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Join us on Pilgrimage in 2018 – Updates

We are delighted to share that our Soul’s Slow Ripening pilgrimage in Ireland next May and our Hildegard of Bingen pilgrimage in Germany next September are both FULL! If you want to be added to the waiting list for either just get in touch with us. If you still want to join us in Ireland next spring, there are just a few spaces left for our Monk in the World pilgrimage May 1-9, 2018 (also space in October) or perhaps you want to be creatively inspired by Writing on the Wild Edges August 26-September 1, 2018. We won’t be adding any further dates to these offerings and would love to welcome you

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Polly Burns

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series. This is from Polly Burns, the newest member of our Wisdom Council. When Christine asked me to introduce myself through this post, it was hard to know where to start. If you are a regular at the Abbey of the Arts, you will have heard the phrase ‘Go to your cell, it will teach you’. It was this phrase that floated into my mind as I tried to decide what to write. Although often taken as a metaphor for the inner cell of the

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Join us for Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists,  Be. Here. This Moment Now is all there is, don’t go seeking another. Discover the sacred in your artist’s tools, they are the vessels of the altar of your own unfolding. Look at this cup of holy water, washing clean the brushes. See the blank page, awaiting your blessing. Gaze on the colors before you, each one a name of God: Saffron, Cobalt, Azure, Ruby. Say each one slowly and taste its juice in your mouth. Let this be your prayer. Brush them across the page. First the small strokes, then the larger sweeps. Lose track

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Monette Chilson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Monette Chilson’s reflection “Monk in the Darkness.” It is hard to be a monk in the dark. Our old ways don’t work. We bump, flail and wail in our blindness. We can easily get stuck in the disorienting fog. I want to usher in the light. Celebrate the joyful. Be grateful for the blessings. That’s the kind of monk I want to be in this world. The serene, meditating variety with a bemused half smile upon my face. But that’s

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Finding the Mystic Within ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Welcome to all of our new subscribers who signed on during our sabbatical time! I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this time to step back from email and social media and allowing more time for silence and reflection. Summer lends itself to a holy pause and a time to look ahead to the coming year and what rhythms we want to create for ourselves that allow listening to a deeper voice. I was reminded too of those foundational things which sustain and nourish me most. I feel ready to dive back into the work I love so

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Writing on the Wild Edges – Participant Poems (Lucy Wilson)

This past April we led one of our Writing on the Wild Edges retreats on the beautiful island of Inismor off the coast of Galway. We will be sharing some of the writing which participants gave us permission to share here in the next few weeks. Up next are poems by Lucy Wilson. (If you’d like to join us, we have our dates open for 2018 – August 26-September 1) ST. CIARAN’S WELL AND CHURCH At St. Ciaran’s holy well my prostrated body stretched till finger tips touched holy water. I brushed my forehead a baptism of resurrection. The well green-surrounded: moss, ferns, wild

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Summer Sabbath Time at the Abbey until August 6th ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, We like to take some Sabbath time each summer to step back from the work at hand and have time for play and free flow of ideas. Usually this happens in August, but because we will be traveling back to the States for a family visit in July, we decided to take our newsletter and posting break during this next month or so until early August. Sabbath is one of the principles of our Monk Manifesto: “The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Sibyl Reynolds

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sibyl Reynolds’ reflection Gifts from Mary and Martha: Sacred Practices for a Recollected Life. Many people today are experiencing a call to live a contemplative life. The human spirit longs for peace, serenity, connection with the Holy One, and a return to the Self. In the midst of the tsunami of countless daily demands and the immediacy of email, social media, and information overwhelm, the contemplative heart awaits nourishment and intimacy with the Divine. Myriad responsibilities and life’s frenetic pace, fragment

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Soul’s Slow Ripening Pilgrimage – Participant Poems (Maureen Winters Perry)

This past March/April we led one of our Soul’s Slow Ripening Pilgrimages based out of Galway City. We have been sharing some of the poems from the writing retreat which participants gave us permission to share over the last several weeks. But poems emerge on the pilgrimage as well. Here are a series of short poems by Maureen Perry.   *I cannot sit still now Guide my feet on this journey Lord Let my mind, heart rest.   *The smell of the sea The company of a dear friend And friends I don’t know…Yet.   *Breathe on me breath of God Let my inhalation and exhalation

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Celebrating the Summer Solstice + Self-Study Sale ends tomorrow ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, In the northern hemisphere we approach the celebration of the summer solstice, the longest day. The seasons are connected to the different cardinal directions, as well as the four elements. Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century Benedictine Abbess, allied the direction of the south and the season of summer with the element of fire. We find a similar connection in the Native American Cherokee tradition and in the Irish Celtic tradition. We might think of summer as the season of fire and stoking our passions. It is the season of coming to fullness connected to the Hour

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