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Ash Wednesday – Lent Begins (Join us!)

A love note from your online Abbess Dearest monks and artists, I thought I would send this bonus love note today, Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day, with a few links to past reflections on this season and time of year. Last year I shared a reflection for Valentine’s Day on Becoming Body Words of Love. And here are two poems for Valentine’s  – Saints Bowing in the Mountains by Hafiz and i carry your heart with me by ee cummings. Imagine me saying these words to you from the heart. Ash Wednesday: The Practice of Truth-Telling This is a reflection

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February 14, 2018

Love and Radical Hospitality ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, A few days ago I received an email from a woman who is writing her dissertation and asked me to respond to the question: “If you had to choose one spiritual practice that is a non-negotiable for spiritual growth in the 21st century, what would it be and why?” My answer was supposed to be short and succinct. Here was my reply: “I would choose hospitality, both inner and outer, because I believe the welcoming in of all of the exiled pieces of ourselves to be essential for the healing of the world.” Of course, it

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February 11, 2018

Join us in 2019 for a Pilgrimage or Retreat in Ireland

  Join the Abbey in 2019 for a pilgrimage to the sacred edges of the world and of your own heart and horizon. Christine and John Valters Paintner lovingly curate and guide these slow-paced experiences with small groups (12-16 people max) so that we create a community of kindred souls walking a magical landscape. We have had one room come available (can be single or double if traveling with a friend or partner) for Writing on the Wild Edges Retreat in Ireland for August 26-September 1, 2018. Please contact us if you are interested. For program details click here>> March

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February 8, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: Janice Burns-Watson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Janice Burns-Watson’s reflection on welcoming the stranger as a friend. Too many years ago now than I want to admit, I was a young missionary in Kenya.  I was in my twenties, still inexperienced in life and as a minister.  But I was up to a challenge and excited about “experiencing life as most of the world lived it.” To prepare for our time of service my then husband and I were sent to a site near Nairobi to learn

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February 7, 2018

Introducing Melinda Thomas ~ the Abbey’s Administrative Assistant

Melinda Thomas has been working with the Abbey since 2015. She formats the newsletter and daily love notes, and uploads the blogs, including those from the Monk in the World Guest Post Series. Melinda has recently taken over managing the Abbey’s Dancing Monk email account. You can still reach Christine at that address but general queries and operational email replies will come from Melinda. Melinda is a writer, activist, and yoga instructor who lives in North Carolina with her young son. She is currently writing The Benedictine Path of Yoga: Integrating Monastic Wisdom with the Practice of Yoga, and blogs weekly at

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February 5, 2018

Join us for an online retreat this Lent ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, I am delighted that John Valters Paintner will be taking the lead on our Lenten retreat online. He has a great love for the scriptures, and taught them at the high school level for many years. The upcoming retreat is the fruit of years of his reflection on exploring some overarching themes in the Bible. What follows is an overview of what the retreat will cover and the rich questions you will be invited to explore: Week 1: Introduction The Bible is not a single, declarative statement of fact. It is a series of competing voices

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February 4, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: Nancy Agneberg

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Nancy Agneberg’s reflection, Surprise, Nancy, You are Retired! “So what do you do?” My husband Bruce and I were spending a long weekend in one of our favorite vacation areas, Door County, WI. Often called the “New England of the Midwest,” Door County is a long, narrow peninsula with Green Bay on one side and Lake Michigan on the other. We loved roaming the countryside, as well as enjoying the water views. Restaurants, galleries, theatre. Time there was restorative. One morning

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January 31, 2018

Imbolc and the Feast of St. Brigid ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

St. Brigid and the Fruit Tree There was the moment you could bear it no more. Your eyes brimming with great glistening drops summoned by the hunger of the world, the callous and terrible things men and women do to one another. Your tears splashed onto cold stony earth, ringing out like bells calling monks to prayer, like the river breaking open to the wide expanse of sea. From that salt-soaked ground a fruit tree sprouts and rises. I imagine pendulous pears, tears transmuted to sweetness. There will always be more grief than we can bear. There will always be

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January 28, 2018

Monk in the World Guest Post: Anne Marie Vencill

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Anne Marie Vencill’s reflection on the spirituality of beekeeping. For more than 30 years I had an idea. It bubbled to the surface at odd times, often with the change of seasons. Thoughts tumbling; gossamer threads pulled out in moments of daydream. The reasons to keep it suppressed were numerous: early on there were frequent moves and limited resources; then a flush of children, five in six years; the busy-ness of caring for said children; the potential

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January 24, 2018

New John of the Cross dancing monk icon ~ A love note from your online abbess

O night! O guide! O night more loving than the dawn! O night that joined The lover with the Beloved; Transformed, the lover into the Beloved drawn! —excerpt from John of the Cross’ prayer (contemporary musician Loreena McKennitt has a beautiful song with these words set to music) Dearest monks and artists, We have some new dancing monk icons which we will be sharing with you over the next few weeks. Artist Marcy Hall has been busy at work creating these delightful images. Last week we shared Teresa of Avila, this week is another Spanish mystic, John of the Cross.

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January 21, 2018