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Women on the Threshold: Trish Bruxvoort Colligan (Part 1)

Trish Bruxvoort Colligan is another one of my amazing co-collaborators for this upcoming journey Women on the Threshold (I feel so incredibly blessed to me creating something so beautiful with such wondrous souls). She reflects here about the metaphor of midwife as a potent one for threshold-crossings. . . give yourself the gift of just three minutes to experience Trish’s radiant energy and welcoming presence: abbey thresholds video (direct link to Vimeo) Join us for Women on the Threshold.  Make space to nurture your own call across the threshold.  Let yourself be companioned on this path.  We are saving a space just for you.

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Women on the Threshold: Dana Reynolds (Part 2)

This is a guest post from Dana Reynolds, another of my fabulous co-creators and collaborators on the upcoming Women on the Threshold program (see Dana’s video post from earlier this week here). I had the pleasure of first meeting Dana several years ago when she attended a retreat I led in the Pacific Northwest on praying the Hours through art and movement.  I felt a deep kinship to her spirit and vision and have been delighted to keep our connection going, first through her appearance as a guest teacher in last year’s online Advent retreat, and now for this wonderful

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Pre-Order my new book on the Desert Fathers and Mothers and receive a free gift!

Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings — Annotated & Explained will be available by late August.  In the meantime it is available for pre-ordering at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and SkyLight Paths. When you pre-order your copy, I have a special gift for you: a retreat and reflection guide to accompany your reading.  Just forward me your online receipt for pre-order and I will send that to you as a thank you for your support.  Or if you have a copy of the actual book, you can just send me a photo of you holding the book up

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Thresholds: “It is not too late”

You see, I want a lot. Perhaps I want everything: the darkness that comes with every infinite fall and the shivering blaze of every step up. . . You have not grown old, and it is not too late to dive into your increasing depths where life calmly gives out its own secret. —Rainer Maria Rilke, from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Robert Bly I wanted to repeat that last stunning stanza of Rilke’s poem to you. Just to be certain you didn’t skim over those words: “You have not grown old, and it is not too

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Women on the Threshold: Dana Reynolds (Part 1)

Dana Reynolds is one of my amazing co-collaborators for this upcoming journey Women on the Threshold, and reflects here on her own experience of thresholds in waking from dreams, the seasons of the day and year, and a personal threshold . . . give yourself the gift of just under four minutes to experience Dana’s soulfulness and wisdom: Dana Reynolds Threshold Moments Join us for Women on the Threshold.  Make space to nurture your own call across the threshold.  Let yourself be companioned on this path.  There is now an even more affordable option for participating. Make sure to stop

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Invitation to Poetry: The Threshold of Summer

Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #59! 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! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post). As I settle into my new life here in Vienna, I am aware that August for

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Women on the Threshold: Ronna Detrick (Part 2)

This is a guest post from Ronna Detrick, one of my fabulous co-creators and collaborators on the upcoming Women on the Threshold program.  Ronna lives in the Pacific Northwest, so it was an absolute delight to get to meet her in person before I left for Vienna.  I knew as we shared dreams together that afternoon, that partnering would be necessary soon, to see what the Spirit might give birth too when we brought our gifts together.  So I was thrilled when she responded with an enthusiastic yes to my invitation to join me in this special offering. Here is

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Thresholds: “Infinitely Enlarge Your Life”

And you wait, you wait for that one thing that will infinitely enlarge your life; the gigantic, the stupendous, the awakening of stones, depths turned round toward you. The volumes bound in rust and gold flicker dimly on the shelves; and you think of lands traveled across, of paintings, of the clothes of women found and lost. And then suddenly you know: it was then. You rise, and before you stands the fear and prayer and shape of a vanished year. —Rainer Maria Rilke, “Memory” translated by Edward Snow Dear soul friends and kindred spirits, I am grateful to one of

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Visual Meditation: Will you step across the threshold?

When we open the door and go inside, God is there in the temple of our soul, in the ashram of our heart, in the cathedral of our being. Which is not to dismiss the reality of this same loving presence being fully alive in our external world.  The Holy One is with us in all of life. Our purpose for opening the door inward is to help us know and claim who we are so we can more completely join with God in expressing this love in every part of our external world. —Joyce Rupp, Open the Door: A

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