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Invitation to Dance: Sacred Ordinary

We continue our theme this month of “Sacred Ordinary” through the practice of dance (please visit our Community Visio Divina practice with our newest dancing monk icon of St Francis, Invitation to Photography, and Invitation to Poetry which all explored this theme for May). I invite you into a movement practice.  Allow yourself just 5-10 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 the

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May 25, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Sara Hillis

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sara Hillis’ poetic wisdom on yielding to the divine Artist at work in us: Mold me, O Potter, for I am Your clay. Shape me, O Sculptor, for I am Your stone. Play me, O Harper, for I am Your Instrument. Sing me, O Bard, for I am Your song. Live me, O Life, for I die without You. Cherish me, O Love, for I pine without You. Speak me, O Word, for I am Your silence. Breathe me, O Breath,

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May 22, 2014

St. Hildegard Strolls through the Garden

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a gift!) St. Hildegard Strolls through the Garden Luminous morning, Hildegard gazes at the array of blooms, holding in her heart the young boy with a mysterious rash, the woman reaching menopause, the newly minted widower, and the black Abbey cat with digestive issues who wandered in one night and stayed.  New complaints arrive each day. She gathers bunches of dandelions, their yellow profusion a welcome sight in the monastery garden, red clover, nettle, fennel, sprigs of parsley to boil later in wine. She glances to make sure

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May 20, 2014

How I Came to Love the Old Testament (Guest Post from Prior John)

This week John Valters Paintner is sharing a guest post about how he fell in love with the Old Testament. Make sure to join him this summer at the Abbey (along with Ronna Detrick, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, and Roy DeLeon) for an exploration of the scriptures and the questions to which they call us. Exile and Coming Home: An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures is a six-week online class which begins June 16th! When Christine & I moved to Seattle eleven years ago, I had just taken a job teaching an Old Testament course at an all-boys Catholic high school. I

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May 19, 2014

Invitation to Poetry: Sacred Ordinary

Welcome to Poetry Party #78! I select an image (the photo above is by fellow dancing monk Anneclaire LeRoyer) 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

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May 18, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: David Ford

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for David Ford’s wisdom on the journey of becoming a monk in the world: How do I live as a monk in the world? Labels are so necessary but can also be misleading, so I usually try to avoid them. Am I really a ‘monk in the world’? It is a label that does have some resonance, so perhaps you will bear with me while I wear it for a few minutes. Admittedly, I have always felt drawn to the monastic. Having a

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May 15, 2014

Embracing Vulnerability + Self-Study Summer Sale!

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to introduce the latest in the dancing monk icon series above of St. Francis of Assisi. (I will let you know when prints become available.) The same day that artist Marcy Hall sent me this newest addition, I also stumbled across the poem above in a book I had been asked to review. I was also in the midst of teaching yoga each morning at the Spiritual Directors International conference in Santa Fe, NM. It was one of those happy confluences of events where different passions of mine came together. Following Santa Fe, I

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May 12, 2014

Invitation to Photography: Sacred Ordinary

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 Visio Divina practice with our latest in the dancing monk icon series of St. Francis of Assisi. In praying with this image myself I am struck by Francis dancing amongst the creatures and in the midst of the construction happening behind him. Being a “dancing monk” for me means to dance with whatever life brings, to yield to the sacred in the most ordinary of moments. I invite you for this month’s Photo Party to hold

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May 11, 2014

Monk in the World guest post: Kate Kennington Steer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s wisdom about photography as a portal to presence: Whenever I can, I am to be found with a camera in my hand, but living with chronic illness means my day revolves around how much energy I have, and whether I am mobile enough to leave the house.  Most days I am a very quiet ‘monk’, and ‘the world’ is rather distant, reached only by what is out of the window, and what threads of community I can conjure through

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May 8, 2014

Community Lectio (Visio) Divina: St. Francis Dancing Monk Icon

Artwork: “St. Francis Dancing Monk Icon” © artist Marcy Hall at Rabbit Room Arts With May comes a new invitation for contemplation. This month I invite you into a visio divina practice, which is an adaptation of lectio divina. In visio divina we are invited to see with the eyes of our heart, much in the way lectio calls us to listen with the ears of our heart. Francis of Assisi is our newest icon in the dancing monk series (which has included other notables so far such as Hildegard of Bingen, Benedict of Nursia, Brigid of Kildare, Brendan the Navigator, and Mary, Mother of God).  I

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May 4, 2014