Today is the Austrian National holiday, and while I am away in Germany attending a conference on Hildegard of Bingen, I share some visual celebration of the beauty of Austria. Photos are from a recent trip to the Benedictine Abbey in Melk and a return by boat through the Wachau wine-growing region along the Danube. Consider joining Kayce S. Hughlett and me for Springtime in Vienna, April 6-13. 2013!
Images are all from the Wienerwald, or Vienna Woods, the large forest on the west side of the city.
The theme for October here at the Abbey is hospitality based on the second principle of the Monk Manifesto: 2. I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others. (Please consider stopping by to sign the Monk Manifesto as a statement of your own commitment). Last month I introduced the wonderful work of Marilyn Freeman, a filmmaker in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and fellow lover of the Benedictine way. One
If you have been following the Abbey for a while, you know that I consider ancestral work vital to the healing and vibrancy of our souls. I believe that the stories of our mothers and fathers, and the generations before them, live on in our blood and shape our own gifts and wounds. I have experienced profound healing on this path. I have even moved to the city of Vienna because of an ancestral call, and here each day I discover new dimensions to my father’s story, and so my own as well. I consider my journey an essential dimension
. . . Alizabeth Rasmusen. Liz will receive a space in my upcoming online retreat – Honoring Saints and Ancestors: Peering through the Veil. Deep bows of gratitude to each of you who participated in the Poetry Party. Truly it is one of the great joys of leading this community to have such generous and creative souls be a part of it.
This month’s theme at the Abbey is hospitality. You can find more reflections here, here and here. There are lots of wondrous resources to share and upcoming classes to consider in support of your own journey of inner hospitality: Live it to Give it If you are a soul care practitioner in need of some support in practicing generous hospitality to your own beautiful self, please consider joining Kayce Stevens Hughlett for her upcoming online Soul Care Institute class Live it to Give it: Essential Practices of Soul Nourishment and Self-Care which begins November 5th and offers a wise and generous space for you
Below is the love note from this week’s Abbey newsletter. If you don’t already get it in your in-box you can subscribe here. Also, there is a beautiful gathering of poems at this week’s Poetry Party on the theme of hospitality. Stop by and linger for a while, then share your own by Sunday for a chance to win a a space in my upcoming online retreat – Honoring Saints and Ancestors: Peering through the Veil. I find myself in this humbling, yet rich, place. After arriving in Vienna to begin our new adventure, I was pulled between the tinge of homesickness
Welcome to the Abbey’s 61st Poetry Party! 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. 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 back to this post inviting others to join us). Each month we have a new theme
. . . Nancy Flowers! Congratulations Nancy – you won a space in my upcoming online retreat – Honoring Saints and Ancestors: Peering through the Veil. Thank you to eveyone who shared images of hospitality at the Photo Party. Some beautiful images over at Flickr, stop by to take a look. Our next Poetry Party will start on Monday, October 15th!
I have a guest post at the Spiritual Directors International blog on St. Hildegard: Last May, the process of canonizing Hildegard of Bingen, which began soon after her death, was finally completed. On October 7 she will be made a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women in the Catholic Church given such an honor. I fell in love with Hildegard while in graduate school. Her creative heart dazzled me. I wanted to know more about this monastic tradition that nurtured her and from which she drew so much wisdom. She was my doorway into becoming a Benedictine
