I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council member and Centering Prayer leader Therese Taylor-Stinson’s reflection Silence and the Oppressed. This article was originally published on NextChurch.net and is reprinted with permission from the author. People of color have engaged in contemplation since the beginning of time, though the term used in a broad sense for spiritual practice is relatively new. The Desert Ammas and Abbas were people of color from the Middle East who fled to the deserts to escape the empire

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council member Kayce Stevens Hughlett’s reflection Being a Monk in the World . “The moment of pause, the point of rest, has its own magic.” Howard Thurman In the wee hours of the morning, I sit and remember how essential the moment of pause is for living as a Monk in the World. This October I am grateful to take a respite from travel and sink into the magic of turning leaves and dry-ish temperate days at

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rosemary McMahan’s reflection and poem Today. As a monk and artist, my primary medium is poetry, crafted in response to the wise instructions of our spiritual ancestor, Pelagius, who advised, “Write down with your own hand on paper what God has written with his hand on the human heart.”  Perhaps there is no more appropriate time for the creation of poetry, or any of the arts, than right now while our world trembles and smolders.  Poetry becomes the microcosm

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Callie J. Smith’s reflection On Birch Branches and Everyday Reminders. A birch tree reaches out over the White River at a point very near my favorite bike trail. A clear view of it opens up from the hilltop north of an interstate bridge. From there I see many branches of many trees, but the birch’s vivid white bark often catches my attention. I first noticed the birch during the pandemic. Though an introvert who enjoys solitude, even

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kellie Brown’s reflection on walking with care in a body that is chronically ill, and her poem Circumambulate. The wise philosopher-teacher of Ecclesiastes wrote: “A generation goes, and a generation comes,/but the earth remains forever.” This passage goes on to describe the circular life of nature— the sun that rises and sets, the water that flows in then out, the wind that goes “round and round.” Ancient and modern monastics have been keenly attuned to the lessons

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council member Dena Jennings’ reflection on making and sharing music as a spiritual practice. I was 12 years old in 1976. It was an election year and the bicentennial celebration of the United States. My parents were community leaders in Akron, Ohio, the Rubber Capital of the World. There were more events and parades that year than I had known. My oldest sister was a beautiful majorette in an award-winning high school band. And my middle

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kelly Sollinger’s reflection and poem on finding silence. The days leading up to this poem brought one heartbreak after another. I was dealing with personal griefs in the midst of serving as a pastoral presence to a community enduring an impossible loss. Early one morning I fled the house and the phone and the email, desperately seeking an inner silence that eluded me. The longer I walked, the more I became aware of the birds. At first,