Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Invitation to Photography: Harvesting the Inner Garden

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 the harvest in the Parable from the Gospel of Mark. 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 to go for a

September 14, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Carol Studenka

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Carol Studenka’s wisdom on living as a monk in the world: Can I really call myself a monk in the world? Surprisingly the answer is yes? Over the last few years, I have had many changes in my life. Among them has been finding my way to including meditation practice in my daily life. What began seven years ago as a ten minute a day practice, has now become a practice that is integrally woven into every thing I do, including writing

September 11, 2014

The Wisdom of Autumn (latest column at Patheos)

Stop by to read my latest Seasons of the Soul column at Patheos on the gifts and wisdom of autumn. If you like this reflection, I would be grateful if you would click the “like” button at the top of the page and share it with your friends via Facebook or Twitter: The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up, as if orchards were dying high in space. Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.” And tonight the heavy earth is falling away from all other stars in the loneliness. We’re all falling. This hand here is

September 10, 2014

Invitation to Community Lectio Divina: Mark 4:26-29

With September we return to our monthly invitations for contemplation. Our focus for this month is harvest. In the northern hemisphere it is the season for gathering the fruits of our labors. What are you called to harvest in your own spiritual garden? I invite you into a lectio divina practice with some words from the Gospel of Mark. How Community Lectio Divina works: Each month there will be a passage selected from scripture, poetry, or other sacred texts (and occasionallyvisio and audio divina as well with art and music). How amazing it would be to discern together the movements of the Spirit at work in the hearts of monks around the

September 7, 2014

Abbey Bookshelf: “Prayer in the Cave of the Heart” by Cyprian Consiglio

We are offering the occasional review of some of our favorite books on the contemplative life. This review of Prayer in the Cave of the Heart* by Cyprian Consiglio is written by long-time fellow monk in the world Edith O’Nuallain: Cyprian Consiglio , a Camaldolese monk, wrote his book Prayer in the Cave of the Heart as an introduction to contemplative prayer. The sub-title says it all, ‘universal call to contemplation’, a phrase penned by contemplative monk, Fr Bede Griffith, whose life’s work bore witness to the belief that contemplation is available to everyone, not just cloistered monastics. Consiglio believes that eastern traditions

September 6, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Peggy Meisen

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Peggy Meisen’s wisdom: Gray, gray and winter Monk’s robes, plain and soft from wear The Ordinary But then, the Great light, Presence, Humility, Truth A transformation Our lives shimmering Changing, growing, glistening A royal banquet The intimacy of the gaze of God upon us as we choose awareness is incredible. It is like a secret but, a secret open to all. Could there be such a thing? A secret that is both personal and communal. In the rest and space of

September 4, 2014

Last chance to register for our online Novena! (starts September 8th!)

We are so delighted to be bringing you this Novena of Resurrection, a nine-day prayer experience with the theme of Earth as Our Original Monastery. To be a monk in the world means to recognize the vibrancy and wisdom of creation for our own spiritual unfolding. Thomas Merton believed the central role of a monk was to attend to the beauty of nature: How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters. They form our

September 1, 2014

Earth Monastery Project – Final reports from the first round!

Abbey of the Arts is delighted to share the results of our first round of grantmaking through the Earth Monastery Project. Last fall we awarded three projects funds to help them serve the community by helping to cultivate an earth-cherishing consciousness. Rainier Beach Community Garden | Terri Stewart We, the youth and chaplains of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition, were so excited to receive the grant to build the Rainier Beach Community Garden! We just harvested the biggest zucchinis I have ever seen! And maybe a few too many were planted. But that is okay because they are being passed out

August 19, 2014

St. Francis at the Corner Pub (love note from your online Abbess)

St. Francis at the Corner Pub Approaching the door, you can already hear his generous laughter. He stands on the bar upside down for a moment to get a new perspective on things, a flash of polka-dotted boxers as his brown robe cascades over his head, sandaled toes wiggling in the air in time with a fiddle playing in the corner. Rain falls heavily in the deepening darkness and he orders a round of drinks despite his vow of poverty and the single silver coin in his pocket, multiplied by the last Guinness poured. Nothing like a good glass of

August 18, 2014

Miriam dances for freedom (a love note from your online Abbess)

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am so excited that we have the next two dancing monk icons ready to view! Marcy Hall completed King David and Prophet Miriam, both described as dancing with joy in the Hebrew Scriptures, and give us a way to honor the Jewish roots of the Christian tradition. I am moved by both images, but perhaps especially by Miriam in these difficult days where the news feels so relentless with wars being waged all around us, with children dying, with so many struggling to get their most basic needs met. John and I have been

August 6, 2014

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Invitation to Photography: Harvesting the Inner Garden

Monk in the World guest post: Carol Studenka

The Wisdom of Autumn (latest column at Patheos)

Invitation to Community Lectio Divina: Mark 4:26-29

Abbey Bookshelf: “Prayer in the Cave of the Heart” by Cyprian Consiglio

Monk in the World guest post: Peggy Meisen

Last chance to register for our online Novena! (starts September 8th!)

Earth Monastery Project – Final reports from the first round!

St. Francis at the Corner Pub (love note from your online Abbess)

Miriam dances for freedom (a love note from your online Abbess)

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Monk in the World Guest Post Call for Submissions

Monk in the World Guest Post: Kiki McGrath

Writing on the Wild Edges + Prayer Cycle Day 2 Audio Podcast ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World Guest Post: Jamie Alm

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