Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to introduce the latest in the dancing monk icon series above of St. Francis of Assisi. (I will let you know when prints become available.) The same day that artist Marcy Hall sent me this newest addition, I also stumbled across the poem above in a book I had been asked to review. I was also in the midst of teaching yoga each morning at the Spiritual Directors International conference in Santa Fe, NM. It was one of those happy confluences of events where different passions of mine came together. Following Santa Fe, I

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am still traveling and teaching, so this week I offer you a reprise of another article I wrote for Patheos last year on Practicing Resurrection this Easter season: Lent is a powerful season of transformation. Forty days in the desert, stripped of our comforts, and buoyed by our commitment to daily practice so that we might arrive at the celebration of Easter deepened and renewed. But often, we arrive at the glorious season of resurrection and celebrate for that one day, forgetting it is a span of 50 days, even longer than the Lenten

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Joyous blessings on this celebration of Easter and the season of resurrection stretching out before us! I am in the midst of some travels in the U.S. for about a month which began with a lovely visit to my sister-in-law in South Carolina, and now I am heading to Santa Fe to meet up with a dear friend for a couple of days before the Spiritual Directors International conference begins. Then it will be on to Tulsa, OK for the Awakening the Creative Spirit intensive and Lafayette, LA for a private women’s group. Since I

“Even under its burden / the soul awakes and sings” —Trish Bruxvoort Colligan, from her song “Soul Awakes and Sings” off her just about to be released album Wild Acre) We must risk delight. . . We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil. . . We must admit there will be music despite everything. —Jack Gilbert, “A Brief for the Defense” (excerpt) “I want / to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.” —Pablo Neruda, Love Poem

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a gift!) “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.” —Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I didn’t write a love note last week because I gave myself permission to not send out a newsletter.

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today is the Feast of St. Patrick, a national holiday here in Ireland, and quite a time of celebration. I admit that I have some mixed feelings about Patrick, in part because the celebrating is often an excuse to drink heavily, and because there are so many amazing Irish Saints, but Patrick gets most of the focus (and he wasn’t even Irish), and there is much evidence Christianity was already being practiced here before his arrival. Regardless, it is a perfect day to celebrate the many gifts of Ireland. So it seemed appropriate that Marcy Hall would finish

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a gift!) Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, “Return to me with your whole heart.”  This is the image and invitation with which we are resting for Lent at the Abbey (see our community lectio divina and this week’s invitation to photography). Lent is an invitation toward whole-heartedness.  The heart is an ancient metaphor for the seat of our whole being – to be whole-hearted means to bring our entire selves before God, our intellect, our emotional life, our dreams and intuitions, our deepest longings. Many of us feel divided, in