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St. Kevin and the Blackbird + Poems from the Wild Edges ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This fall has been a season full of wonderful opportunities for journeying alongside our beloved dancing monks in person.  When you receive this love note, we will be in the midst of our third pilgrimage group in Ireland, something we love doing because we continually see this amazing landscape through new eyes and are blessed by the community that forms. As many of you know John and I arrived in Galway almost three years ago in the midst of a life pilgrimage.  It can be hard to explain sometimes how we ended up in this

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Poems to Savor by Pilgrims on the Wild Edges

August 30-September 7, 2015 we had 13 pilgrims join us for a very special pilgrimage and writing retreat on the wild edges of the world. We stayed on the islands of Inismor and Inisbofin, off the coast of Connemara and let the landscape inspire our creative process. I am grateful to these dancing monks for sharing their inspiration so freely with the community. Pour a cup of tea and then savor these poems: A Pilgrim’s Progress She heard the call of wind and jagged earth, stones and hungry green; the raw bitter hum of want. Held to a moody sky

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Earth Monastery Project Grant Winners

The Earth Monastery Project is a small grant project we administer to help encourage projects which nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness through contemplative practice and creative expression. We were delighted with our batch of applications and have selected the following four to receive a small grant for the first half of 2016. We will post more details as they complete their work and report back to us. Laurel Dykstra, Vancouver, BC, Canada   Earth-Bible Curriculum Boxes: to encourage multi-age (3-11 years) groups of children to engage with scripture and creation. Sandi Howell, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Creating a series of art photographs

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Monk in the World guest post: Terrie Marie Childers

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Terrie Marrie Childers’ reflection on responding to God’s invitations. A few years ago I returned to the workplace full time, accepting a position as the administrative assistant to the police chief in our town. I enjoy working with the officers and this job was definitely a divine appointment. However, as a contemplative individual, the long work day in a secular environment often leaves my soul parched and thirsty for spiritual refreshment. The “Monk in the World” concept has been such a helpful perspective for

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Honoring Saints and Ancestors

Dearest monks and artists, We are approaching the Celtic feast of Samhain, the great doorway into the dark half of the year in the northern hemisphere and a time when the veil is considered especially thin. This is my favorite time of year, when I feel the most energized and my heart comes alive to the wisdom of those who have walked before me. I share with you a short excerpt from our Honoring Saints and Ancestors online self-study retreat: Psychologist Carl Jung wrote extensively about the collective unconscious which is this vast pool of ancestral memory within each of

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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 on singing your song. Every morning I practice centering prayer and I commune with the divine, and I usually get interrupted at some point by three hard of hearing old ladies who stand outside cackling and shrieking with laughter, whilst they completely fail to control the Jack Russell that belongs to one of them. This goes on for at least half an hour. The dog drives me mad with its incessant yapping, the women with their nails-on-blackboard voices.

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Vienna Monk in the World Pilgrimage – November 12-20, 2016

Join us in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria where we will stay in a Benedictine guesthouse right in the city center. The Advent markets will be going up around town, illuminating Vienna with a festive atmosphere. We will make journeys out to see other beautiful monasteries as well including Cistercian, Augustinian, and Benedictine. This is a city to make both the monk and artist’s hearts delight! Click here for more details and to register>> We offer pilgrimages to Ireland, Germany, and Austria. You can visit our calendar to see other dates and if a program is full, email us

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Abbey of the Arts has a new website! ~ A love note from your online abbess.

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This love note is more of an update on what is happening around the Abbey as we are celebrating many good things! First, we have a brand new website up, thanks to the stellar work of Lacy Clark Ellman who is a Wisdom Council member and spiritual director, along with star graphic designer. Stop by our new site, and take a look to see what you think. The feedback has already been great about how fresh, spacious, and easy to navigate it is. If you find any broken links or odd formatting on pages we would be most

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Monk in the World guest post: Monty Peregrine

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Monty Peregrine’s reflection on listening into silence. My path as a monk in the world has literally taken me out into the world. I’m called by God and blessed to travel internationally several times a year, praying for and with the overlooked and neglected people of our world.  I’ve provided basic eye care for rural campesinos in a one-room, dirt-floored school in Honduras,  shared a midnight meal of freshly slaughtered goat, local cheese, yogurt, and melons with nomadic herders high in the Fann Mountains of Tajikistan,  prayed with

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New Monk Buttons to Share!

Fellow dancing monk, spiritual director, and graphic designer Lacy Clark Ellman of A Sacred Journey has recently helped Abbey of the Arts create a new website. In addition, she created these wonderful buttons you can share with the world to express your commitment! Also stop by the Monk Manifesto page where we have a beautiful new graphic version of those principles you can print out and post as a reminder! Options to Download: Right click on the image you would like, then choose “download image as” or “save image as.” You can also drag and drop the image to your

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