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Reflections

Category: Abbess love notes

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Christmas and New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Christmas Blessing*This blessing dances at the doorwayof light and dark, knows both as sacred:fertile womb space, miracle of blooming.This blessing breathesthrough those moments of laborwhen you too birth the holyinto this fragile, luminous, hurting worldas Mary did two thousand years ago,eyes wide, hands gripping,waters breaking like crashing wavesof the primordial seasending a prayer through timethat echoes still,pulsing like starlightin an enormous sky.This blessing rests a handon the back of the lonely disoriented lost hungry despairing persecutedto say your humanity is not an obstaclebut a threshold, to remind youthat the wound is a portalthrough which your gifts pour forth,that raw

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Winter Solstice Blessing ~ A Love from Your Online Abbess

Winter Solstice*Holy One of the turning earth,we watch the daily pilgrimage of the sunas its journey grows shorter and shorter.Bears, bats, and hedgehogs restwhile swallows and swifts have already migrated south again. Cold air, bare branches, blankets and shawls,the growing quiet calls us to our own retreat. Then a bell rings out across the hemisphere,the diminishment pauses, then slowly shiftsand we imagine our ancestors standingin the heart of winter’s cold darknesswith faces upward in awe each year as your brilliance begins to brighten the sky for longer each day, gold beams tumbling like treasure. We know on this day the

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End of Year Giving

Your donations help us make what we do fully accessible to all who desire to be a part of this virtual monastery and gathering of kindred spirits. It is because of your generosity that we are able to offer many free resources – such as our prayer cycles, book club, and scholarship fund – to nourish everyone, regardless of financial capacity. Your donations to Abbey of the Arts also help fund free and reduced fee options on our sliding scale for programs, as well as offer additional scholarships to all who are in need of greater financial support.  Read about our commitment to

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Community + Give Me a Word ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Friendship and Community*God of friendshipI come to know your love and carethrough the embodied presence of others.Weave me together with kindred spirits,knit me more closely with friends of the soul,cultivate in me a kinship with humanityso that I recognize my struggles and joys in others.In my loneliness reveal to me this communionand may I be a solace to others who ache for connection.Transform me through conversation and loving presence.Help me to see how I am part of a great circleof pilgrims, witnesses, ancestors, and mysticswho guide me to true connection with You.Gather me into your great wide

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Gratitude Blessing + The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 7~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Gratitude Blessing*Spirit of Generosity,we come to you with hearts overflowing with gratitudefor your abundant creation.As we awaken each morning, help us to remember this day is a gift,this breath is grace,this life a wonder. Remind us with every flower we see,every act of kindness,every moment of connection to something so much biggerthan ourselves,to whisper thank you. Cultivate in us a sense of aweand trust in your lavish grace. Let each word of thanks we offer expand our heartsuntil delight inhabits usand we know loveas our sustenance. Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, The 5th century monk and mystic Benedict of

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Spirituality of Blessings and The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 6 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Creativity*Spirit of Holy Imagination,we ask you to bless our visionwith the wisdom to see what is possible. Help us trust our desire to createthrough color, word, shape, gesture, and song. When our fingers trembleat picking up a pen or marker,connect us to the joy of playing on the white page, drawing,doodling, dabbling, dreaming,letting our livesbe a canvas for expression. When judgments ariseand the inner critic yells, guide us to hear our intuitionswhispering the way aheadwith quiet confidence. When our feet feel restless,inspire us to play music and dance freely until peace descends again. Connect us to the

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What I Know + Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 5 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, There is much uncertainty and unknown right now. Many of us are in deep grief and I encourage you to bestow lavish hospitality on all of your feelings – let your rage, sadness, despair, confusion, and more have space in you. Move your body, let her speak its wisdom, and give yourself the gift of as much rest as possible.  What I do know is that our commitment to a contemplative path does make a difference. Keep showing up with presence to what is real and true. Cherish what is beautiful and kind. Commit to the slowness

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