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Category: Monk in the World

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Monk in the World Video Podcasts (Hospitality) + Breath Prayer ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We continue our exploration of the Monk in the World Prayer Cycle Video Podcasts with morning and evening prayer for Day 2: Hospitality. Hospitality invites us to welcome the stranger both within and without. The ancient practice of breath prayer is a lovely way to engage with the principle of hospitality. The reflection below comes from my new book Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred to be released in the US and Canada on Oct 12th.  I surrender the ache, and the worry. Breathe in stillness, breathe out anxiety. Monks used to awaken

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Monk in the World Video Podcasts being released! ~A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, We are thrilled to start releasing the Monk in the World Video Podcasts today beginning with Day 1 on Silence and Solitude. We will bring you morning and evening prayer for each day over the next seven weeks. Inspired by the principles of the Monk Manifesto we created the 7-day prayer cycle in the spring and released the audio podcasts then. Now we are adding the video versions – created by Betsey Beckman – for those of you who prefer visual guidance and want to dance along with the gesture prayers Betsey has created for each song and prayer

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Monk in the World Podcast + Harriet Tubman Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Silence & Solitude: Day 1 Morning and Evening Prayer Dearest monks and artists, We are thrilled to be able to start releasing the Monk in the World prayer cycle podcast to you weekly from now through Pentecost Sunday. Each week we will post a morning and evening prayer. This first week is focused on the first principle of our Monk Manifesto Silence & Solitude. I am enormously grateful to dear friend, minister, musician, and Abbey Wisdom Council member, Simon de Voil for putting these podcasts together with such a loving and attentive ear. Many of you have sent us notes

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Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living

We are so excited to be launching our brand new album! We have been working on Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living for about a year now. The Monk Manifesto is a set of 8 principles for contemplative, creative, and compassionate living. It is the Rule of Life for the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks community at Abbey of the Arts. We embrace the practices of Silence and Solitude, Hospitality, Community, Kinship with Creation, Work, Sabbath, Conversion, and Creative Joy. In our last album (Earth, Our Original Monastery) we explored Kinship with Creation. This album is an opportunity

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Monk in the World: Creative Joy 6 ~ Reflection Questions and Closing Blessing from Christine

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, Thank you for journeying with us through the Monk in the World reflections this year while we have been on our Jubilee sabbatical. Today I offer reflection questions and a closing blessing for principle 8. Principle 8. I commit to being a dancing monk, cultivating creative joy and letting my body and “heart overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.”* (*quote from The Rule of St. Benedict.) Questions for Reflection How might a daily practice of gratitude help you to notice the grace of the ordinary in your life? Are there creative pursuits which call

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Monk in the World: Creative Joy 4 ~ Guided Movement Practice by Christine – A Love Note from your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. This is our eighth and final principle that we will explore for the next six weeks. Principle 8. I commit to being a dancing monk, cultivating creative joy and letting my body and “heart overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.” *quote is from the Prologue of the Rule of Benedict. Movement Practice Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and

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Monk in the World: Creative Joy 3 ~ Special CinemaDivina from Marilyn Freeman

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, The Good Zeal of Monks  is a villanelle inspired by the Rule of Benedict, chapter 72. Good Zeal is from CinemaDivina, contemplative video essays created especially for lectio divina practice. I am so pleased to introduce Marilyn Freeman who is a filmmaker in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. whom I first met at St. Placid Priory in Lacey, WA, where Marilyn and I are Benedictine oblates. She has a true monastic heart and she brings it to a beautiful spiritual practice she calls CinemaDivina. Rooted in the contemplative prayer and listening of lectio divina,

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