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Category: Abbess love notes

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Queering Contemplation + Soul of a Pilgrim Video Podcast Day 3 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Blessings on this Feast of Pentecost! To read a reflection on Pentecost and holy surprise from our archives, please click here.  Today we release the Day 3 video podcasts for our Soul of a Pilgrim prayer cycle. The themes for morning and evening prayer are The Practice of Crossing the Threshold.  On Friday we are hosting Cassidy Hall who will lead a program for us called Queering Contemplation. We invited her to explain what she means by “queering” and how everyone is invited to join us:   Read the reflection below or listen to Cassidy in an audio version. Hello dear artists, monks, poets, theologians, wanderers,

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May 19, 2024

Soul of a Pilgrim Video Podcast Day 2

Blessing for Packing Lightly*Winnowing God, you ask us to release, let go, surrender, and yield all that we canin service of making space for what is most essential. The more we set aside that which burdens us and takes up too much spacethe more room opens within us for wonder and gratitude to flourish,the more we find the freedom to see the world as enchanted. Sustain us on the path of simplifying our livesand traveling on this Earth more lightlyso that we no longer live beyond what can be sustained.As we continue on the pilgrim’s path, unencumbered by so many

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May 12, 2024

Soul of a Pilgrim Video Prayer Cycle Day 1 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Our Yes to the Journey*Holy Traveller, bless our sacred yes to the call you have whispered to us,whether a call to new adventure or the call that arises out of loss,we know you journey with us, guiding us on the way of imagination to new paths. May we travel with intention, being conscious of encountering you in each step,in each stranger, in each moment of disorientation. We ask you to bless our feet, that they carry us forward in this season to new possibilities. Bless our hands, that they might help us give form to our creative

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May 5, 2024

Abbey of the Arts Celebrates 18 Years!

Today we celebrate 18 years since Abbey of the Arts was created. In its first year it was a blog called The Sacred Art of Living where I was retraining myself to write for a broader audience after my highly academic training. A few months in and I realized what I was writing my way toward was a virtual monastery.  In those first few years I was teaching theology at Seattle University and also served as Program Coordinator for the Ignatian Spirituality Center in Seattle, and while I did love that work, my heart was longing for something different. I

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May 2, 2024

Blessing of the Elements ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Blessing of the Elements*Wild Elemental One,bless us through your gifts of wind, fire, water, and earth. May we awaken to new life each dawnand feel your holy breath sustaining us.Let the breezes whisper their secrets and the winds strip away what is no longer needed. May we bless the sky with our reaching,the clouds a witness to our becoming. May we feel the living flame of loveburning in our hearts.Let the sun warm and illumine usand may the ash that remainsfrom the fire bring us new clarity. May we bless the fire with our passionletting all that sparks and blazes

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April 28, 2024

St Patrick and Answering the Call ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Coming Home*Godde of Homecomings,our lives are a pilgrimage journeyseeking the discovery of home in the world. We travel, not in straight lines, but in circles and spirals, revisiting old patternsand ways of being that need healing,trusting in life’s unfinished nature, but also our deep desires of the heart calling usto re-orient ourselves again and again. Magnify our visionso that each journey we make leads to expanded growth and wisdom.Help us to continue to dive into the refreshing river of life,allowing the current to carry us closer to you. Carve out in us a space for both grief

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April 21, 2024

St Colman, Solitude, and Pilgrimage ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Pilgrimage Blessing*Journeying One,you help us to navigate the path, placing one foot in front of the other, even when the way ahead is not visible. We set aside our desire for maps, GPS, and guidebooksand surrender to an inner knowing and directionsparked by the deepest longings of our hearts. We know the desire for new life we feel has been kindled by you.May we surrender our need to steer the courseand let every step we take carry us into greater intimacy with you.Help us to see others as fellow pilgrims on the waywith their own fears and struggles.Compel us to

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April 14, 2024

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To Be is a Blessing: An Online Retreat for Advent
To Be is a Blessing: An Online Retreat for Advent
1 Dec 24
Contemplative Prayer Service: Community
Contemplative Prayer Service: Community
9 Dec 24
Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer
18 Dec 24

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