I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Celeste Boudreaux’s reflection and poem on the Iona Nunnery. I thought I was prepared for a week’s retreat on the historic island of Iona, after all that I had read about it and all the photos and virtual tours I had seen. But when I caught my first sight of its eastern shore from the ferry on June 7, 2025, it took my breath away. And as soon as I set foot on this island, all my

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Michelle Estep’s reflection Your Soul is a Garden. The garden sanctuary often speaks to the contemplative – the birthplace of Creation with its ancient calling towards beauty, rejuvenation and abundance. Eden becomes a place for the senses and a place for the spirit, an experiential journey to know the One Who Knows Us; which is why so many of us sojourners seek refuge in the sanctuary of the garden space.  In moments of disequilibrium I flee to

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Christina Lelache’s visual art reflection on creating your own prayer book. In her book, In the Sanctuary of Women, Jan Richardson tells about the discovery of prayer books that belonged to a convent of Cistercian sisters. Handcrafted by the nuns, each book was distinctive to the woman who had used it, each prayer and page reflecting her spiritual journey as she sought God in the layers of her life. Creating the books offered the sisters a way to

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Shirin McArthur’s reflection on liturgical dance and Embodied Prayer. Words are my stock in trade. They are a necessary and integral part of how I make my living as a writer and editor. But sometimes, I intentionally don’t use words. I created Embodied Prayer, which is worship with movement instead of words, as an intentional counterbalance to my world of words.  I first encountered movement prayer in the church of my youth. In the 1970s, St. Andrew Presbyterian