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7 pilgrimages you can go on right now (Part 1) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, There are many ways to practice pilgrimage. You can journey far away to a sacred site, but there are also options within reach of a walk or drive from home, or even within your own imagination. Keep in mind these three essential aspects to create your own pilgrimage experience: Begin with an intention and prayer or blessing for this time. Stay open to the ways God might break in through the unexpected. When you return, spend time in reflection on how this experience has touched you. What new discoveries or invitations did you hear? Walking

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Elaine Breckenridge

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Elaine Breckenridge’s reflection on letting go of climbing and searching. “In 2007, I climbed a mountain on Inis Mor, one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland.Well, it was really a hill but it might as well have been a mountain. The goal of the climb was to visit a tiny little hermitage perched on top. Called the Teampall Bheanain, it is reputedly the smallest church in Ireland. It dates from about the 7th century. From

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Poetry and the Sacred (new videos and featured poet series) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, In celebration of publishing my new collection of poems, Dreaming of Stones, we are delighted to be working with local video production company Morgan Creative to launch a series of poetry videos. I have two to share with you today: First, enjoy this one-minute book trailer they created with gorgeous images from Ireland. Wings I wake from a dream, reach towards day as it hatches, its tiny beak presses against the delicate shell of sky. Today I might learn to fly. —Christine Valters Paintner, poem appears in Dreaming of Stones: Poems Dreaming of Stones book trailer from

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Abbey of the Arts Featured Poet: Kenneth Steven

We are launching a new series this spring with poets whose work we love and want to feature! Our first poet is Kenneth Steven whose work is deeply inspired by the island of Iona. You can hear Kenneth reading his poem “Iona” below and read more about the connections he makes between poetry and the sacred. The Strangest Gift Sister Mary Teresa gave me a wasps’ nest from the convent garden – just the startings, the first leaves, a cocoon of whisperings – made out of thousands of buzzings. To think that these yellow-black thugs could make such finery, such

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Love and Radical Hospitality ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Valentine’s Day is coming, which for many of us is a holiday that only serves to make us feel inadequate, as all highly commercialized things do. And yet the message of love is worth repeating if we can look beneath the chocolate hearts and flowers and the expectation that we all be in a significant relationship or be lacking. Hospitality is the heart of our work – creating a safe space where we can begin welcoming back in the stranger within and in the process discover the hidden wholeness of which Thomas Merton wrote. This kind of

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Katy Taylor

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Katy Taylor’s reflection on presence practices. Growing up in a family that put a lot of value on work, in combination with being an Enneagram type One, I have had to consciously practice in order to learn to slow down to the pace of nature, of my body, of the seasons… For many years, while I loved how I felt in nature, when resting, at ease, or in meditation, it’s been a big challenge to prioritize this

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The Feast of Brigid and Imbolc ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

St. Brigid at the Market I saw her in the market backlit in the doorway from the evening sun, blue cloak ripples like water dandelions and primrose in her hand. Passersby brush past this moment of light and song in a rush to get shoes off and dinner on, just another day of traffic, bills, and angry bosses. I stood, mouth open, holding three lemons, a pile of sunlight, a miracle in yellow, tiny halos a little girl stops next to me, giggles, points to the door, her mother’s yank drags her back to the world of lists. I fear

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Emily Wilmer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Emily Wilmer’s reflection, “The Dance: Spirit, Prayer and Laughter.” We skipped church this morning. We skipped for two reasons. It’s Trinity Sunday, and as much as I appreciate the clergy staff at our church, I couldn’t bear the thought of one more Sunday when someone tried to explain the Trinity. The other reason is that yesterday I spent 6 hours in the yard digging up a new garden area, amending the soil, planting flowers and spreading mulch.

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8 Practices of a Good Pilgrimage ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The value of travel was ingrained in me from a young age. When I was growing up in New York City my father worked for the United Nations, and we had the privilege of traveling back to Austria, where he was from, as well as other European countries and once as a teen through Asia. As an adult I began to see the potential for deeper meaning in my journeys. I saw a difference between travel as a tourist and making a journey as a pilgrim. I often define pilgrimage as courting holy disruption. We

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kathleen Schwab

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kathleen Schwab’s reflection, “Love God Like a Falcon.” On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. (Psalm 63:6 NIV) The relationship between God and a human being is unique, and describing it or making analogies can be tricky. After all, it is essentially unlike any other relationship we have with anyone or anything else. Over the last few years, I’ve found something that unexpectedly offers some insights into the human/God

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