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Monk in the World Guest Post: Adam Brooks Webber

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Adam Brooks Webber’s reflection and poem on kinship with creation and adventures with God. The fourth point of the Monk Manifesto emphasizes our kinship with creation. That speaks to me strongly, because the earliest religious experiences of my childhood began with that sense of kinship. In the first such experience I can remember, I was about ten years old. I was sitting alone in a willow tree, when suddenly, unaccountably, I knew I was not alone. I

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Books

Christine’s Article on Ancestors as Creative Allies in U.S. Catholic

Christine’s article Our Ancestors are Allies on Our Creative Journey was published in the May 2023 issue of U.S. Catholic. It is adapted from her forthcoming book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness (releases from Ave Maria Press August 18, 2023). Here is an excerpt: We are alive because of our ancestors, that “great cloud of witnesses” mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews (12:1). Our grandmothers and grandfathers struggled, grieved, celebrated, and endured, and we can live our lives in ways that honor their memories. We can imagine that our ancestors

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Abbess love notes

Day 4 Mary Prayer Cycle – New Video Podcasts!

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today we continue our release of the companion video podcasts for the Birthing the Holy Prayer Cycle which was created to accompany my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal. The full prayer cycle is available here. Today’s video podcast for Day 4 morning and evening prayer explores Our Lady of Silence and Our Lady of the Underworld. Our Lady of Silence invites us into the heart of stillness and quiet where we can listen to the still small voice within.  OPENING PRAYERHoly Mary, Lady of Silence, we come to you in quiet this day.

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June Tea with the Abbess

I so enjoyed our Tea with the Abbess session. Since I can’t pour you a cup of tea myself I led a brief welcoming meditation then shared some of our programs for June and beyond. Such a joyful time with our wonderful community. We have a number of resources to support you in your contemplative journey including:  June Lift Every Voice Book Club Practice of the Presence: A Revolutionary Translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher. Abbey of the Arts Prayer Cycles – a free resource. The video podcasts for the Birthing the Holy prayer continue to release this month! Calendar of Upcoming Events

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Tom Delmore

I’m delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Tom Delmore’s poems on the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The Kingdom within, is a big shift for me. Raised in the Catholic faith and dad’s mantra of: brownie points and rewards are in heaven only. I am seeing the kingdom in the ordinary. These poems are thresholds to the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven The Kingdom of heaven is like All those truths Jesus spoke In Matthew’s gospel, I’m sure. It is also,

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Abbess love notes

Blessing Our Lives ~ A Guest Post at New Eden Ministry

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to offer this excerpt from my guest post at New Eden Ministry titled “Blessing Our Lives.” Blessings can be like warm bread for the hungry, a cold drink for those who thirst. They can offer hope and encouragement, steep us in gratitude, nurture our courage. Blessings bring us present to the grace of each moment. The word comes from the Latin, benedicere, which means to speak well of. Blessings help to remind us of the love and beauty of the Holy One in our lives and assist us to take nothing for granted.

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Abbess love notes

Celtic Spirituality Retreat + Day 3 Mary Prayer Cycle ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We continue this week with the release of our Day 3 Birthing the Holy video podcast that accompanies my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal. Day 3 Morning and Evening Prayer take the themes of Star of the Sea and Vessel of Grace.  Here is an excerpt from Day 3 Morning: Opening Prayer Stella Maris, Mary, Star of the Sea, we look to the night sky to see your brilliance shining upon the world. Be with us as a guiding light and safe harbour on our journey of surrender and trust. Show

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Michael Kroth

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Michael Kroth’s reflection on walking as a keystone, contemplative practice. Around the mountain Again flowers, birds, views, winds My feet hurt, heart beats ~Written 8-7-22 Vince and I pulled into the nearly filled parking lot. A thin, serious-looking runner standing behind his open car trunk stretched one leg behind himself, and then the other. Two cars down, a couple pulled mountain bikes off their car racks, swung small hydration packs onto their backs, adjusted their helmets, clipped

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Abbess love notes

Day 2 Mary Prayer Cycle – New Video Podcasts! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Last Spring we created a prayer cycle and audio podcast series to accompany my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal. Today we continue our release of the companion video podcasts with Day 2 Morning and Evening Prayer. The full prayer cycle is available here. Each day of the prayer cycle focuses on thematic and archetypal energies associated with a different name for Mary. Today’s video podcast for Day 2 morning and evening prayer takes as its theme Untier of Knots and Mustafia. In her role as Untier of Knots Mary invites us to consider those places

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Hildy Tails

Hildy Tail: Excuses, Excuses, Excuses (Exodus 3:1 – 4:17)

This week we are featuring one of our Hildy Tails. This series of essays were composed last year for our Sustainers Circle. They were dictated to John by the Abbey’s mascot, Hildy the Monk-ey. Hildy is a bit of a free spirit who likes to entertain and doesn’t normally feel constrained by conventional story structure . . . or grammar, in general. She lives by the motto that “all stories are true; some actually happened.” We wanted to share them with you, our wider Abbey community, to give you a small monkey-sized, humorous perspective on some biblical passages and stories

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