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Visual Meditation: Savoring Stillness

When I was in Vienna over Christmas my husband and I took a magical walk on the Winter Solstice through the snow-covered gardens of Schonbrunn Palace.  The peace of that foggy day still sings in my heart.  Celebrate the gifts of winter with me.  Breathe deeply and feel the invitation to savor stillness.  Those of you who read here regularly know that winter calls to me and I am called to share her gifts. Early Registration Extended Register for the Lenten Online Retreat with the Desert Mothers and Fathers and receive a free gift (a mini-retreat on Stirring in the Belly). 

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January 30, 2011

Stirring in the Belly: Listening for New Life

My latest Seasons of the Soul column for Patheos is now available here: The most important events make no stir on their first taking place, nor indeed in their effects directly. They seem hedged about by secrecy. It is concussion, or the rushing together of air to fill a vacuum, which makes a noise. The great events to which all things consent, and for which they have prepared the way, produce no explosion, for they are gradual, and create no vacuum which requires to be suddenly filled; as a birth takes place in silence, and is whispered about the neighborhood.

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January 26, 2011

Invitation to Poetry: Fierceness and Courage

Welcome to Poetry Party #49! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections.  Scroll down and add your responses 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) and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post) On Friday, January 28th, I will draw a name at random from the participants and send the winner a free registration for

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January 22, 2011

The Gifts of Winter

Meet Amma Winter.  Amma is the title given to those sage women who lived in the desert in the 3rd century offering their wisdom to seekers.  They lived in harsh and barren landscapes and so were intimate with the wilderness of the soul.  Winter is a rescue, she entered our lives last week and has been slowly settling into the rhythm of life here at the Abbey.   She has a heartbreaking story.  She was abandoned with some other dogs on a farm and left to freeze to death.  When the rescuers arrived she survived but her litter of puppies did not.  Because of this

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January 17, 2011

Words of the Heart

To see the word cloud enlarged either click on the image or click here Nearly 300 of you responded to my invitation to allow a word to choose you which you might live into for the coming year.  The responses have been inspiring, beautiful, and profound.  Pour yourself a cup of tea and linger over them and listen for your own stirrings in response.  The image above is a Wordle (word cloud) created from all the words shared.  You can click here for a larger image or here for a PDF Version. (*Please note: the word size is in proportion to the number of

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January 3, 2011

Visual Meditation: Christmas Blessings from Vienna

Christmas blessings to all friends of the Abbey – may you discover the holy being birthed within your own heart, may your life enflesh the sacred presence for others. Stop by “Give me a Word” and share the word shimmering for you for 2011 and read the moving reflections others have posted in response to their own words.  If you need support in letting the word choose you stop by this post for suggestions. More winter images can be found here. . .  

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December 23, 2010

Letting a Word Choose You

I invited you the other day to offer a word which is calling to you for this coming year.  The responses have been so beautiful and inspiring (I encourage you to stop by and read them!) For some of you the word may have come right away, but for some you may desire a word to ripen within your soul these coming weeks and months, but one doesn’t seem to be coming.  So here are some suggestions for allowing a word to choose you: Release your thinking mind in this process, this isn’t about figuring out just the right word

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December 22, 2010

Visual Meditation: Winter Solstice (in Vienna)

Today in the Northern hemisphere we celebrate the Winter Solstice, that day of the great turning toward the light.  Winter is my favorite season with her achingly beautiful spareness.  I offer you some images from my time away below.  Blessings on your own journey through holy darkness toward illumination. More photos to come later in the week including a reflection about how to listen for the Word which might be calling to you for the coming year.  Make sure to stop by “Give me a Word” and share yours for a chance to win an online class and to read

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December 21, 2010

Give Me a Word (and second annual Abbey New Year Giveaway)

Last year I offered the invitation to my readers to consider a word shimmering for them that might carry them throughout the year.  There were 140 beautiful postings and I later created a Wordle from the entries as a celebration of the prayers gathered.  I offer the same invitation this year and again some prizes to give away: 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

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December 17, 2010

Advent Practices: Considering Our Earthiness (Week Four)

This is the fourth reflection in a weely series I am writing for Patheos on practices for Advent to nurture our intimacy with creation: When despair for the world grows in me . . . I come into the peace of wild things . . . I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. -Wendell Berry, excerpted from “The Peace of Wild Things” If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, / You are surely lost. -David Wagoner, excerpted from “Lost” In the scriptures for this fourth week of Advent we hear in the

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December 17, 2010

Upcoming Programs

A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
20 Jan 25
Holding Paradox: A Retreat with St. Brigid
Holding Paradox: A Retreat with St. Brigid
31 Jan 25
Contemplative Prayer Service: Work
Contemplative Prayer Service: Work
3 Feb 25

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