I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rev. Roger Butts’ reflection “This Realm of Love.” Jesus’ Sermon on the Mountain impacts me deeply. His beatitudes bring me fresh inspiration to face the day and find my way. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who mourn. I love the rhythm. I love the aspiration. I love the vision. On a gorgeous, sunny, blue autumn day, I noticed how the sun washed all things in beauty. I thought of all the blessings I encountered. I

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s reflection “following feelings . . . “ I have always felt that, for a photographer obsessed with ways of seeing, I am particularly poor at discernment.  Having studied English at university, I know intellectual techniques for picking apart intertextual meanings, and I have been trained how to read nuance, tone and voice.  I am fascinated by how people tell their own stories, in whatever form or language.  Yet cajoling my heart into a listening openness, when years

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for John Spiesman’s reflection “Dream, Dream, Dream.” As noted by Christine Valters Paintner in The Soul’s Slow Ripening (Sorin, 2018), dreams were respected as signs and invitations from God to a calling bigger than our human mind could possibly imagine (p. 13). Dreams, as Christine notes, give us insight into the soul’s longings – and call us to say yes to gifts and calls which can only be born through us.  This is echoed by the Rev. Bob Haden in Unopened Letters from

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Laurel Pepin’s reflection, “My spiritual practice of receiving light.” In the beginning was light. The light of the universe, brought into being in an unimaginably short moment. Light and energy, energy and mass, in the beginning interchangeable. For me it’s all about the light. Light, the energy that holds together the particles, that hold together atoms, that holds together me. Light energy from supernovae, possibly the single source of matter that makes up stones, cardinals, seaweed, bone.

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Emily Lasinsky’s reflection “Being a Teacher-Monk in the World.”  My identity is deeply rooted in being a creator. Integrated within this identity are the roles of artist, writer, and teacher. At the time of writing this, I am starting to prepare my undergraduate psychology classes for the fall semester. For this post, I will share how I practice being a monk in the world as a teacher.  My philosophy of teaching, greatly influenced by Parker Palmer, Brené Brown,

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rochelle Rawson Naylor’s reflection on grief and living with a loved one who has dementia. The journey of grief is often seen as beginning at a fixed point in time with a loved one’s death, whether after a long illness or occurring suddenly.  From that time forward, life is different – there is an emptiness – an inertia – an unremitting sadness.  Eventually, though, flashes of sunlight begin to appear and become more frequent.  The weight of grief grows