Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Embracing a Surplus – A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Last year my word was “dwell” – an invitation to root myself even more in this place I call home. I keep falling more in love with Ireland, the landscape, the stories, the people, the seasons. It was a wonderful year of deepening friendships and widening community, and even more of a sense of how I am truly called here to this place where I thrive. A couple of summers ago I was pondering quite a bit how to make this work I love so much sustainable energetically. Even with work that arises out of passion, we bump up

January 10, 2016

This is How the World is Saved (poem by Christine)

I am so delighted to have my poem “This is How the World is Saved” featured this week at the wonderful website Headstuff and to launch their Revolution NOW series for 2016! It is a poem about the grace of the ordinary. Click to head on over and read it>>

January 9, 2016

Winners of Give Me a Word 2016 Random Drawing and Word Cloud

Thank you to everyone who participated in our annual Give Me a Word! We had over 1700 in the mini-retreat and over 650 leave their words at our blog post here. Above is a word cloud composed of our community words. If you don’t see your word visible, please trust that it dwells in the spaces as an essential element to the whole. We are delighted to announce the random drawing winners: One signed copy of either Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, The Artist’s Rule, and Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire (winner’s choice!): Judy (Hope), Alison (Spaciousness), Kristen Vincent (Trust), Kate (Trust) One space

January 8, 2016

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

January 6, 2016

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

January 4, 2016

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

January 3, 2016

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

December 20, 2015

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

December 19, 2015

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

December 17, 2015

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

December 13, 2015

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Embracing a Surplus – A love note from your online abbess

This is How the World is Saved (poem by Christine)

Winners of Give Me a Word 2016 Random Drawing and Word Cloud

Monk in the World guest post: Kate Kennington Steer

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

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

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

Spaces Available for 2016 Ireland Pilgrimages

Monk in the World guest post: Jean Wise

Give Me a Word 2016: 7th Annual Abbey Giveaway

Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

Monk in the World Guest Post: Anne Marie Cribbin

Brother Lawrence and the Practice of the Presence + Prayer Cycle Day 6 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Give Me a Word Reviewed by Library Journal!

Monk in the World Guest Post: Jill Ore

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