Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, John Cassian, one of the early theologians in the Christian church, writes about what he calls the three renunciations. In her book Thoughts Matter, Mary Margaret Funk describes his teaching:  “First, we must renounce our former way of life and move closer to our heart’s desire, toward the interior life. Second, we must do the inner work (of asceticism) by renouncing our mindless thoughts.…Third, and finally, we must renounce our own images of God so that we can enter into contemplation of God as God.” Renunciations are a kind of fast. They are an intentional giving

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Lent is a six-and-a-half-week liturgical season in the Christian year which precedes the Feast of Easter Sunday.  Beginning with Ash Wednesday when people are marked with ashes as a symbol of our humility and desire to be stripped of anything extraneous in our lives to move into a more intimate relationship with the divine. The season takes its inspiration from Jesus’ retreat to the desert for forty days before he began his public ministry. He sets down the foundation for fasting as an important preparation for the Easter season to come. Lent is a time of

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Ash Wednesday is this week and we will embark on our Lenten journey The Love of Thousands: Honoring Angels, Saints, and Ancestors.  Many of you feel a deep kinship with Abbey of the Arts because of our love of mystics and the saints and the ways we cultivate connections to those wise guides beyond the veil. This happens in many ways including pilgrimage, presence, and . . . relics. Relics may seem just like that – relics of another era, but these bits of clothing, hair, nails, and bones of the saint that have been revered

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Ash Wednesday is March 2nd and when will embark on our Lenten journey The Love of Thousands: Honoring Angels, Saints, and Ancestors. Two significant things about this retreat – first it is content I am working on for a book that will be published in fall 2023 around some of my favorite topics.   The second is that I will be having a major surgery in March and will be recovering through April, so we are only hosting one live session for the community to begin the journey. The rest of the content will be delivered through written