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Monk in the World guest post: Kate Kennington Steer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s reflection on the power of a word: word As the seasons shift again and the year moves into what I think of as its dying arc, I have been prompted yet again to return to the word I was given at the end of Advent last year: Welcome. Welcome is all ‘about’ answering the Spirit’s invitation to listen, live and love more deeply as I follow in the footsteps of the Way to and with Christ. It

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The Elements as Wise Guides and Companions | January 29, 2016

10.00am – 4.30pm | Arrupe Room, Milltown, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 Join me in Dublin for a day of retreat with the AISGA (All Ireland Spiritual Guidance Association, non-members welcome to register). As we approach the feast of Imbolc and St Brigid, we will gather together to pause and listen for how each of the four elements of wind, fire, water, and earth might offer us wisdom and guidance for the season ahead. As the earth reawakens to new life we will listen to the seed rumblings in our own bellies. Through song, gentle movement, writing, photography, reflection, stillness, and conversation

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New Year and Epiphany Blessings ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, New Year blessings to you! I love the Epiphany gospel story (in some churches celebrated January 6th and some next Sunday) and I offer you a reprise of a reflection on the invitations this text has to offer to us: The story of the magi offers 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

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The Promise of Holy Darkness ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Advent is my favorite liturgical season of the year. Images of waiting, darkness, and birthing make my soul sing.  We are each given time and space to grow more welcoming to unknowing, where so much promise and possibility dwell.  During Advent we honor a God who is far beyond our own imaginations and who calls us into the fullness of our own horizons. The 17th century German mystic Angelus Silesius wrote, “I must be the Virgin and give birth to God.” He describes the call of this time: to birth the holy in the midst of our

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Spaces Available for 2016 Ireland Pilgrimages

Last week we added one last set of dates for pilgrimage in Ireland this coming year: August 30-September 7, 2016.  We filled several of those spaces and had a bit of shifting around from other dates, so right now we have the following availability: (click links to go to pages with descriptions) Writing on the Wild Edges in Ireland – May 3-11, 2016 (ONE SPACE) Monk in the World: Pilgrimage to the Sacred Edge of Ireland – August 30-September 7, 2016 (THREE SPACES) The Soul’s Slow Ripening: Monastic Wisdom for Discernment – Pilgrimage in Ireland – September 20-28, 2016 (TWO SPACES

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Monk in the World guest post: Jean Wise

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jean Wise’s reflection on the power of silence: Rediscovering Silence I love words. I love taking sounds and syllables and dance with them on a page either in my journal or in my work as a writer. My ears tingle with the sound of words as they roll from my tongue in speaking or in song. Words have their benefits. They form a container for me to hold reason, a sense of control and clarity and dare I say, my ego. We

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Abbess love notes

Give Me a Word 2016: 7th Annual Abbey Giveaway

SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2016 In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God 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

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Monk in the World guest post: Jodi Blazek Gehr

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jodi Blazek Gehr’s the sacred pilgrimage of driving country roads: A Country Road Contemplative My country drives are a sacred experience, a contemplative, scenic journey through four counties of Nebraska.  Driving country roads has become a pilgrimage of its own as I travel to St. Benedict Center, a Benedictine retreat center and monastery seventy miles northwest of my home. Once or twice a month, I receive spiritual direction, participate in or lead retreats, attend Oblate meetings or pray with the monks. It’s where I go

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Thomas Merton and Embracing Your Inner Monk ~ A love note from your online abbess

“Whose silence are you?” After Thomas Merton The single eye of the sun long shut, world deep asleep like a sunken ship loaded with treasures, full moon’s fierce shadows illumine the way for miles, stars glint like coins dropped to the well’s black bottom, last apple fallen from the tree in a slush of honey and crimson. I walk barefoot across wet grass, night’s questions relentlessly wrestling in my mind’s knotted weave. I look for answers written by salmon in the stream, or a snail’s slither of streaming silver. I prostrate myself at the gnarled foot of the ash tree.

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Monk in the World guest post: Susan Heffron Hajec

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Susan Heffron Hajec’s reflection on living as steadfast love: Walking in Faithfulness “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in faithfulness to you.”  Psalm 26:3 I am an ordinary person who is immensely grateful for the gift of living an extraordinary life. At the age of 72, I recognize the steadfast lovebefore my eyes that has accompanied my journey all along the way. At my age, life’s responsibilities are simplified and I love that. But even during the frantic

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