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Category: Abbess love notes

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Monk in the World: Conversion 1 – A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. 7. I commit to a lifetime of ongoing conversion and transformation, recognizing that I am always on a journey with both gifts and limitations. “Translations vary, but in our modern day, conversatio morum suorum generally means conversion of manners, a continuing and unsparing assessment and reassessment of one’s self and what is most important

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Let art, poetry, and music hold you in the paradox of these times ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

In a Dark Time Do not rush to make meaning. When you smile and say what purpose this all serves, you deny grief a room inside you, you turn from thousands who cross into the Great Night alone, from mourners aching to press one last time against the warm flesh of their beloved, from the wailing that echoes in the empty room. When you proclaim who caused this, I say pause, rest in the dark silence first before you contort your words to fill the hollowed out cave, remember the soil will one day receive you back too. Sit where

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Monk in the World: Sabbath 6 – Questions for Reflection and Closing Blessing

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle 6: I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do. This week I invite you to ponder the following questions as guides for your Sabbath practice. What happens when you allow yourself to receive the full grace of Sabbath rest?

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A Different Kind of Fast: Part Seven – Embrace Mystery

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. — from Amiel’s Journal, translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward John Cassian, one of the ancient desert fathers, describes three renunciations he says are required of all of us on the spiritual journey.

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Love Note, Gratitude, and the Soul of a Pilgrim ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, It is safe to say John and I never imagined the final quarter of our sabbatical year would be spent in quarantine and compassionate retreating during a pandemic. Of course, what makes this so unsettling for many of us is how quickly it has spread and all of a sudden our lives are disrupted in ways we hadn’t even imagined a few weeks ago. None of us ever knows what is coming in the next moment. All we can do is practice presence and prepare ourselves to become steady and resilient in the face of

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Monk in the World: Sabbath 5 – Suggestions for Practice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle 6: I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do. Suggestions for Practice See if you can block out one day in the coming week for honoring Sabbath and renewing your spirit.  If not a day, then begin with a

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Love Note, Novena, and Praise Song for the Pandemic ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This is a special love note because these are special times. During this Jubilee year we have been sharing our Monk in the World retreat content in this space and you will find this week’s below. But I felt moved to write to you directly. The global disruption happening demands that our usual patterns and rhythms be disrupted as well. We are experiencing an event unlike anything any of us has ever gone through before. There is much unknowing about the road ahead and where it will take us. We know that there will be

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