Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Winners of the 2015 Give Me a Word Drawing!

It is truly amazing and inspiring to read through the words that have chosen you, our dear dancing monks, to guide and challenge for the year ahead. You can read them in the comments here. (And if you still need support for finding a word, the free 12-day mini-retreat is still available at this link). I am delighted to announce the winners of our random drawing for a whole host of wonderful prizes. To claim your prize, please email us and we will get you set up. One space in the upcoming online Abbey retreat Illuminating the Way: Epiphany and New Year

January 7, 2015

Call for Submissions: Monk in the World Guest Post Series

We welcome you to submit your reflection for possible publication in our Monk in the World guest post series. It is a gift to read how ordinary people are living lives of depth and meaning in the midst of the challenges of real life. There are so many talented writers and artists in this Abbey community, so this is a chance to share your perspective. The reflection will be included in our weekly newsletter which goes out to more than 9000 subscribers. Please follow these instructions carefully: Details: Please click this link to read a selection of the posts and get a feel for the

January 7, 2015

“Dwell” (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive gifts!) NEW! Listen to the love note in audio form or read below: Dearest dancing monks, I have been sitting and listening for my own word. It arrived first about a week or so ago. I have been blessed to have some quiet time over the holidays to reflect on the inner and outer movements of this past year. Reflecting on the significant shifts for me over the last year helped to open the door for where I am being invited to focus my love and attention for

January 6, 2015

Community Visio Divina: Hospitality – What will you welcome in?

Happy New Year! With January we offer a new invitation for contemplation. Starting in December we returned to a monthly focus on our Monk Manifesto themes. Our focus for this month is on the second principle of hospitality: I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others. The new year brings a sense of renewed hope and beginning again. What will you welcome into your lifes in the

January 4, 2015

New Year & Epiphany Blessings + Join us for our online retreat! (love note from your online Abbess)

New Year blessings dearest dancing monks, I am not a big fan of resolutions because they mostly involve buying things for self-improvement. What if this year wasn’t about “improving” yourself, but deepening into your own heart of longing and releasing all that gets in the way of that journey. I have been praying with the gospel text for the Feast of Epiphany on Sunday in preparation for our upcoming online retreat. (In some churches it is celebrated Sunday, in others on January 6th). I have been struck by what a powerful invitation it offers to us as we enter a new year,

January 1, 2015

Join us for Illuminating the Way: Epiphany & New Year Retreat with Monks, Mystics, and Archetypes (starts January 4th!)

January 4-February 7, 2015 (5-week online retreat) Description The feast of Epiphany launches us into the new year with a commitment to see the world anew. Full of enthusiasm for the way and the possibility of beginning again, we are joined by several monks and mystics as wise guides. Francis of Assisi, Amma Syncletica (one of the desert mothers), writer Rainer Maria Rilke, the Hebrew prophet Miriam, and modern monk Thomas Merton. They each offer us profound wisdom for giving birth to the divine presence in our own lives. They also function as archetypes, which means that they break

December 30, 2014

Invitation to Dance: Thomas Merton on Silence

We continue our theme this month of “Silence” which arose from our Community Lectio Divina practice with the quote from Thomas Merton 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 “Silence” as the gentlest of intentions, planting a seed as you prepare to step into the dance. Play the

December 28, 2014

Week 4 Advent Practices: Considering Our Earthiness

This is a weekly Advent series by Christine from the Abbey archives. If praying with the four elements kindles a spark in you, consider my book Water, Wind, Earth, & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements. In the scriptures for this fourth week of Advent we hear in the gospel the story of Mary’s Annunciation. She was asked to consent to become the earthen vessel through which God could be born into a world of flesh and blood. The story of Advent and Christmas is essentially about God becoming enfleshed in the earthiness of the world. God enters creation and blesses our

December 23, 2014

Invitation to Poetry: Thomas Merton on Silence

Welcome to Poetry Party #82! 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).

December 21, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Elysha O’Brien

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Elysha O’Brien’s wisdom on living contemplatively in the chaos: We are a People of Pattern It is morning. The children have been sent out the door and the downstairs neighbor’s dog begins to howl and cry and yip. My day has already started with noise and chaos and it will take everything in my power to rein it back. But the dog… the dog with his high pitched bark and relentless cry, telling the world his saga of agony and abandonment.

December 18, 2014

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Winners of the 2015 Give Me a Word Drawing!

Call for Submissions: Monk in the World Guest Post Series

“Dwell” (a love note from your online Abbess)

Community Visio Divina: Hospitality – What will you welcome in?

New Year & Epiphany Blessings + Join us for our online retreat! (love note from your online Abbess)

Join us for Illuminating the Way: Epiphany & New Year Retreat with Monks, Mystics, and Archetypes (starts January 4th!)

Invitation to Dance: Thomas Merton on Silence

Week 4 Advent Practices: Considering Our Earthiness

Invitation to Poetry: Thomas Merton on Silence

Monk in the World guest post: Elysha O’Brien

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Give Me a Word Reviewed by Library Journal!

Monk in the World Guest Post: Jill Ore

Joy and Rest + Prayer Cycle Podcast Day 5

Monk in the World Guest Post: Veronica Spasaro

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