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Community Lectio Divina:  Flowers Appear on the Earth

In the northern hemisphere we are moving toward springtime and the ever-growing light. We invite you to pray with this text from the Song of Songs: For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! –Song of Songs 2:11-13 How Community Lectio Divina works: Each month there will be a passage selected

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Monk in the World guest post: Beth Fritsch

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Beth Fritsch’s reflection on Going into Garberville: Recently while on a silent seven-day retreat at the Cistercian Redwoods Monastery in Whitethorn, CA , I had a strong urge on the afternoon of day four to take myself into Garberville to enjoy an artist’s date in this quaint town nestled on the Lost Coast.  The more I thought about it the night before, the better I liked the idea too.  I found myself chanting soothingly, “I am going into Garberville.”  Before setting out for

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Easter Blessings! ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We have arrived at the celebration of Easter and resurrection. What Holy Week teaches me is that surrender leads to the fullness of life, yielding our own agendas brings us to new possibilities we couldn’t have dreamed of for ourselves. The story of St. Kevin and the Blackbird is perhaps one of my favorites of all the Celtic saints. He was a 6th century monk and Abbott, and was soul friend to many, including Ciaran of Clomacnoise. After he was ordained, he retreated to a place of solitude, most likely near the Upper Lake at

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Invitation to Dance: The Deer’s Cry

We continue our theme this month of “The Deer’s Cry” which arose from our Community Lectio Divina practice with the Ash Wednesday passage from Joel and continued with this month’s Photo Party and Poetry Party. I invite you into a movement practice.  Allow yourself just 5 minutes this day to pause and listen and savor what arises. Begin with a full minute of slow and deep breathing.  Let your breath bring your awareness down into your body.  When thoughts come up, just let them go and return to your breath. Hold the images from the prayer as the gentlest of intentions, planting a seed as you prepare to step into

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Monk in the World guest post: Irvin Boudreaux

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Irvin Boudreaux’s reflection on thin places: “Conceptually, I have known of “thin places” for a number of years but never really gave it a whole lot of thought. Thin places, like many other Celtic traditions, hold a certain mystical fascination for me. The Celts developed this sort of thinking before the long arm of western Christianity invaded their world. Simply put, a thin place was and is just that, a physical location where the separation between the divine and the earth is

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Honoring the Equinox + Embrace Mystery ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The spring equinox has arrived (either last night or this morning depending on where you are in the world). I offer an excerpt from my reflection for Sacred Seasons, which is our yearlong self-study retreat which invites you through the 8 Celtic thresholds of seasonal wisdom. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. —Isaiah 35:1-2 I believe deeply that the seasons have a great deal of spiritual wisdom to offer us if we make

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Invitation to Poetry: The Deer’s Cry

Welcome to our Poetry Party! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below or join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group and post there. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party!  (If you repost the photo, please make sure to include the credit link and link back to this post inviting others to join us).

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Monk in the World guest post series: Karen Johnston

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Karen Johnston’s reflection on the chapel of the heart: “I welcome silence. It is a quiet cushion in between everything that captures gentle fluidity. It’s where I become satisfied with the riches of nothing and wear the jewels of the empty. It’s where magnificent infinity is amplified and my awareness becomes keen to truth. Yet, oddly, it is a villain who has escorted me into this great simplicity. The noisy world has forced me to know my truest self. The

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Celebrate the Feast of St Patrick ~ A love note from your online abbess

Holy Mountain I want to climb the holy mountain ascend over weight of stone and force of gravity, follow the rise of a wide and cracked earth toward eternal sky, measured steps across the sharp path, rest often to catch my heavy breath. I want to hear the silence of stone and stars, lie back on granite’s steep rise face to silver sky’s glittering points where I can taste the galaxies on my tongue, communion of fire, then stand on the summit and look out at the laboring world. I want to witness earth’s slow turning with early light brushing

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Invitation to Photography: The Deer’s Cry

Welcome to this month’s Abbey Photo Party! I select a theme and invite you to respond with images. We began this month with a Community Lectio Divina practice with our reflection on some of the words from the Deer’s Cry, a prayer attributed to St.Patrick. I invite you for this month’s Photo Party to hold these words in your heart as you go out in the world to receive images in response. As you walk be ready to see what is revealed to you as a visual expression of your prayer. You can share images you already have which illuminate the theme, but I encourage you also to

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