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Reflections

Category: Abbess love notes

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Christine’s Article on Exile Published by US Catholic

At the heart of exile is a longing to come home again. What does this mean for us in this world? Home may be a place, a house we love, in a landscape we love, with a community who cares for us. It may be a more ethereal kind of reality, like a feeling we have when we experience complete acceptance by others. Or the feeling we have when we walk along the seashore or in a woodland and feel ourselves aligned with God’s creation and its pulsing aliveness. Being at home indicates a state of ease, of feeling welcome,

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August 11, 2023

Transfiguration and Program Updates

A Blessing for Transfiguration Radiant God, open our eyes to all the ways the sacred shimmers before us, how gold pours forth from the robin’s throat, how sunlight returns each morning, how the moon glitters across still water, how laughter around the table kindles joy, how kindness can change lives. Free us from our need to seize these moments, to make of them stone monuments rather than tabernacles of light we carry with us in our hearts. This vision is not a call to stay on the mountain but to gather our treasures into an open embrace, to make the

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August 6, 2023

Abbey of the Arts Welcomes New Wisdom Council Members!

Abbey of the Arts is extraordinarily delighted to welcome four new members to our Wisdom Council! Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD is an amazing scholar and translator of mystical texts (including most recently Practice of the Presence from Brother Lawrence and she will be leading a program for us on The Cloud of Unknowing in August). We were introduced by our mutual editor and discovered we were both fangirls of one another’s work. She has a beautiful warmth and is rooted deeply in the wellspring of Love. We also invited three young adult members recently to expand perspectives on our council

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August 2, 2023

Lughnasa Blessing

I know some of you are enduring terrible heat right now, but here in Ireland the turning toward Lughnasa brings a shift in light and air that hints at autumn’s coming which I love. July is the hardest month for me because of both too much light and heat – although this year it was the rainiest month and cooler than usual thankfully – so I celebrate this feast as it brings my favorite seasons ahead when I feel more creativity and aliveness.  Wherever you are in the northern hemisphere, you might honor this threshold of turning toward harvest. And

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August 1, 2023

Day 7 Mary Prayer Cycle + Summer Sabbatical ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This week we are pleased release the final video podcast for the Birthing the Holy Prayer Cycle. Day 7 Morning and Evening Prayer honor Madonna Protectress and Mirror of Justice. Here is an excerpt from Day 7 Evening: Opening Prayer Mirror of Justice, you lift up all those on the margins; reflect the justice of Christ who redistributes power structures and gives amplification to the most vulnerable. You call us to solidarity with those who are in need and to remember that our own liberation is intimately entwined with the liberation of the whole human community and

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June 25, 2023

Entering a Relationship with Radiance + Day 6 Mary Prayer Cycle

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We have three treats for you this week! The next installment of our Mary Prayer Cycle video podcasts is now available. Last Spring we created a prayer cycle and audio podcast series to accompany my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal. Today we continue our release of the companion video podcasts for the Birthing the Holy Prayer Cycle with Day 6Morning and Evening Prayer. The full prayer cycle is available here. Day 6 morning and evening prayer takes as its theme Theotokos and Mystical Rose. Theotokos means God-Bearer and invites us to consider all

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June 18, 2023

Where Love Lives Poem + Day 5 Mary Prayer Cycle 

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We have two treats for you today!  The first is the video podcasts from Day 5 of our Birthing the Holy Prayer Cycle.  Last Spring we created a prayer cycle and audio podcast series to accompany my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal. Today we continue our release of the companion video podcasts for the Birthing the Holy Prayer Cycle with Day 5 Morning and Evening Prayer.  Day 5 morning and evening prayer explores Mother of Sorrows and Greenest Branch. Through her own experience with deep grief and loss Mary, Mother of Sorrows tends the

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June 11, 2023