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Category: Abbess love notes

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Embrace the Wisdom of the Sacred Feminine ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am back home in Ireland now after my six weeks away for surgery and recovery in Vienna. I am really grateful to be back with sweet Sourney and the quiet rhythms and comforts of home. My body still needs more healing time so I will keep going slowly in the weeks to come. I continue to be enormously grateful for your prayers.  This time away has been so many things. A welcome return to an ancestral city I love so much after two years of pandemic-restricted travel. A season of grieving the loss of

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Cause of Our Joy: She Who is the Source of Delight ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, On Monday, May 2nd we will be hosting a contemplative prayer service that will also serve as a launch of my new book, the companion album, and our wonderful new prayer cycle on Mary and the Wisdom of the Sacred Feminine.  In celebration of these resources being birthed into the world, I offer you an excerpt from my book Birthing the Holy on one of my favorite of Mary’s titles – Cause of Our Joy: When the angel Gabriel visits Mary, he tells her to “Rejoice!” When Mary and Elizabeth meet while they are both pregnant, John the Baptist leaps with rejoicing in

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Easter and the Elements ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Happy Easter and Feast of the Resurrection! I am delighted to share that my assistant Melinda, whom you may know from our online programs and yoga practices, is leading a mini-retreat on Saturday, April 23rd themed around yoga and the elements. Read on for her reflection on Easter and the 5 great elements.  When I asked my eight year old son if he knew what Easter was about he said, “God coming back.” After nearly two years away from church and Sunday School I thought this was pretty on the mark. We briefly talked about love never

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Health Update from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am doing quite well with my recovery from surgery two and a half weeks ago now. My incision has healed up well. My pain has transitioned more to discomfort and I can walk about 10-15 blocks. I am still going very gently but the doctor highly recommended walking along with resting. So thankfully since the weather has been lovely here we walk each day to an outdoor spot for lunch. This time of healing is a gift and I continue to be so grateful for all of your prayers. I feel the presence of

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The Space Between ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today we enter Holy Week. This week ahead in the Christian scriptures invites us into a world full of betrayal, abandonment, mockery, violence, and ultimately death. The Triduum, those three sacred days which constitute one unfolding liturgy, call us to experience communion, loss, and the border spaces of unknowing. Holy Saturday is an invitation to make a conscious passage through the liminal realm of in-between. I love the wide space of Holy Saturday that lingers between the suffering and death of Jesus on Friday and the vigil Saturday night proclaiming the return of the Easter fire.

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A Poetic and Mythic Approach to Mary ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am thrilled that my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal is being published this Friday, April 8th. (Also mark your calendars for our May 2nd contemplative prayer service where I will be joined by Simon de Voil, Soyinka Rahim, Betsey Beckman, and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan to launch my book, the album, and the forthcoming prayer cycle).  In the meantime, this excerpt is from the introduction and explains how the archetypes shapes my approach to writing about Mary’s names and titles:  Mary has gone by many names in the Christian tradition. My approach to these names is

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Monk Manifesto + Updated Artwork ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

Dearest monk, artists, and pilgrims, I want to share a brand new video for our Monk Manifesto principles! We originally had our wonderful companion illustrations created about twelve years ago. They were delightful but in recent times, with our own growing awareness, we have realized they could be even more inclusive of a diversity of people than they were. Abbey of the Arts is committed to its own ongoing growth and transformation! See principle #7 of conversion which is all about being on a lifelong journey of discovery.   So we were delighted to find illustrator Quynh Nguyen and loved her playful, colorful style (she

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