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What is Blossoming Within You? (continued) ~ A Love Note from your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, The fertility of spring speaks of an abundantly creative God who is at the source of the potent life force beating at the heart of the world.  Created in God’s image, we are called to participate in this generous creativity ourselves.  Our own blossoming leads us to share our gifts with the world. There is a playfulness and spontaneity to the season of spring, that invites us to join this joyful abandon.  We are called to both listen deeply to the blossoming within ourselves as well as to forget ourselves — setting aside all of our seriousness

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April 15, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: Johanneke Strydom

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

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April 11, 2018

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[siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Button_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] Dearest Monks, Artists, and Pilgrims, This email was sent to our newsletter list, but in case yours got caught in the spam filter here are the details to stay on our mailing list. You may be aware that on May 25th 2018, new Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are coming into force in the EU. This means that we need to ask everyone on our email list (whether living in the EU or not) to opt in again to receive our communications. If you would like to receive regular soul nourishment from Abbey of the Arts along with updates about our

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April 11, 2018

What is Blossoming Within You? ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, It takes time to see.  Around us the world is exploding in a celebration of new life and we may miss much of it in our seriousness to get the important things of life done. Lynn Ungar has a wonderful poem  titled “Camas Lilies” in which she writes: “And you—what of your rushed and / useful life? Imagine setting it all down— / papers, plans, appointments, everything, / leaving only a note: “Gone to the fields / to be lovely. Be back when I’m through / with blooming.” You might begin this journey of reflection on blossoming

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April 8, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sophia Diehl

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

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April 4, 2018

Easter Blessings: Practicing Resurrection ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Lent is a powerful season of transformation. Forty days in the desert, stripped of our comforts, and buoyed by our commitment to daily practice so that we might arrive at the celebration of Easter deepened and renewed. But often, we arrive at the glorious season of resurrection and celebrate for that one day, forgetting it is a span of 50 days, even longer than the Lenten season through which we just traveled.  Easter is not just the day when the tomb was discovered empty, but a span of time when days grow longer in the northern

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April 1, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: David LaBelle

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

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March 28, 2018

St. Colman – New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, St. Colman lived in the 6th-7th centuries in County Galway in the west of Ireland. His parents were king and queen of that region, and while his mother was pregnant, his father heard a prophecy that his newborn son would one day surpass him in notoriety. In a jealous rage he had his servants throw his wife into the lake with a stone tied to her. But in a miracle, the stone floated like a cork, and so she was brought safely to shore. Once she gave birth, two priest pilgrims wandered by and she asked

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March 25, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: Margaret McLarty

We are thrilled and delighted to be releasing a brand new compilation of songs, curated from some wonderful musicians we know and love. These are songs for Celtic seekers as they are inspired by the tradition of pilgrimage in Ireland and accompany Christine’s newest book which will be released in September 2018 from Ave Maria Press – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred. For six weeks we will be featuring the musicians from this album who so generously agreed to share their beautiful music with our community for this project. Next up is Margaret

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March 21, 2018

Spring Equinox Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. —Isaiah 35:1-2 I believe deeply that the seasons have a great deal of spiritual wisdom to offer us if we make space to listen. They teach us of the cycles and seasons of the earth and of our own lives. We are invited into the movements of blossoming, fullness, letting go, and rest, over and over again. Just like the lunar cycles of the moon’s waxing and waning,

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March 18, 2018