Stop by this link to read W.S. Merwin’s poem “To the New Year” Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I offer you a reprise of my reflection on Embracing Mystery in the New Year: Ten Essential Practices. 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. -Henri-Frederic

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today is the feast day of Thomas Merton and I share with you this excerpt from my book Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics: “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.” (Merton in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander) I first read

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, On Thursday is the feast of Dorothy Day, so I share with you this excerpt from my book Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics about her: In an editorial, she described the mission of the Catholic Worker she helped to found: “For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight. For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain. For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work. For those who think that there is no hope for

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, The United States celebrates the feast of Thanksgiving this week. I have always loved this time of gratefulness and sharing with loved ones. My heart overflows with gratitude for this beautiful community we have created together. I delight daily in knowing there are dancing monks all over the world. The 5th century monk and mystic Benedict of Nursia counsels in his Rule for monastic life an attitude of contentment among his community. Whatever the circumstances they find themselves in, they are to find some satisfaction with what is in the moment. In a world of