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Tending the Fire: Program in Christian Spirituality and Prayer

If you are in the Seattle, Tacoma, or Olympia area consider joining St Placid Priory Spirituality Center for their program in Christian spirituality and prayer.  I don’t currently teach the program although helped to establish it a few years ago. I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone looking to deepen their understanding and practice of diverse forms of Christian prayer. *Tending the Fire*, Christian Spirituality and Prayer, is a nine-month retreat program designed to explore diverse Christian traditions and prayer practices that deepen one’s spiritual journey and personal faith life. It meets semi-monthly on Tuesday afternoons from 1-4pm and will begin

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Sabbath Now

For the last two weeks there has been a funny thing happening with my calendar.  Each day when I open my Outlook program a notice appears just like all of the other appointment reminders except this one says “Sabbath: Now.”   I do have my Saturdays blocked off as Sabbath days and so somehow this entry has been logged in as a daily event.  When I press the “dismiss” button I am told that the program can’t find the entry and so I will continue to be reminded.  And so it is, each day I receive a message that Sabbath is

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Remembering Your Name

Either you will go through this door or you will not go through. If you go through there is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen. If you do not go through it is possible to live worthily to maintain your attitudes to hold your position to die bravely but much will blind you, much will evade you, at what cost who knows? The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door. -Adrienne Rich Stop by Creative Liberty to read an interview with me

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A Disciple of Silence

This past weekend I co-led our annual Oblate retreat with Sister Lucy, our Oblate director, on the theme of simplicity. Being with my fellow Oblates and supporting one another on the Benedictine way is always tremendous nourishment for my spirit.  Life has been so full these last few months and now I get to step into a simpler time and space myself.  My heart has been drawn to explore new ways of simplifying beyond just doing with less things, but to consider the way my thoughts and desires can clutter my heart. I often find my creative energy drawn in

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Threshold Spaces

It is a time of many endings and beginnings for me, a threshold space as I let go and embrace again and again.  I am making more room for my Abbey work and that fills my heart with joy.  I find it is requiring a lot of energy for me to be fully present, so unfortunately this space is getting a bit neglected for the time being In another week or two there will be a new design to this website which I am very excited about.  After four years it is time for some updating and a new look

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The Call of Retreat: Solitude

I sink into the silence and stillness.  Solitude calls my name and shows me my reflection as a sacred offering.  Here in this place the sea asks me to embrace my truth once again.  The hummingbird invites me to sip holy nectar, the heron to stretch out my wings, the gulls to remember my flock.  In each shell is an epiphany, each smooth stone offers a revelation.  I watch and witness as the sun slowly makes her long arc across the sky and discover my own rising and falling.  The tides are singing of quiet miracles – like those which

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The Call of Retreat: Unfurl

I go on a long walk through the forest listening for the word calling to me.  It is a form of lectio divina I practice where nature is the sacred text revealing holy wonders to my heart.  I step further into the silence of trees and moss and ferns.  The forest floor is covered with ferns, creation’s lush and extravagant gesture.  At first I notice the large and mature ones with their wide leaves, but soon my gaze is called to tend to these tender shoots unfurling themselves.  If I listen closely I can hear the quiet movements of a

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Retreat

I am heading out for some time of retreat by the forest and sea and dreaming of the year ahead. Thank you so much to everyone who already commented on last Tuesday’s invitation to share what you need for your own retreat time. Reading through them has been true refreshment for my own spirit. I encourage anyone who hasn’t yet, to stop by with a cup of tea and a journal and begin dreaming your next retreat into being. You can still add your comment until next Monday, May 10 and enter for a chance to win a set of

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Holy Pause: The Practice of Retreat

Last Friday and Saturday I was at St. Placid Priory leading a workshop and a retreat.   Much of my work is leading retreats – and while I spend a lot of time designing the flow of experiences, ultimately it is about creating and holding sacred space for others.  On retreat the invitation is to cross the threshold of ordinary awareness and enter liminal space for a few hours or days to receive the new questions waiting for us. This coming weekend I go on my own time of retreat to the place where the forest meets the sea.  This space

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A Monk in the World

One of the ways we become intimate with the fire in our lives is to explore our passions, our deepest desires, the commitments which make our hearts burn with love.  The mystics across traditions describe God as the spark or flame dwelling in each of our hearts, the source of infinite compassion.  When we live from the heart – which is where Ignatius of Loyola said that God plants our deepest desires – we become a temple of fire and reveal the splendor of God to the world. I feel deeply blessed to be intimate with my own deepest desires,

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