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Reflections

Category: Contemplative Living

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A Monk in the World

One of the ways we become intimate with the fire in our lives is to explore our passions, our deepest desires, the commitments which make our hearts burn with love.  The mystics across traditions describe God as the spark or flame dwelling in each of our hearts, the source of infinite compassion.  When we live from the heart – which is where Ignatius of Loyola said that God plants our deepest desires – we become a temple of fire and reveal the splendor of God to the world. I feel deeply blessed to be intimate with my own deepest desires,

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Pondering

I have been feeling tired this week, unwell, my body feels tender and fatigued and so I am taking extra care of myself.  My spirit is also feeling tender, in part because my body is vulnerable, but also because of the tragic events in Haiti, my mother-in-law’s gradual decline with dementia, and some much smaller personal struggles where I am being called to stand in my own strength in ways that are stretching me. I find myself drawn back again and again to this statue I posted last week (the images below are close-ups).  I am so moved by the

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“I need to be silent / for a while”

All beings are words of God, His music, His art. Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps in our souls. Every act reveals God and expands His being. I know that may be hard to comprehend. All creatures are doing their best to help God in His birth of Himself. Enough talk for the night. He is laboring in me; I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart. -Meister Eckhart It has been a full week and I find myself longing for less words, more silence.  The photo above is of a marvelous

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Discovering the True Self

A couple of weeks ago I had my first Thai massage session. It is different than traditional Swedish style massage in that you are fully clothed and lay on a mat.  The massage practitioner stretches your body in different directions to help release tension.  There is also a lot of rhythmic rocking so that the body relaxes deeply. While we were in the midst of the work, the woman who was giving me the massage commented that I surrendered very easily.  She said most people have a lot of resistance to complete relaxation and releasing into her hold. The next day I

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Going on Retreat

How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice-masters. They form our contemplation. They instill us with virtue. They make us as stable as the land we live in.  -Thomas Merton On this night of the full moon, I am off for a few days of retreat with my spiritual director Abbess Petunia.  I will be listening to the wind, rain, and sunlight for their sacred whispers.  I will root myself among trees and allow the call of

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The Table as Altar

Two weeks ago I went to a Shabbat dinner at the home of my good friend who is also a rabbi.  On occasion she will invite her “women of faith” friends to celebrate this welcoming in of the Sabbath so central to Jewish life and ritual.  There we were, one Jewish rabbi, one Benedictine Oblate, two ordained Methodist ministers, and two Tibetan Buddhists (one of whom has taken robes). We gathered around the table lighting the Shabbat candles while singing a Buddhist mantra.  We read the prayers in Hebrew, washed our hands, and broke the challah bread and drank wine.  As

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Shabbat and Shavasana

On returning from our summer travels I recommitted myself to a deeper exploration of two practices — Sabbath-keeping and yoga.  I believe so strongly in the power of Sabbath, as a witness to a different way of being in the world, as an act of humility that says the world will get by if I lay down my work for a while, as a time to remember who we were created to be. Moving more deeply into a yoga practice is really a reclaiming for me of something that once played a more significant role in my life.  There are

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