Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Login Here

Reflections

Category: Abbess love notes

Filter

Celebrating 20 Years! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, On Monday, April 27th we will be gathering for a 20th anniversary celebration online! We would love for you to join us. We will be sharing some stories from how Abbey of the Arts ripened over the years and some of our lovely musicians will be there to offer the gift of song.  The official date of the 20th anniversary is May 2nd but John and I will be getting ready to welcome some of our Wisdom Council members to Galway, where we live in Ireland, the next day. We are thrilled to have several beloved members joining us to

Read More
April 19, 2026

The Wisdom of the Body ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This month The Wisdom of the Body: 10-week online companion retreat to the book is our featured self-study. We have updated all the video content to now have closed captioning and transcripts for accessibility.  This is an excerpt from the book: How do I welcome in all that is most nourishing and fruitful into my body and soul? What are the habits and beliefs which rob me of this fertile moistness in my body and soul? There is a story from the desert fathers where an Abba says to a seeker, “Do not give your

Read More
April 12, 2026

An Easter Gift for You: Midday Prayers for Peace and Justice ~ A Love Note from Your Online abbess

Easter Blessing*God of Rising,you bring new lifeto all the places death inhabits.Bless our own dying dreamswith your breath of new life.Make our dry bones dance,inspire us to sing,revive our bodiesso that we might becomemore vibrant, hopeful witnessesto the persistence of your love.We call on Christ’s wisdomto bless and sustain usin the practice of resurrectionby which we honor our bodiesand become agents of generous abundance.May all the nets we draw upfrom the water be overflowing with fish,may our wounds be still visibleas a sign of healing grace,and may we encounter your presencewhen we sit at table with strangers.Let our lives be

Read More
April 5, 2026

Journeying with Story ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, April 3rd, we are delighted to welcome award winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker Kaitlin Curtice to lead us in a retreat on journeying with story. Following the life cycle of a story, Kaitlin will guide us through how powerful stories become in the world and how we interact with and reclaim stories for love and kinship. She offers this excerpt from her book Everything Is a Story. Birth is the beginning of life, of everything that we know and understand as humans, so it makes sense that as we begin to imagine what a story

Read More
March 29, 2026

Sacred Time ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, Our featured self-study retreat this month is Sacred Time, the companion retreat to my book of the same title.  Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the book: We live in a breathless world. Everything around us seems to move at faster and faster speeds, summoning us to keep up. We multitask, we organize, we simplify, we do all we can to keep on top of the many demands on our time. We yearn for a day with more hours in it so we can complete all we long to do. We often talk about

Read More
March 22, 2026

On the Spring Equinox ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Note: Click cc to turn closed captions on or off.On the Spring Equinox*God of balance,we ask your blessing at this thresholdwhen light and dark are equal.Teach us to welcome bothinto our lives, to make room for joy and sorrow,for sunlight’s shimmering and moonlight’s radiance.As the light continues to growand birds and insects begin their migrations,journeying by impulse and intuition,help us listen to your callto move in a holy direction.Inspire us to celebrate the burgeoningand blossoming of budsall around us as well as within our hearts.Holy Gardener, sustain us in nourishingthis season of growth,cultivate trust in us that we are bloomingsomething

Read More
March 15, 2026

The Restorative Power of Love ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, March 13th we warmly invite you to join Wisdom Council member Felicia Murell in our mini-retreat The Restorative Power of Love. Felicia will lead us through an exploration of accessing inner wisdom as we join the Divine in the liberating work of Love.  She offers this reflection and excerpt from her book AND: The Restorative Power of Love In An Either/Or World: I am constantly challenged in life by one burning question: Do I trust Love? Do I trust that Love will lead me, and those I care about, into Love’s embrace? Do I trust the energy of Spirit to

Read More
March 8, 2026