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Invitation to Dance: Honoring Saints & Ancestors

We continue our theme this month of “Honoring Saints & Ancestors: which arose from our Community Lectio Divina practice with the letter to the Hebrews 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 our “Saints & Ancestors” as the gentlest of intentions, planting a seed as you prepare

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November 23, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Alexander Gilchrist

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Alexander Gilchrist’s wisdom about finding contemplative moments on the commuter train: As much as we complain about the service, the trains generally run on time. That means the express train to New York’s Grand Central Terminal is going to be pulling into my station around 6:21 a.m. and pulling out at 6:23 a.m. – whether I’m on it or not. That dependability has sometimes forced me to sprint through the parking lot like a 50-plus year old schoolboy in order to

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November 20, 2014

Monks, Mystics, Archetypes and SoulCollage® (guest post from Kayce Stevens Hughlett)

For the last several months, we have been embarking on an exciting creative project and collaboration.  It started with choosing 12 dancing monks to be a part of the original Dancing Monk Icon series painted by Marcy Hall.  These icons were meant to depict some beloved monks and mystics in a joyful and colorful way, reminding us of our call to dance through this life. We had the inspiration to feature a dancing monk for each week of our Advent/Christmas and Epiphany/New Year’s online retreats. My wonderful teaching partner Kayce Hughlett, is a trained SoulCollage® facilitator and will be offering this gift

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November 17, 2014

Invitation to Poetry: Honoring Saints & Ancestors

Welcome to Poetry Party #81! 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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November 16, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Angela Doll Carlson

Another wonderful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Angela Doll Carlson’s wisdom on living as a monk in the world: 11:11 A number of years ago I took a silent retreat at the Abbey at Gethsemane near Bowling Green, Kentucky. At that time of my life my four children were still very young. I was burned out and overwhelmed.  The trip to the monastery was rest and nurturing. I remember the lush grounds and the quiet early morning chanting. I remember the feel of the sparse quarters, comforting, completely adequate. I was alone for the

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November 13, 2014

St. Brigid and the Fruit Tree (a love note from your online Abbess)

St. Brigid and the Fruit Tree There was the moment you could bear it no more. Your eyes brimming with great glistening drops summoned by the hunger of the world, the callous and terrible things men and women do to one another. Your tears splashed onto cold stony earth, ringing out like bells calling monks to prayer, like the river breaking open to the wide expanse of sea. From that salt-soaked ground a fruit tree sprouts and rises. I imagine pendulous pears, tears transmuted to sweetness. There will always be more grief than we can bear. There will always be

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November 12, 2014

Spiritual Formation with Music, St. Francis, and Frosty the Snowman (guest post from Richard Bruxvoort Colligan)

For the last several months, we have been embarking on an exciting creative project and collaboration.  It started with choosing 12 dancing monks to be a part of the original Dancing Monk Icon series painted by Marcy Hall.  These icons were meant to depict some beloved monks and mystics in a joyful and colorful way, reminding us of our call to dance through this life. I have been following with a series of poems I am slowly writing about each of these wondrous figures, choosing moments in their stories to illuminate. Then we had the inspiration to feature a dancing monk for each

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November 10, 2014

Invitation to Photography: Honoring Saints & Ancestors

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 honoring saints and ancestors from the story in the Letter to the Hebrews. 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

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November 9, 2014

Becoming a Monk in the World: Monk Manifesto

We are delighted to announce that our Monk in the World online course is now in a full-color booklet format including the wonderful illustrations from Kristin Noelle and reflections by Christine. You can order your copies directly through Blurb for $20 each, in a 7×7 inch format they make great companions for times of retreat and great gifts to help nourish the inner monk of someone you love. The $3.41 profit from the sale of each booklet goes directly to support our scholarship fund and Earth Monastery Project. We also plan to make a booklet with the dancing monk icon series (along

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November 8, 2014

Worlds Coming Together (a love note from your online Abbess)

Dearest monks and artists, This has been an incredible couple of weeks with our renewal of vows for our 20th anniversary where American friends and Irish friends gathered with us together to celebrate. It felt like our worlds were coming together in a beautiful way. Then, just before the pilgrimage began, a shipment of our things from Seattle which had been in storage for the last two and a half years, arrived. This included two pieces of furniture from my father’s family in Austria, an oil painting of my grandmother, lots and lots of family photos, and some other mementos from

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November 6, 2014