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New Year Blessings + Wisdom of the Body (starts in a week!)

Dearest monks and artists, It is a quiet Christmas season for us here in Galway. After returning from a beautiful trip to Prague and Vienna for ancestral pilgrimage, John and I both promptly got the flu. I spent all of Christmas day in bed with a fever, barely able to stand up. We were planning on a quiet time anyway, but now the enforced solitude of illness is our companion. Of course it never feels good to be unwell, I am grateful that I am able to really let down and allow myself to heal during this time. I have

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Christmas Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

The Risk of Birth This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out & the sun burns late. That was no time for a child to be born, In a land in the crushing grip of Rome; Honour & truth were trampled by scorn- Yet here did the Saviour make his home. When is the time for love to be born? The inn is full on the planet earth, And by a comet the sky is torn- Yet Love

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Winter Solstice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A major obstacle to creativity is wanting to be in the peak season of growth and generation at all times . . . but if we see the soul’s journey as cyclical, like the seasons . . . then we can accept the reality that periods of despair or fallowness are like winter – a resting time that offers us a period of creative hibernation, purification, and regeneration that prepare us for the births of spring. —Linda Leonard, The Call to Create Dearest monks and artists, This reflection is excerpted from our Sacred Seasons online retreat for the Celtic Wheel of the

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Wisdom of the Body Interview
with Guest Teacher Aisling Richmond

Starting January 8, 2018 we will be offering a 10-week online retreat for women – The Wisdom of the Body: An Online Companion Retreat to the Book. This retreat is for every woman who wants to reclaim her body as sacred, heal a lifetime of thoughts and judgments, offer compassion and love to this tender vessel, and remember that the incarnation means this body is holy. With weekly live webinars (recorded if you miss them), a vibrant and lovingly facilitated forum for sharing your experiences, and weekly offerings from some wonderful guest teachers. For three weeks, Christine Valters Paintner will be hosting

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kristen Vincent

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kristen Vincent’s reflection on prayer beads and the mystery of God. Last year my friend Thayer gifted me with a set of prayer beads. It could have been an ironic gift given that I make prayer beads for a living; it’s not as if I was in need of a set. Instead, the gift was deeply touching. Clearly, Thayer wanted to make a set of beads for me and was confident enough to give them to me.

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Give Me a Word 2018: 9th Annual Giveaway

SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2018 In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered. Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word –  this word or phrase would be something on

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Wisdom of the Body Interview
with Guest Teacher Betsey Beckman

Starting January 8, 2018 we will be offering a 10-week online retreat for women – The Wisdom of the Body: An Online Companion Retreat to the Book. This retreat is for every woman who wants to reclaim her body as sacred, heal a lifetime of thoughts and judgments, offer compassion and love to this tender vessel, and remember that the incarnation means this body is holy. With weekly live webinars (recorded if you miss them), a vibrant and lovingly facilitated forum for sharing your experiences, and weekly offerings from some wonderful guest teachers. For three weeks, Christine Valters Paintner will be hosting

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Dotti Delff

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Dotti Delffs‘ reflection, Spiritual Practicals. When I first heard of spiritual practices I thought you had to be Catholic or Greek Orthodox or some sort of woo-woo denomination to practice them. Then about twelve years ago, I was talking to a friend who had just completed a Benedictine spiritual formation program. I had no idea what such a program would involve but something inside me said, “I have to do that.” Two days later, I was sitting in

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Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine (Advent retreat starts today!) ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, This reflection is an excerpt from the first day’s reflection in our Advent retreat online that begins today where we explore the various titles and names for Mary. Mary has gone by many names in the Christian tradition. My approach to these names is influenced strongly by Jungian thought on the archetypes. Archetypes are universal energies that we all experience through dreams and collective symbols. I am drawn to the names of Mary because I believe that their multitude of images points to images we hunger for and ultimately find within ourselves. Mary can be a

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Writing on the Wild Edges: Participant Poems (Pamela Smith)

This past October 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 Pamela Smith. Something about a Door Something there is about a door, Each evokes a closer knowing. This door, unassuming grey and weather worn; Another, cracked, abandoned in slouched disarray. A ponderous roughly hewn door of darkened wood; It’s neighbored door mantled in tendrils of gracious green. A whimsical little red round

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