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Abbess love notes

Imbolc and Brigid’s Mantle ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, February 1st-2nd marks a confluence of several feasts and occasions including: the Celtic feast of Imbolc, St. Brigid’s Day, Candlemas, Feast of the Presentation, and Groundhog Day in the northern hemisphere! (Imbolc is August 1st in the southern hemisphere). Imbolc is a Celtic feast that is a cross-quarter day, meaning it is the midway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox. The sun marks the four Quarter Days of the year (the Solstices and Equinoxes) and the midpoints are the cross-quarter days.  In some cultures, like Ireland, February 2nd is the official beginning of spring. As

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Nancy L. Agneberg

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Nancy L. Agneberg’s reflection “Living with a Sacred Object: The Humble Harvest Table.” The first piece of furniture we bought when we moved to an 1800’s farmstead, Sweetwater Farm, in rural Ohio was a dining room table. A primitive, antique harvest table, similar to one where my grandmother on the family farm cleaned chickens for Sunday dinner or where the farmhands gathered mid-afternoon, between dinner and supper, for “lunch.” That table was laden with platters of egg

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Abbess love notes

Ireland’s Mermaid Saint ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Next Saturday is the Feast of St. Muirgen, Ireland’s very own mermaid saint. Her story was written down in the 6th century and is a powerful metaphor for our own journeys of loss, descent, grief, and then finding our own sacred song. I will be leading a mini-retreat on Friday (the eve of her feast day) inviting you to explore her wisdom for your own life.  I am blessed to live by the sea. I go often to the water to listen to her ancient rhythms and the primordial voice whispering in the waves. I go because it is

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Jill Ross

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Jill Ross’s reflection on her art as prayer and meditation. My current prayer and meditation practice involves daily walks, observing nature, then transforming what I see into glass mosaics. My theme these past few years has been around the issue of climate justice. My pieces, although intended to be aesthetically beautiful, give testimony to what we are losing because of climate change. Specifically, my observations focus on pollinators and the flowers and fruits they pollinate. I then teach, using my

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Abbess love notes

Everyday Pilgrimage to Honor Saints and Ancestors ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Tomorrow we begin our 14-week online companion journey through my book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness. This journey together in community with kindred spirits will be a kind of pilgrimage you make from home. We can also go on pilgrimage to sacred sites connected to saints or our ancestors, but sometimes the transformative path is woven into the everyday of our lives. I wanted to share a couple of examples of how we might go on a physical pilgrimage in our own neighborhoods, which can also connect us

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Uncategorized

A Prayer of Encircling with the Love of Thousands

Thank you again for all the kindness on my health post the other day. I was really touched and there is something so healing about being seen and loved in the midst of vulnerability. I’ve had more health struggles even in the days since I posted, so am grateful to be lifted up by your prayers and blessings. We are starting our Love of Thousands companion retreat on Monday (a 14 week journey and deep dive through my book) so I was pondering the many ways I call upon the invisible ones and sacred presences for healing. Certainly there is

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Give me a word

Give Me a Word Prize Drawing Winners!

I am delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Give Me a Word prize drawing. We had over 230 responses and winners were chosen at random. Please email Melinda at dancingmonk@abbeyofthearts.com to claim your prize. May your words ripen within and guide you in the year ahead.

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Theresa Walker

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Theresa Walker’s reflection on love, letting go, and letting be. As a single, never-married woman there were times of loneliness in my life, especially as a young woman when I felt out of step with my peers. Yet the gifts of my beautiful life were always before me for the taking. Sometimes I had to dig deep with a spiritual director, pray, study, and read to find consolation and direction. I had freedom of movement. Where should I make my home?

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Abbess love notes

Gratitude for Dancing Monks, Earth-Bound Angels, Self-Care, and the Contemplative Path

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Every four weeks I go to the hospital to receive an infusion of a biologic medication to keep my rheumatoid arthritis under control. Each time I go I am full of gratitude at the way modern medicine has allowed me to mostly keep my mobility 32 years after being first diagnosed. My mother, who also had RA, didn’t even live this long into her illness and was in a wheelchair the last several years of her life after several joint replacement surgeries.  As many of you know, autoimmune illness is challenging. I have several chronic

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Abbess love notes

The Heart of Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

“The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or [s]he will not exist at all.” —Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations Dearest monks and artists, In a week we begin our 14-week online companion journey through my book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness. When we speak of the saints, we do not refer to people inaccessible to us and our lives, but to friends of the heart who dwell beyond the veil between worlds. They call us to our own paths of holiness.  This is an adapted excerpted from the book:  At the heart

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