Word for Today: Essence Anytime we have a desert experience in our lives, something is stripped away. It may be loss of possessions, loss of identity, or loss of a loved one….This stripping away forces us to return to the essence of things. We are thrust into the arms of what is most sacred to us. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: How can you practice this kind of letting go every day?   Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words

Word for Today: Beauty If we’re really honest with ourselves, in a world where terrible things happen there must be room made for doubt. We must give ourselves and others space to wrestle with the essential questions of our lives. Believing in times of beauty and transcendence leads us to the idea there must also be room for something bigger than what we traditionally call faith or belief. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What are the unknown shores beckoning to you? Might you yield your resistance and desire for

Word for Today: Simplicity The invitation from the desert elders is to practice simplicity first. When we find this simplicity, they believed, we find true life. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What brings you to life?       Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing on social media. Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group to share your art and writing with others. Name your commitment to creative practice in the comments at this post (and

Word for Today: Fasting Fasting isn’t just for its own sake….Fasting is really an invitation to authentic freedom. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective question: What are the things in your life, from material possessions to personal beliefs, which weigh you down and restrict you, obscuring your search for God? What ideas about yourself keep you limited from everything you can be in your life?   Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing on social media. Join the Holy Disorder

Word for Today: Freedom Asceticism, at its heart center, is about letting go of everything that keeps us from God and moving us along a journey toward authentic freedom. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What things distract you from focusing on God? What can you do to increase the level of silence in your life so that you might hear God more clearly?   Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing on social media. Join the Holy Disorder

Word for Today: Discern Pilgrimage demands preparation. There is much letting go that needs to happen. Packing bags means we need to discern what to carry with us and what to leave behind. This is one of the great gifts of pilgrimage; an invitation to discern what is essential. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What keeps you from the great adventure life is calling you to? What kinds of attitudes, beliefs, expectations and stories you tell about yourself need to be released to travel more lightly? Next steps: Let the word,