Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, I wrote this reflection last Sunday morning, Mother’s Day in the U.S.: Each day John and I walk with Sourney up the canal and down the river that slice through Galway. Yesterday the swan we’ve seen nesting across the smooth water for several weeks was out with her new babies, five tiny grey cygnets swimming behind her as she searched for food. Back at home, the starlings have nested again outside our building in the large fuchsia bushes as they do each May. The young ones old enough to fly come to our balcony with

In a Dark Time Do not rush to make meaning. When you smile and say what purpose this all serves, you deny grief a room inside you, you turn from thousands who cross into the Great Night alone, from mourners aching to press one last time against the warm flesh of their beloved, from the wailing that echoes in the empty room. When you proclaim who caused this, I say pause, rest in the dark silence first before you contort your words to fill the hollowed out cave, remember the soil will one day receive you back too. Sit where

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, It is safe to say John and I never imagined the final quarter of our sabbatical year would be spent in quarantine and compassionate retreating during a pandemic. Of course, what makes this so unsettling for many of us is how quickly it has spread and all of a sudden our lives are disrupted in ways we hadn’t even imagined a few weeks ago. None of us ever knows what is coming in the next moment. All we can do is practice presence and prepare ourselves to become steady and resilient in the face of

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This is a special love note because these are special times. During this Jubilee year we have been sharing our Monk in the World retreat content in this space and you will find this week’s below. But I felt moved to write to you directly. The global disruption happening demands that our usual patterns and rhythms be disrupted as well. We are experiencing an event unlike anything any of us has ever gone through before. There is much unknowing about the road ahead and where it will take us. We know that there will be