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Monk in the World guest post: Laurie Klein

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community (you can read the call for submissions here). I got to meet fellow monk and artist/poet Laurie Klein this past fall when she attended the Sacred Rhythms Writing & Movement Retreat. It was a delight to get to know her soulful spirit. Read on for her wisdom: Romancing the Senses Blue as Devotion  Try to love this world, like a secret, a promise, a sacred tease: five hundred shades of blue—sea glass or sky, sapphire, jade, lapis lazuli. Cool hues play the rogue,

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Christmas Blessings (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) The Risk of Birth This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out & the sun burns late. That was no time for a child to be born, In a land in the crushing grip of Rome; Honour & truth were trampled by scorn- Yet here did the Saviour make his home. When is the time for love to be born? The

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Monk in the World guest post: Teresa Knipper

I am delighted to share our first submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community (you can read the call for submissions here). Teresa Knipper attended our Awakening the Creative Spirit intensive this past fall and it was a delight to get to know her playful spirit and her passion for butterflies. Read on for her wisdom: Waiting for God in the Deep Midwinter Recently I was watering my indoor plants and inspecting a late summer acquisition from the bargain rack of my local nursery. I cannot resist rescuing these orphans and trying my hand

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Invitation to Dance: Holy Waiting

We continue our theme this month of “Holy Waiting” through the practice of dance. 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 this image of “Holy Waiting” as the gentlest of intentions, planting a seed as you prepare to step into the dance. You don’t need to think this through or figure it

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Prayer for Awakening (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) Prayer Upon Awakening “The breezes at dawn Have secrets to tell you; Don’t go back to sleep.” -Rumi What force gently lifts back night’s inky black gown studded with shimmering stars, where soot turns to umber, seawater to crimson, rose to saffron, and then to that brilliant morning shade of blue, spilling forth like the seven silk scarves of Salome in a dance of revelation? What is being awakened in you in that threshold moment, when a thousand black crows scatter to the

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Monk in the World guest post submissions welcome!

If you follow along at the Abbey, you know that over the last six months we have had a great Monk in the World guest post series from fellow monks, authors, bloggers. It has been a gift to read how ordinary people are living lives of depth and meaning in the midst of the challenges of real life. I have been pondering lately how many talented writers and artists there are in this Abbey community, and so starting in January, we are opening up the series to submissions from YOU. The reflection will be included in our weekly newsletter which goes

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Invitation to Poetry: Holy Waiting

Welcome to Poetry Party #73! I select an image (*photo above by Augustine Baron) 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 below it and link

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Give Me a Word 2014: Fifth Annual Abbey Giveaway

Share your Word for 2014 In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered. Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word –  this word or

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Monk in the World guest post: Judy Smoot

I’ve known Judy Smoot for several years now, first connecting through Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist, then several other online classes, and finally the pleasure of spending time with Judy in person at our Awakening the Creative Spirit intensive. Judy is a fellow Benedictine oblate, a spiritual director, a lover of the expressive arts, and the founder and director of Always We Begin Again, a nonprofit dedicated to serving those with chronic illness and their caregivers through contemplative and creative programs. I am delighted to share Judy’s wisdom here with this community on being a monk in

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Invitation to Photography: Holy Waiting

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 (Visio) Divina practice (stop by to pray with this beautiful image from Mary Southard).  As I prayed with Mary’s art I felt held in this womb of waiting and watchfulness, attentiveness and presence, of sinking into the gift of stillness and knowing this is necessary before the birth can come. With our overall theme of the year at the Abbey as discernment, I love the idea of exploring the gifts of waiting, being fallow, embracing rest, as essential

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