Reflections

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Janelle Harvey’s reflection, The Language of Feathers. On a cold winter day, after discovering the truth and severity of your daughter’s drug addiction, you might find yourself running into the woods seeking the comfort and presence and help of God in that place of solitude and solace. Desperate tears will freeze on your cheeks as you sob a prayer to God: Help! Please! Protection! The words won’t matter; you will have turned all your attention to God. Sorrow,

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Pat Butler’s reflection, Thirsty Walls.  As veteran homeowners know, the work never ends. Nor does spiritual work. And as this novice homeowner discovered, one can inform the other in a monastic practice of restoration: renovations! Wall prep seemed to go on forever as I peeled wallpaper, cleaned and scrubbed glue, repaired cracks and spackled dings, sanded, preparing the walls to receive paint. I prayed through the work—for help, strength, knowledge, protection—in this new monastic cell, with a

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World Guest Post series from the community. Read on for April’s reflection on becoming a monk in the world. When did I start living as a monk in the world? My journey began as a child in a divided and strife filled home where I knew God’s intimate whisper through writing and nature. Though I was too young to consciously understand, my inner being longed for a monastic life.  I voiced this inclination and asked a couple of adults how to become a nun. We were not