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Abbess love notes

The Many Faces of Mary ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Next Saturday I am leading a retreat on three of Mary’s names or titles: Untier of Knots, Our Lady of Silence, and Madonna Protectress. When we explore the many ways Mary has been experienced, we open ourselves to those gifts within ourselves as well. Mary calls us to find the place within where we can loosen our constrictions, the sanctuary of the heart where we can rest in deep silence, and the courage to create strong boundaries and utter the sacred no to all that depletes us and takes out energy away from our sacred yes.  This

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March 6, 2022

Monk in the World Guest Post: Christina Campbell

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Christina Campbell’s reflection “Finding a Place of Belonging.” As a self-proclaimed “mountain gal,” moving to Iowa 12 years ago was more than a career move but rather one to preserve our family unit. We moved to the prairie from the mountains of Montana to focus on family as we’d been rushing here and there with two full-time, intense careers and 3 young children spending more time with other families or daycare than they did at home. My

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March 2, 2022
Lift Every Voice Book Club

Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – March 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.  Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the

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March 1, 2022
Abbess love notes

The Saints in Walgreens ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Ash Wednesday is this week and we will embark on our Lenten journey The Love of Thousands: Honoring Angels, Saints, and Ancestors.  Many of you feel a deep kinship with Abbey of the Arts because of our love of mystics and the saints and the ways we cultivate connections to those wise guides beyond the veil. This happens in many ways including pilgrimage, presence, and . . . relics. Relics may seem just like that – relics of another era, but these bits of clothing, hair, nails, and bones of the saint that have been revered

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February 27, 2022

Monk in the World Guest Post: Karen Luke Jackson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Karen Luke Jackson’s reflection “Lovers of God: Free Women.” A ten-foot wall separated the small red brick retreat house from the forty-year-old monastery, home to cloistered nuns in Greenville, South Carolina. Sister Mary waved as I pulled into the driveway. She wore a tan tunic belted at her waist with a rope. Her hair, cropped short and combed away from her face, hinted of gray. I guessed she was in her early fifties, a few years older

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February 23, 2022
Abbess love notes

The Love of Thousands Lent Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Ash Wednesday is March 2nd and when will embark on our Lenten journey The Love of Thousands: Honoring Angels, Saints, and Ancestors. Two significant things about this retreat – first it is content I am working on for a book that will be published in fall 2023 around some of my favorite topics.   The second is that I will be having a major surgery in March and will be recovering through April, so we are only hosting one live session for the community to begin the journey. The rest of the content will be delivered through written

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February 20, 2022
Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Joanie McMahon

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Joanie McMahon’s reflection and illustrations inspired by Christine’s poem, “St.Gobnait and the Place of Her Resurrection.” During my university experience, I had the opportunity to study the Irish language for two years, and I reveled in all the songs, whimsical idioms, and stories that were passed down through oral tradition. My first Irish teacher told us about St. Gobnait, the nine white deer, and her miraculous bees. I was intrigued by the mystery and symbolism surrounding St. Gobnait’s story, and

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February 16, 2022
Abbess love notes

Midrash and the Psalms ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Next Saturday, February 19th we are delighted to welcome Wisdom Council member, musician, and psalmist Richard Bruxvoort Colligan to lead a Midrash Lab on Psalm 23. Richard’s music is featured on our CDs and in many of our retreats. Midrash is the practice of bringing sacred imagination to a scriptural text to engage it on a deep and personal level. Read on for Richard’s introduction to midrash practice celebrating God as Midwife. As a student of the psalms, one thing that keeps me enthralled is the wildly diverse models and metaphors for the Holy One. Shepherd, Holy City, Gardener, Warrior, Night Song… 

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February 13, 2022
Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Julie Cicora

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Julie Cicora’s reflection on Contemplative Knitting Practice After I was ordained to the priesthood, a good friend gave me the book Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom. She knew I was relatively new to prayer and that I was struggling to maintain a regular prayer practice.  I was delighted to find a story in the book about a woman who complains to the author that she feels an absence in the silence every time she tries to

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February 9, 2022
Abbess love notes

Exploring the Wild Land Within – A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We are delighted to be returning to our monthly Lift Every Voice book club exploring contemplative voices of color and enriching our perspective on the mystical tradition. Our featured book for February is The Wild Land Within: Cultivating Wholeness through Spiritual Practice by Lisa Colón Delay and she joined Claudia Love Mair and myself for a video conversation. (You can also now listen to these episodes as audio podcasts and view the weekly reflection questions on the book page and in the Facebook group.)  As always it was very meaningful to discuss the book with the author and help break

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February 6, 2022