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Monk in the World Guest Post: Judith Jessop

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Judith Jessop’s reflection on solitude and community. A sabbatical is a precious gift. In my tradition it arrives like clockwork every 7 years for those in ordained ministry. The gift needs handling with care … and joy.  A prospectus is required – a sense of direction or purpose.  Waymarkers, if not a destination, in view; although, after 3 months, you’re back to work, offering out of whatever you may have become during the time of travel. My

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Imbolc and Brigid Blessing ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Imbolc and Brigid Blessing*Spirit of the rumbling ground,help us attune our ears to the renewal taking formbeneath the winter earth,snowdrops and crocusesin white and purple-petaled wonder,hedgehogs and bearsbeginning to stir from sleep.Let Brigid be our guideas we navigate the way from rest to slow emergence,support us in nourishing the fragile seeds of possibility.May her birds, the oystercatcherslift our hearts on currents of love,may her devoted cowremind us of generous abundance,may her perpetual flame kindle our own sparks,may her mantle embrace usand offer protection,may her waters of the sacred wellsbless and refresh us for the journey ahead. As the bellies of

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Mary as Mother of Mercy

I was inspired to share this reflection on Mary as Mother of Mercy by the brave words of Bishop Mariann Budde speaking truth to power: Holy Mary, mother of us all,we see a world filled with violence toward one another,we ask for mercy.We see children and the elderly dwelling in poverty,we ask for mercy.We see the earth being slowly choked and poisoned,we ask for mercy.We live in a culture that values people onlyfor what they produce and achieve,we ask for mercy.We recognize the ways our ownmoment by moment choices contributeto the above realities, we ask for mercyIn your gracious mercy

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Christine Lee Smith

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Christine Lee Smith’s reflection “Contemplative Presence in Creative Practice.” One afternoon while serving as a TA in an introductory photography course during my MFA program, a student asked me about the thesis body of work I was making. As it was my final year in the program I was already deep into the making of the project, but not yet full of articulate language around what I was pursuing in this photography-based portrait project. So I paused,

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Abbess love notes

A Blessing for Our Shadows ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Our Shadows*Holy One who embraces all,help us to grow in intimacy with the shadow parts of ourselves: the shame, the resentment, the too-bigness, the longings for things that seem out of reach, all that we resist and reject and project onto others. Reveal to us your sacred welcome to everything that feels tender and troubledall that we would rather not face. Bless our vision so that we might discoverthe brilliance hidden in our darkest places,show us the treasure that lies withinso that we might becomethe fullest version of ourselves,integrated, whole, textured, and sometimes tangled. Help us claim

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kathleen Bolduc

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kathleen Bolduc’s reflection Unplugged. As a spiritual director and retreat leader, I love to guide retreatants in unplugging from technology and plugging into rich rhythms of the spiritual disciplines and the harmonies of nature. Photography as contemplative practice, Lectio Divina, Visio Divina, and contemplative prayer are part of my well-worn path.  A teacher can only teach well that which she knows well, so these practices are the leaven of my daily life; enabling a daily rising, feeding my soul

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Abbess love notes

A Blessing for the Underworld Journey ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for the Underworld Journey*Holy One who is ever-present,even in our darkest nights anddescents to the underworld, bless us with a felt sense of your abidingas life strips away all our comfortsand securities, everything we thought we needed. Help us to build our enduranceand strengthen our vision to see you shimmering in the night. It is so hard to stay here,we want to run to brighter fields, to numb ourselves to the anguish,bless us even in the running and numbing,and help to guide us back to presence,to the call of this journey, which is to move through,to let it

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Give me a word

Give Me a Word 2025 Prize Drawing Winners

Thank you to all who shared their word for 2025! It is always a delight to see how Spirit is moving through the community. Read the words from your fellow dancing monks in the comments section here. Our prize drawing winners are: Congratulations to all our winners! Please get in touch with us to claim your prize. If you won a Dancing Monk Medallion, please include your mailing address.

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kate Kennington Steer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s reflection “i am limited.” A few months ago I wrote these words in response to a series of photographs (some of which are pictured here) I made in collaboration with the Kinship Photography Collective, for their project ‘between bodies’: information remainsteasingly just out of reachbehind the darkest bottle-green blur of a hedgeor perhaps a single leaf,here where size is distortedand volume compacted.there are limits to this seeing.I am limited.so I am compelled to askhow meaning

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Abbess love notes

Kinship with Creation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, Warm New Year blessings to you! We are delighted to return after a time of rest and begin the year with our Contemplative Prayer Service tomorrow, January 6th. We will continue our exploration of the principles of the Monk Manifesto with this month’s theme of Kinship with Creation. Principle 4: I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish. These prayers of concern are excerpted from Day 1 Morning Prayer from the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle. Help us, O Creator God,

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