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April 8: Yes – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for today: Yes The feast of the Annunciation remembers Mary’s own pilgrim journey of saying “yes.” She walked into the unknown with only her trust in God to carry her…..What we are not told in the story is the long interior journey of the heart Mary went through before she said yes. This is where our imagination must enter the story and make it our own. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: Can you imagine Mary pondering the possibilities and weighing the options before reaching her decision, resisting her “yes”, even while

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April 8, 2015

April 7: Call – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for today: Call This call to embark on a rigorous journey of reclaiming ourselves and our relationship to the divine often comes without our bidding. There are many reasons we might begin an inner pilgrimage. Perhaps we’ve experienced a great loss: a job, our health, a dear friend, a sense of identity, financial security, or a marriage. We know we can’t return to life as usual. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective question:  What call has summoned you to set out upon your journey to transformation? Have your life circumstances forced you

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April 7, 2015

April 6: Intention – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for today: Intention A pilgrimage is an intentional journey into this experience of unknowing and discomfort for the sake of stripping away preconceived expectations. We grow closer to God beyond our own imagination and ideas. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective question: In what ways might you begin to question and challenge the deep seated expectations, assumptions, beliefs and attitudes underlying your life? How might setting out on a pilgrimage transform your inner vision and perspective? Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice today. (Download the list of daily

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April 6, 2015

Easter Sunday: Rise – Pilgrimage of Resurrection through Creative Practice (a love note)

Word for today: Rise Dearest monks and artists, Lent is such a powerful season of pilgrimage through the desert, calling us to return to God with our whole hearts. We arrive at Easter eager to celebrate the reality of new life out of death, but sometimes forget this is another, even longer season, rather than a single day of celebration. What does 50 days of practicing resurrection look like? What would it mean to embark upon another pilgrimage to the heart of our own creativity in collaboration with the Great Artist at work, the one who brings newness from the

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April 5, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Sherri Hansen, MD, OblSB

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sherri Hansen’s reflections about her Benedictine bracelet: I’ve been a Benedictine oblate for five years which has been the most profoundly grounding practice to me spiritually. Oblates, for those who may not be familiar with them, are drawn to the 1500 year Rule of St. Benedict and strive to live out its principles of obedience, stability, and conversion of faith in their daily modern lives. Other core values include hospitality and balance in work and prayer life. It is relatively

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April 2, 2015

Holy Saturday: The Space Between

Holy Week invites us into a world full of betrayal, abandonment, mockery, violence, and ultimately death. The Triduum, those three sacred days which constitute one unfolding liturgy, call us to experience communion, loss, and the border spaces of unknowing. Holy Saturday is an invitation to make a conscious passage through the liminal realm of in-between. I love the wide space of Holy Saturday that lingers between the suffering and death of Jesus on Friday and the vigil Saturday night proclaiming the return of the Easter fire. For me, Holy Saturday evokes much about the human condition—the ways we are called to

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March 30, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Beth Booram

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Beth Booram‘s reflections about the spiritual practice of hospitality: Hospitality and Hugs I was hugging someone goodbye recently when she commented, “Oooh, you’re a good hugger. Thank you!” Her comment seemed genuine and encouraged me because of my awareness that this “good hug” was given with intention. It’s part of what it means for me to offer hospitality. Ever since my husband, David, and I moved into our retreat center and home and began welcoming guests, we’ve been students of

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March 26, 2015

Praying with Monks and Mystics book now available for purchase!

We are delighted to announce that we are publishing a series of materials inspired by our 12 dancing monk icons. The book contains poems, reflections, icons and song sheets to celebrate 12 significant Monks and Mystics through the ages including Benedict of Nursia, Hildegard of Bingen, Brigid of Kildare, Thomas Merton, Francis of Assisi and more! Full color reproductions of the gorgeous dancing monk icons painted by artist Marcy Hall, with poems by Christine Valters Paintner, and the song sheets to accompany the 12 songs we commissioned for each monk and mystic CDs and mp3 downloads of the song recordings are now

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March 25, 2015

The Holy Pause: Spiritual Practices for a Time-Obsessed Culture

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: Time is the measure of things that come to an end, but where time itself ends, eternity begins . . . . In the end, there is no end. The ends of time are near the roots of eternity, and the ends of the Earth touch on the other world or

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March 24, 2015

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

We continue our theme this month of “Kinship with Creation” which arose from our Community Lectio Divina practice with the passage from Psalm 104 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 image of “Kinship with Creation” as the gentlest of intentions, planting a seed as you prepare to step into

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March 22, 2015