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Homecoming (a love note from your online Abbess)

My final question, ‘How will I know when I have reached the destination?’ brings me full circle, and I face the Mystery again. Perhaps the truth is that we never arrive, not because the journey is too long and too difficult but because we have been there all along. I am coming to believe that there is no final destination except to continue to be on the journey and to know that every place along the way is a holy place because God is present. I believe that God is calling us to stand on our own ground and know

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Invitation to Poetry: Give Me a Word 2013

Welcome to the Abbey’s 64th Poetry Party! We are making a little departure this month from our usual format where I select an image for you to illuminate with your words. This month the invitation is to write a poem inspired by your word for the year (and even though that drawing is over, you are still welcome to post your word there – and if you already shared a poem there, please share it again here to have them all gathered together). I will suggest you make it an acrostic poem which is where each letter of your word forms

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Give Me a Word 2013 random drawing winners!

More than 800 people shared their word for 2013!  It is truly amazing and inspiring to read through the submissions, so consider pouring a cup of tea and perusing what others have posted.  Please feel welcome to share your word, even though the date for being entered into the random drawing has passed (see winners below). There are also some pretty wonderful photos being shared at this month’s Photo Party where you are invited to share images inspired by your word for the year (you can also take a quick look at the Flickr photo pool here – also worth some

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Fear not the Strangeness (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!) You must give birth to your images. They are the future waiting to be born. Fear not the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens. Just wait for the birth, for the the hour of the new clarity.—Rainer Maria Rilke Dearest monks and artists, I have arrived in our new home in Ireland and am slowly settling in while trying to be ever so gentle with myself in this transition.  The day we got here was also the

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Embracing Mystery in the New Year: Ten Essential Practices

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. -Henri-Frederic Amiel Who doesn’t love the promise of new beginning the New Year offers? St. Benedict described his Rule as a Rule for beginners, reminding us to always begin again. In Buddhism, an essential practice is

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Invitation to Photography: Give Me a Word 2013

Welcome to the Abbey Photo Party! I select a theme and invite you to respond with images. We are taking a break this January from our monthly Monk Manifesto themes to invite you into some creative exploration with the words which have chosen you for this year. (Make sure to share yours here if you haven’t already and enter to win one of several wonderful prizes). In the free 12-day online mini-retreat I offer to newsletter subscribers (click here to subscribe) I invite you to go on a photo pilgrimage holding your word for 2013 in your hearts and noticing what images

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and the winner of this week’s Poetry Party drawing is. . .

. . . Evelyn who wrote the poem “Winter Dancing”!  Evelyn, let me know Self-Study Online Class you would like: with a choice from Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, Water Wind Earth & Fire, Seasons of the Soul, or Lectio Divina. Thank you to everyone who participated.  The Poetry Party was, as always, overflowing with beauty and wonder.  Pour some tea and linger with your fellow monks’ creations for a while.  A beautiful way to pause during this time of holy stillness.  

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The River of Grief and the Well of Love (a love note)

To receive this love note from your online Abbess direct to your email in-box each week subscribe here: “So don’t be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don’t know what work they are accomplishing within you?” —Rainer Maria

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Give Me a Word 2013: Fourth annual Abbey giveaway

Share your Word for 2013 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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