stevens “What is summer’s sweetness / but an invitation to respond?” —Lynn Ungar John and I are blessed to have a lot of control over the rhythms of our year, and summer is a time when we step back from the intensity of work and allow more time for dreaming and incubation for the year

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July 17, 2016

Monk in the World Guest Post: Rich Lewis

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rich Lewis’ reflection on being nudged by God. Is God Nudging You? What are you doing with the questions you are asked by others? Are these questions God nudging you to take a specific action? Let me share two questions that I was asked that I believe were God nudging me to take further action upon. Before I share my first question, let me provide some background information.  In early 2014, I began reading Healing The Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic

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July 13, 2016

Ancestral Pilgrimage as Spiritual Practice ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During July we are sharing some reflections from the Abbey Archives (and in August we will be taking a break from our daily and weekly newsletters for a summer sabbatical): As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and those we have loved. Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives. They can become part of our spiritual communities and gently help us as we make decisions on our journeys.

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July 10, 2016

Monk in the World Guest Post: Gracia Sears

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Gracia Sears’ reflection on art and service. I sit in  the living room of our condo; I can see the Gulf of Mexico from where I sit. I savor this space.  It is my “cell” for three months of the year.  I read, I walk, and do small watercolors in my attempts to capture the essence of this seascape with its western view, its sunsets.  I have long savored sunsets and like many people seek them in the many places

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July 6, 2016

Dancing Monk Icons Cards now available for purchase! – ORDERS NOW CLOSED

**Ordering is now closed.** We may open up ordering again in the future which will be announced in our email newsletter. We are delighted to offer for sale a limited number of sets of the dancing monk icon cards. All 18 designs included – the original 12 dancing monks plus an additional 6 we added from the Irish Celtic monastic tradition (see list of names below). These are printed on high quality cardstock, plastic-coated, with rounded corners, and in vibrant colors. Reverse side of all cards is the same design (see image to the right). Size is standard European A7

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July 3, 2016

Practice of the Holy Pause ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During July we are sharing some reflections from the Abbey Archives (and in August we will be taking a break from our daily and weekly newsletters for a summer sabbatical): Modern life seems to move at full speed and many of us can hardly catch our breath between the demands of earning a living, nurturing family and friendships, and the hundreds of small daily details like paying our bills, cleaning, grocery shopping. More and more we feel stretched thin by commitments and lament our busyness, but without a clear sense of the alternative. There is

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July 3, 2016

Survey on Online Monasteries – Please reply

I have recently had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Br. Bernard, a Benedictine monk with the community in Rome at Sant’Anselmo. He has much interest in the phenomenon of new ways monasticism is being spread through things such as online communities like Abbey of the Arts and also hopes that we might collaborate in the future. Would you be willing to help him with a project? He has a survey he would greatly appreciate your filling out to contribute to the research he is doing. I will be very interested to see the results as well! :-) You can

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July 2, 2016

Monk in the World Guest Post: Kathie Hempel

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kathie Hempel’s reflection on being a monk at the grocery store. What is your intention when you go to the grocery store? Years ago I heard a popular television Bible teacher say God had taught her a lot about excellence at the grocery store.  Simple things like taking the cart back or putting things she had decided not to buy back in the spot they came from. Ouch! How do we actually represent our beliefs throughout our day? How do

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June 29, 2016