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A Walk Can Change Everything

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. -Wallace Stevens I began my pilgrimage in Rome arriving late at night after my flight was delayed by several hours and I was bumped to a later connection. The first day of the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates was very full. I remember feeling filled with anticipation and also drained from the long travel. The Congress was held at a conference center on the outskirts of Rome, a beautiful setting. That first evening I took a long slow walk around the perimeter of the property. The evening light was illuminating the world around

October 28, 2009

Unexpected Bliss

Christine at Blisschick invited me to reflect on a moment of “unexpected bliss” for her series this week. Stop by to read my reflections on the way language can express the “curves of (our) longing” . . . lovely for me to re-read these words I wrote before my trip as I sit now in Vienna. Tomorrow I head to Ireland for the final third of my pilgrimage triptych and won’t have much computer access while there, so more stories and photos when I return home in just over a week.

October 15, 2009

Embracing the Night

The darkness embraces everything, It lets me imagine a great presence stirring beside me. I believe in the night. -Rainer Maria Rilke in Book of Hours I write to you from the beautiful city of Vienna. I am in the middle of an amazing time of pilgrimage and journeying to the heart of myself. After many months of hard work writing and writing, I am now taking time to be and receive the gifts that move in me in response to the landscapes I am visiting. My first week was spent in Rome for the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates.

October 12, 2009

Retreat & Learning Opportunities

A quick note to let you know that my Teaching Calendar has been updated with several upcoming retreat & workshop opportunities. A reminder to join Betsey Beckman and me for a wonderful Art & Movement retreat to Honor Our Ancestors over the weekend of Halloween, Samhain, and All Saint’s. This will be a beautiful time of welcoming in the dark half of the year and the wisdom of our ancestors who beat within our very blood. Through ritual, storytelling, art-making, gentle movement, poetry, and being in nature, we will deepen our awareness of the gifts of those who have walked

September 30, 2009

Blog Sabbatical

Tomorrow I will fly off to distant landscapes to begin my time of pilgrimage and be attentive to the summons between heartbeats. I will carry with me my camera, my journal and pen, and most important, an open heart ready to receive whatever gifts are offered. My blog and the Abbey Shop will be on sabbatical for most of October (although I may pop back in with a link or two). I carry you with me as well, dear readers, because you are a part of the community which I am called to serve. When I return I will share some of what I discover. What

September 29, 2009

Abbey Bookshelf: An Altar in the World (on belief and practice)

“Welcome to your own priesthood, practiced at the altar of your own life.” (xvii) “Christianity ‘is not a set of beliefs or doctrines one believes in order to be a Christian, but rather Christianity is to have one’s body shaped, one’s habits determined, in such a way that the worship of God is unavoidable.’ (quote from Stanley Hauerwas) In our embodied life together, the words of our doctrines take on flesh. If one of our orthodox beliefs has no corporeal value, if we cannot come up with a single consequence it has for our embodied life together, then there is

September 28, 2009

On Prayer

On Prayer You ask me how to pray to someone who is not. All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge And walking it we are aloft, as on a springboard, Above landscapes the color of ripe gold Transformed by a magic stopping of the sun. That bridge leads to the shore of Reversal Where everything is just the opposite and the word ‘is’ Unveils a meaning we hardly envisioned. Notice: I say we; there, every one, separately, Feels compassion for others entangled in the flesh And knows that if there is no other shore We will walk

September 27, 2009

Mandalas – Part Two

Stop by Patheos for the second part of my article on Mandalas in the church.

September 23, 2009

Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire

I just got the cover design in the mail for my book Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements from Ave Maria Press (coming in March 2010!). I really like the design a lot, especially the four symbols for the elements in the upper right (not as clear to see in the image). Very exciting to begin to imagine what this will look like – the container for all of my hard work and passion! I am also delighted at the advance reviews/blurbs from some of my favorite authors: “For too many centuries, too many Christians

September 18, 2009

Happy Feast of St. Hildegard

Hildegard of Bingen was my doorway into the Benedictine life. While in graduate school I was studying for my “History of Christian Spirituality” comprehensive examination (a fearful and awesome task if there ever was one) and actually had a slight disdain for those ancient monks. My spirituality up until that point had been quite infused by the Ignatian vision of working for justice. I was turned off by the body-denying practices of monasticism (at least in its earlier forms) and wondered how those who chose a cloistered life could truly be engaged with the suffering of the world. Of course,

September 17, 2009

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A Walk Can Change Everything

Unexpected Bliss

Embracing the Night

Retreat & Learning Opportunities

Blog Sabbatical

Abbey Bookshelf: An Altar in the World (on belief and practice)

On Prayer

Mandalas – Part Two

Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire

Happy Feast of St. Hildegard

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