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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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December 30, 2012

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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December 23, 2012

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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December 18, 2012

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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December 17, 2012

Abbey Bookshelf: Seven Deadly Sins – A Visitor’s Guide by Lawrence Cunningham

I am not sure what it reveals about me, but when Patheos told me that one of the books they were featuring for their upcoming Book Club was titled Seven Deadly Sins: A Visitor’s Guide, my heart lept a little with excitment.  You see, I love the wisdom of the desert mothers and fathers and know that they have much to say about vice and virtue, and I have yet still much to learn. Lawrence Cunningham’s book is a delightful short romp through what can be a dense theological arena.  He writes, not as moral theologian, but with a pastoral

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December 17, 2012

Invitation to Poetry: Kinship with Creation

Welcome to the Abbey’s 63rd 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

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December 16, 2012

Orchard and Forest (a love note)

Dearest monks and artists, This is proving to be a powerful Advent season for me.  My husband and I have made the discernment to move to the west coast of Ireland at the end of December and so this threshold time left here in Vienna has become a profound opportunity for retreat, turning inward, savoring our experience of these days, and sharing with one another the dreams being birthed within us. We have taken on a shared rhythm of life for Advent that has become deeply nourishing and such a gift.  Part of that rhythm is a time of praying lectio

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December 12, 2012

Faith Squared Advent Calendar: Holy Darkness

The wonderful folks at Faith Squared have created an Advent calendar this year with new reflections each day.  Today’s featured writer is yours truly: I must be the Virgin and give birth to God. –Angelus Silesius Advent is my favorite liturgical season of the year. Images of waiting, darkness, and birthing make my soul sing.  We are each given time and space to grow more welcoming to unknowing, where so much promise and possibility dwell.  During Advent we honor a God who is far beyond our own imaginations and who calls us into the fullness of our own horizons. The 17th century German

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December 11, 2012

Abbey Bookshelf: Season of Mystery by Paula Huston

I adore Paula Huston’s work and wise spirit.  She is a fellow monastic oblate and writer of several books on spiritual practice, including one of my favorites The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life.  I had the gift of participating in a writing workshop with her several years ago in New Mexico. Her new book Season of Mystery: 10 Spiritual Practices for Embracing a Happier Second Half of Life is a part of the current Patheos book club.  She again weaves together personal narrative along with riches from Christian mysticism to invite us gently into practices which are “antidotes to

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December 10, 2012