[siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Button_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] Dearest monks and artists, This week we are delighted to share with you the audio podcasts for Day 4 morning and evening prayer of our Monk in the World prayer cycle on the theme of Work. We hope that you are enjoying being able to pray with us in this way! On May 13th – the feast of Julian of Norwich – I will be leading a Zoom mini-retreat on Julian and Margery Kempe with Mary Sharratt whose new novel Revelations about these two remarkable women was published last month. I am delighted to share this reflection from

St Kevin Holds Opens His Hand by Christine Valters Paintner from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo. [siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Button_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] St. Kevin Holds Open His Hand Imagine being like Kevin. Your grasping fist softens, fingers uncurl and palms open, rest upward, and the blackbird weaves twigs and straw and bits of string in the bowl of your hand, you feel the delicate weight of speckled blue orbs descend, and her feathered warmth settling in. How many days can you stay, open, waiting for the shell to fissure and crack, awaiting the slow emergence of tiny gaping mouths and slick wings that

Dearest monks and artists, Thomas Merton, the 20th century Trappist monk, knew that the true mentor of the soul was nature itself. The fields, sun, mud, clay, wind, forests, sky, earth, and water are all companions for our own inner journeys. The elements of water, wind, earth, and fire offer us wisdom and guidance. They are the original soul friends. Air is the gift of breath we receive in each moment, the rhythm of life sustaining us. Fire is the gift of life force and energy and we might call to mind St. John of the Cross’ image of God