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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Pat Slentz

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Pat Slentz’s reflection and poem “Touchdown into a Silence.” I greatly appreciate the joy and perspective that living in the mountains brings me.  For me, the mountains are the perfect metaphor for the up and down struggles we face in our pilgrimage through this life.  The sounds and sights of mountaintops and valleys both open me to the expanse of God’s love and creation and strengthen my connection to Spirit.  Photographing the beauty of Colorado on long walks with my

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The Refreshment of Sabbath ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, When I moved to Seattle in 2003 one of the first people I met was Rabbi Zari Weiss through a mutual friend who introduced us. Zari quickly became a dear friend, especially when my mother died soon after moving, and she was one of the few people I knew at the time who had also lost both parents. She shared with me the tremendous wisdom of the Jewish mourning process where the person who loses someone significant goes into special status for a year and nothing additional is asked of them during this time to

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Shelagh Huston

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Shelagh Huston’s reflection on the power of rest. Last spring, with dozens of daffodil plants in my front garden, I was looking forward to seeing the host of golden daffodils arising with Easter and the lengthening days. In my neighbours’ yards, and along the roadsides, they were everywhere. I waited – but in my garden, only one daffodil bloomed.  A lonely flower, maybe drooping a little with melancholy for her missing companions. Something like I was feeling

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Abbess love notes

Honoring the Equinox (Join us for Yoga & a Writing Retreat) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The autumn equinox falls officially on Wednesday in the northern hemisphere, a time when the sun rests above the equator, and day and night are divided equally. It heralds a season filled with change, celebrates the harvest, and ushers in the brilliant beauty of death. Autumn is a season of transition, of continual movement. At the heart of autumn’s gifts are these twin energies of relinquishing and harvesting. It is a season of paradox that invites us to consider what we are called to release and surrender, and at the same time it invites us

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Justin Coutts

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Justin Coutts’ reflection, “A Monk with a Family.” One of the greatest of the ancient monastic teachers, at least in my own reckoning, is the Celtic monk Pelagius. His monastic style was to live in the world. His disciples, to whom he wrote letters of instruction, were people living within society but with a radical Chrisitan lifestyle. He wrote a letter to Celantia, a woman who had found her call to the monastic life after getting married.

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Abbess love notes

Creative Flourishing with Hildegard of Bingen ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Fire of the Holy Spirit,life of the life of every creature,holy are you in giving life to forms.Rivers spring forth from the watersearth wears her green vigor. –Hildegard of Bingen Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to be offering a mini-retreat with Betsey Beckman celebrating St. Hildegard of Bingen on her feast day this coming Friday, September 17th. We were supposed to have been traveling to the Rhine Valley this year with a group of pilgrims, but due to the pandemic have had to postpone until next year. This means we can invite a much larger group of pilgrims

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Rita Simon

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rita Simon’s reflection “This is My Home, and These are My People.” We are not two seagulls separated by 6 feet of water; we are two seagulls connected by 6 feet of water. – John Bell  There is no difference between healing your body, healing the Earth,or helping another to heal. It is all the same body. — Alla Renee Bozarth What do you see? Two seagulls are bobbing on a lake a few feet apart with the water surrounding them.

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Abbess love notes

Joy Unspeakable ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We have a new featured book for September in our Lift Every Voice Book Club – Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church by Dr. Barbara Holmes. You can listen to the conversation Claudia Love Mair and I had about the book at this link. (And you can join us for a community conversation on September 24th).  This quote on page 111 of Joy Unspeakable especially touched me:  “Today’s wilderness can be found in bustling suburban and urban centers, on death row, in homeless shelters in the middle of the night, in the eyes of a hospice patient, and in the desperation of

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Colette Lafia

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Colette Lafia’s reflection “Love is Our Anchor.” This past Spring, when wildflowers and poppies were blooming everywhere in Northern California, I felt my heart sing every time I saw a display of color and exuberance. Yet in the midst of this joy, I found myself facing the anxiety and uncertainty of returning to in-person instruction in my role as a part-time public-school librarian.   As I sat in a Zoom meeting with 30 other staff members, trying to

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Lift Every Voice Book Club

Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – September Video Discussion and Book Group Materials Now Available

Join Abbey of the Arts for a monthly conversation on how increasing our diversity of perspectives on contemplative practice can enrich our understanding and experience of the Christian mystical tradition.  Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation.  Click here to view this month’s video discussion along with questions for reflection.  Join us on September 24th for

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