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Reflections

Category: Advent Christmas Epiphany

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The Wisdom of Mary ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, During Advent we consider Mary in a special way, especially her role as the one who birthed Jesus into the world. This image of birthing the holy has long been close to my heart.  Our featured self-study retreat for December is the companion retreat to my book Birthing the Holy in which I explore 31 archetypes and images of Mary. Simon, Jamie, and I will also be leading a contemplative prayer service tomorrow on the theme of Mary as Mirror of Justice.  Here is an excerpt from the book: Mary appears throughout the Gospels, most notably at the beginning

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December 7, 2025

Advent Invitations ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today the sacred season of Advent begins! We stand at the threshold of a potent time when we are invited to move inward to listen to the Divine presence in a deeper way and then stand in the wonder of holy birthing for the Christmas season.  Thresholds are powerful times to listen anew for the whispers of the holy in your life and how you are being invited to move and breathe and have your being.  I love doors and portals and what they represent.  While I have mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions,

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November 30, 2025

Returning from Sabbatical ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, My time of sabbatical from teaching is come to a close. During my writing time I was able to complete two manuscripts: a fourth collection of poetry titled What Enters Through the Open Heart (to be published by Monkfish Publishing in fall 2026) and a book of devotions for the Easter season about practicing resurrection (to be published by Broadleaf Books in spring 2027). I also completed the final edits for A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Pilgrims, and Artists (being published by Ave Maria Press in February 2026!) And of course my newest

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November 23, 2025

Christmas and New Year Blessings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Christmas Blessing*This blessing dances at the doorwayof light and dark, knows both as sacred:fertile womb space, miracle of blooming.This blessing breathesthrough those moments of laborwhen you too birth the holyinto this fragile, luminous, hurting worldas Mary did two thousand years ago,eyes wide, hands gripping,waters breaking like crashing wavesof the primordial seasending a prayer through timethat echoes still,pulsing like starlightin an enormous sky.This blessing rests a handon the back of the lonely disoriented lost hungry despairing persecutedto say your humanity is not an obstaclebut a threshold, to remind youthat the wound is a portalthrough which your gifts pour forth,that raw

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December 22, 2024

Winter Solstice Blessing ~ A Love from Your Online Abbess

Winter Solstice*Holy One of the turning earth,we watch the daily pilgrimage of the sunas its journey grows shorter and shorter.Bears, bats, and hedgehogs restwhile swallows and swifts have already migrated south again. Cold air, bare branches, blankets and shawls,the growing quiet calls us to our own retreat. Then a bell rings out across the hemisphere,the diminishment pauses, then slowly shiftsand we imagine our ancestors standingin the heart of winter’s cold darknesswith faces upward in awe each year as your brilliance begins to brighten the sky for longer each day, gold beams tumbling like treasure. We know on this day the

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December 15, 2024

A Spirituality of Blessing for Advent ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Paradise*Sacred Source of Joy,help us to see glimpses of heaven all around us, in the urgency of each spring’s blooming,in the simple gifts of water to bathe in and drink,in our morning tea or coffee,steam rising in prayer,in the dog’s pleading eyes,or the warm embrace of a friend,in the food which nourishes usand the herbs given freely for healing. May we behold the way sunlight illumines and moonlight glows,may we treasure moments of laughter.May we see Paradise shimmering forth wherever we look, savoring moments of ease and hope in whatever forms they take, to strengthen and nourish

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December 1, 2024

Gratitude Blessing + The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 7~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Gratitude Blessing*Spirit of Generosity,we come to you with hearts overflowing with gratitudefor your abundant creation.As we awaken each morning, help us to remember this day is a gift,this breath is grace,this life a wonder. Remind us with every flower we see,every act of kindness,every moment of connection to something so much biggerthan ourselves,to whisper thank you. Cultivate in us a sense of aweand trust in your lavish grace. Let each word of thanks we offer expand our heartsuntil delight inhabits usand we know loveas our sustenance. Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, The 5th century monk and mystic Benedict of

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November 24, 2024