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November Theme: Community

To be a monk today or someone seeking to incorporate monastic values into his or her own life presumes being a part of a community of friends, people with whom a person can share the counsels of the heart and speak a language of the heart to one another. -Edward Sellner, Finding the Monk Within For the month of November, we turn our attention to the principle of community, 3. I commit to cultivating community by finding kindred spirits along the path, soul friends with whom I can share my deepest longings, and mentors who can offer guidance and wisdom

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November 1, 2012

Visual Meditation: Melk and the Wachau

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!

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October 26, 2012

Welcoming in Zeal:
A CinemaDivina Prayer Offering

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

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October 21, 2012

Join us for Honoring Saints and Ancestors (starts October 29th)

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

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October 21, 2012

The winner of this week’s Poetry Party is. . .

. . . 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.

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October 21, 2012

Hospitality, Trust Tending, and Soul Nourishment

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

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October 19, 2012

Practicing Generous Hospitality

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

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October 18, 2012

Invitation to Poetry: Hospitality

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

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October 14, 2012

Photo Party drawing winner is . . .

. . . 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!

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October 5, 2012