Welcome to the Abbey Photo Party! I select a theme and invite you to respond with images. Our theme here at Abbey of the Arts for October is hospitality, so I invite you to reflect visually on what either inner or outer hospitality – that radical act of welcoming in what feels most strange as the face of the holy – looks like for you.  You can share images you already have, but I encourage you also to go for a walk with the theme in mind and see what you discover. How to participate: 1. Go to the Flickr Group I have created (when you go

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for he is going to say:  I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt. 25:35). —Rule of St Benedict 53:1-2 For the month of October, we turn our attention to the principle of hospitality, as found in the Monk Manifesto: 2. I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others. The Abbey will be hosting a monthly

A deep bow of gratitude again to everyone who participated in last week’s Photo Party. I was so moved by the visual expressions of silence I decided to create a short visual meditation. First, my apologies that I couldn’t include everyone’s photos. There were so many amazing ones.  I wanted the video to be under five minutes and have long enough to linger on each image so as to have a contemplative feeling to it, therefore I was limited in the number. I will be doing this again, so know that I hope to include more of you in the future. 

There is something spectacular about the grace of silence.   Starting this month, September, the Abbey is going to feature a monthly theme (click over to the Abbey blog to see the beautiful icon).  This month we are exploring silence, the first principle of the Monk Manifesto: “I commit to finding moments each day for silence and solitude, to make space for another voice to be heard, and to resist a culture of noise and constant stimulation.” Each month for the next seven months, we will take one of the Monk Manifesto themes for the entire month and it will shape