Reflections

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Amanda K. Berg’s reflection Surrender and Gratitude. “Surrender and Gratitude”  – St. Therese Lisieux As the wheels of the plane touched ground in Los Angeles, that place in the deepest part of my gut awakened.  You know that place too. It is the place that comes alive when you experience a sense of loss, like losing a loved one or ending a relationship. It comes alive when you realize that you are lost, like a child in the

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Johanneke Strydom’s reflection “Wasting Time. . .” I have this fear of wasting time…  Not to do something worthwhile.  Not to be able to show something for my time spent.  Not to produce…I measure the success of my day in the things done to make the world a better place.  Things produced…  Beauty created. And the hours in between as wasted.  Wasted with things like cooking and washing and reading and relaxing.  The mundane.  Nothing to show.  What

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sophia Diehl’s reflection A Dance of Stillness.  Sometimes I go to a contact improvisation class to pray. As a dance student, trained to speak through the language of the body, contact improvisation allows me to enter into an intimate conversation with another person. Developed along with the rise of modern dance in the 1960s, this movement form requires a sharing of weight, a spontaneous giving and receiving with a dance partner.  In my prayer life, I find myself

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for David LaBelle’s reflection “A Visual Love Letter.” For 50 years, I have dreamed about photographing God. In the past, I even kidded that when I died, I wanted my family to place a Nikon F camera loaded with 100 ASA film in the casket with me. I figure I won’t need a fast film with a high ISO because there will be plenty of light, and I’d sure like to be the first to photograph heaven. Indirectly, from the first