Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Making Space for the Divine: The Gift of Silence

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) For the next few weeks I will be offering you some gems from the Abbey archives as I create the space I need to finish several writing projects and prepare for spring’s teaching: It was said of Abba Agathon that for three years he lived with a stone in his mouth, until he had learnt to keep silence. (Agathon 15) The silence of the desert elders is called hesychia, which means stillness, silence, inner quiet. However, it is much deeper than just an external quiet.

March 10, 2015

Invitation to Photography: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?

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 Kinship with Creation (the fourth principle of the Monk Manifesto) with a quote from Psalm 104 (read them here). 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

March 8, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Carmen Brown

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Carmen Brown’s poetic wisdom on living as a monk in the world: During a particularly difficult loss in my life, I discovered the path of the contemplative. This dark night of the soul caught me unexpected, unaware—grasping and gasping for relief and answers. Divinely, I met Christine Valters Paintner through her website and later her books. For the first time in my life, I felt home — a place where the expression of my soul found a voice, resonance, and

March 5, 2015

Sit in Your Cell: Desert Reflections for Lent (a love note from your online Abbess)

For the next few weeks I will be offering you some gems from the Abbey archives as I create the space I need to finish several writing projects and prepare for spring’s teaching. Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The road of cleansing goes through that desert. It shall be named the way of holiness. —Isaiah 35:8 If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is no place to hide and so we

March 2, 2015

Invitation to Community Lectio Divina: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?

With March we offer a new invitation for contemplation. Our focus for this month is Kinship with Creation. We are continuing our monthly exploration of each theme of the Monk Manifesto. Our focus for this month is Kinship with Creation — How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness? The fourth principle reads: I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish. We invite you into a lectio divina practice with some words from Psalm 104 (see below). How Community Lectio Divina works: Each month there will be

March 1, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Dianne Jones

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Dianne Jones’ wisdom on living as a monk in the world: Stop Breathe Believe – A Beginning to a New Way of Being Several years ago I began PrairieFire, a three-year program of spiritual formation, to learn to walk alongside others in the process of slowing down and discovering the heart of their spirituality. My classmates and I often called ourselves the Monkettes. We learned together, we cried together, we dared greatly together, we shared deeply with one another, we listened

February 26, 2015

Invitation to Dance: Community – Who is your tribe?

We continue our theme this month of “Community — Who is your tribe?” which arose from our Community Lectio Divina practice with the story from the Third Principle of the Monk Manifesto 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 this question of “Who is my tribe?” as the gentlest of intentions, planting

February 22, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Lance Baker

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Lance Baker’s reflections about cultivation as a metaphor for our spiritual life and practice: A Life of Cultivation A certain form of existential paralysis has shadowed my inner life in the past. I’ve had so many questions, dreams, longings, and have been exposed to a range of paradigm-shifting experiences in a relatively short period of time. As a result, I spent a number of years paralyzed by indecision and lacked discernment on how to operate the world with meaning, purpose, and

February 19, 2015

Letting Go During Lent: Seeing Death as our Friend

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) This is my latest Sacred Seasons column on Patheos, click here to read it there and please share! Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today we enter the long desert of the Lenten season. If you participate in a liturgical service, most likely you will be marked with the sign of ashes and the words “from dust you came and to dust you shall return” will echo through the sanctuary space again and again. St. Benedict writes in his Rule to “keep death daily before

February 18, 2015

Earth Monastery Project: Hospitality Grounds Community Garden

Abbey of the Arts sponsors a small grant program called the Earth Monastery Project. We began the program in 2014 and so far we have funded six wonderful projects which nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness in our world. It is exciting to us to see the creativity at work in the world and how dancing monks are offering their gifts on behalf of the earth. Our second round of grants have just completed their cycle so for the next three weeks we are featuring each of their final reports to share with you and inspire you to creative action in your own

February 17, 2015

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Reflections

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Making Space for the Divine: The Gift of Silence

Invitation to Photography: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?

Monk in the World guest post: Carmen Brown

Sit in Your Cell: Desert Reflections for Lent (a love note from your online Abbess)

Invitation to Community Lectio Divina: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?

Monk in the World guest post: Dianne Jones

Invitation to Dance: Community – Who is your tribe?

Monk in the World guest post: Lance Baker

Letting Go During Lent: Seeing Death as our Friend

Earth Monastery Project: Hospitality Grounds Community Garden

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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

Joy and Rest + Prayer Cycle Podcast Day 5

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