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Monk in the World guest post: Stephanie Jenkins

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Stephanie Jenkins‘ reflections about spiritual direction and the contemplative life: Disrobe The wide expanse of sky echoes your heart’s desire and you glimpse for a clear moment the wings of your own soul soaring. It is time to stop tinkering with borrowed dreams that you wear like an ill-fitting dress— stiff-collared, pleated skirt, your arms limited by taffeta sleeves. It is time to shed the layers and slip into your own luminous skin. Tentatively, at first, you begin to disrobe.

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March 19, 2015

Welcome to Liz and Melinda

It takes a lot of work to keep an online monastery running smoothly. We have been in need of admin support for a while now and finally are able to welcome in the help we need. We are delighted to introduce Liz Rasmussen and Melinda Thomas Hansen. Liz will be helping reply to some of the emails which come through and Melinda will be working behind the scenes to get blog posts up and the email newsletter sent out. Melinda Thomas Hansen practices living as a monk in the world through meditation, writing, art, yoga, and engaging in relationship. A long time yoga teacher

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March 16, 2015

The Grace of Flowering

This is not a poem but a rain-soaked day keeping me inside with you and you loving me like a storm. This is not a poem but a record of a hundred mornings when the sun lifted above the stone hills outside my window. This is time for boiling water poured into the chipped cup holding elderflower, hawthorn, mugwort. This is not a poem but me standing perfectly still on the edge of the lake in autumn, watching a hundred starlings like prayer flags fluttering. This is my face buried in May’s first pink peony, petals just now parting, eyes

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March 16, 2015

Mid-Way through Lent: Beginning Again

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. In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of. —Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We are approaching the midpoint of our Lenten journey through the desert. This is a ripe moment to pause and reflect on the commitments we made in earnest almost a month ago as

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March 15, 2015

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

Welcome to Poetry Party #86! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below or join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group and post there. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party!  (If you repost the photo, please make sure to include the credit link and link back to this post inviting others to join us). We

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March 15, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: June Mears Driedger

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for June Mears Driedger’s reflections about spiritual direction and the contemplative life: Following the call of being a monk in the world through spiritual direction. I enter the room for spiritual direction. My director, J. is there, lighting a candle and smiling as she greets me. I meet with her about every four-six weeks, depending on our schedules. This is a discipline I practice to deepen my relationship with God and enables me to be a monk in the world. With

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March 12, 2015

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.

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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

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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

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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

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March 2, 2015