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Reflections

Category: Abbess love notes

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Update on Writing Projects ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I thought I would share with you some of the writing projects I am involved in at the moment. This has been a very fruitful time for books with my poetry collection Love Holds You coming out last spring from Paraclete Press, then The Love of Thousands on honoring angels, saints, and ancestors being published in August from Ave Maria Press, and I have a book coming out in January 2024 with Broadleaf Books titled A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent which is now available for pre-order.  Right now, I am finalizing the edits to my

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September 17, 2023

Yoga and the Creative Spirit ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This coming Friday, September 15th Abbey Program Coordinator Melinda Thomas will be leading a mini-retreat on Yoga and the Creative Spirit. Melinda has been with the Abbey for almost ten years and has taught monthly classes (now available as a self-study) and workshops, contributed to our retreats, and moderates the Sustainers Circle forum. Read on for Melinda’s reflection on the relationship between yoga and creativity.  “There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life – including ourselves. When we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.” ~

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September 10, 2023

Join Our Sustainers Circle or Make a Tax-Deductible Donation

We also have some exciting news – our Abbey of the Arts – Prayer Cycle, Book Club, and Scholarship Fund is now a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, an arts-centered not-for-profit in the U.S. which means that any of our U.S.-based dancing monks who want to donate to support our scholarships and free programs can now get a tax-deductible receipt. You can visit our Donation page for more details. Another way to support the Abbey is to join our Sustainers Circle and receive access to our programs based on the level of support you choose. Enrollment is open through September 30th. Please note that we are

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September 7, 2023

Deep Calls Unto Deep: Exploring the Psalms ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We are very excited to be welcoming Simon de Voil and David Wallace to teach a four-week series on the psalms starting this week. I hope you will consider joining them for an exploration of these ancient texts and their spiritual meaning for us today.  _______ My dear fellow seekers, I’m writing from the Atlantic coast of New England, watching the cadence of waves soothe and splash as over and over they act out their universal destiny.  I’ve come to Maine to attend the memorial of a beloved cousin felled young by pancreatic cancer, and the

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September 3, 2023

Join Our Sustainers Circle ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, One of my heart’s great joys is the global nature of this community. To know that there are monks and artists spread all over the world who commit to this way of life brings me tremendous comfort and encouragement.  I feel grateful daily for this vibrant and meaningful work and the amazing people I get to collaborate with to help create our programs and offerings. I am thankful every day for you and for the many notes of encouragement I receive about what our work means to you.  In October we will be adding a

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August 27, 2023

The Cloud of Unknowing and the Greening Power of Contemplation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Last spring I received an email from my editor at Broadleaf Books to connect me with Carmen Acevedo Butcher who had a new translation of Brother Lawrence’s writings out. That connection was such a gift as I have been a fan of Carmen’s work for years, having especially loved her work with the women mystics.  We went on to record a conversation about The Practice of the Presence for our book club and found Carmen to be not only a wise teacher of contemplative practice, but a beautiful human being full of kindness and enthusiasm. A friendship

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August 20, 2023

Love Holds You Poetry and WritingMini-Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Whatever I Find hidden among the stones piled by lake’s edge — a beetle, a coin, a candy wrapper — let it be a portent, a cypher. Let me seek a new direction among what is hidden, lost, discarded, rather than always grasping at some bright, invisible future. —Christine Valters Paintner, Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This coming Friday, I am delighted to be leading an online program, hosted by Mercy by the Sea retreat center, called Love Holds You: Yielding to the Sacred Presence through Poetry and Writing. This mini-retreat

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August 13, 2023

Upcoming Programs

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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