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Category: Prayer Cycle

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Gratitude Blessing + The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 7~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Gratitude Blessing*Spirit of Generosity,we come to you with hearts overflowing with gratitudefor your abundant creation.As we awaken each morning, help us to remember this day is a gift,this breath is grace,this life a wonder. Remind us with every flower we see,every act of kindness,every moment of connection to something so much biggerthan ourselves,to whisper thank you. Cultivate in us a sense of aweand trust in your lavish grace. Let each word of thanks we offer expand our heartsuntil delight inhabits usand we know loveas our sustenance. Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, The 5th century monk and mystic Benedict of

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Spirituality of Blessings and The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 6 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Creativity*Spirit of Holy Imagination,we ask you to bless our visionwith the wisdom to see what is possible. Help us trust our desire to createthrough color, word, shape, gesture, and song. When our fingers trembleat picking up a pen or marker,connect us to the joy of playing on the white page, drawing,doodling, dabbling, dreaming,letting our livesbe a canvas for expression. When judgments ariseand the inner critic yells, guide us to hear our intuitionswhispering the way aheadwith quiet confidence. When our feet feel restless,inspire us to play music and dance freely until peace descends again. Connect us to the

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What I Know + Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 5 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, There is much uncertainty and unknown right now. Many of us are in deep grief and I encourage you to bestow lavish hospitality on all of your feelings – let your rage, sadness, despair, confusion, and more have space in you. Move your body, let her speak its wisdom, and give yourself the gift of as much rest as possible.  What I do know is that our commitment to a contemplative path does make a difference. Keep showing up with presence to what is real and true. Cherish what is beautiful and kind. Commit to the slowness

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Hospitality + The Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 4 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Hospitality* Holy Presence of God,you shimmer in every stranger I encounterwhether in the world or in my heart.When you came in human formyou sat at table with all those who walked the edgesof life and knew their presence as sacred.Create in me a space to welcome inall that is hard and disorienting,those moments when I feel lost, angry,heartbroken, overwhelmed, ashamed,joyful, grieving, or in love with life.Help me to honor the guests who arrive at the door,to usher in the grace that newness offersand find Christ’s compassionate presence there.May your infinite compassion grow in methe way sunlight spills across a field,and

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Samhain Retreat + Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 3 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Blessing of the Saints* May the communion of saintsshower you with blessings,may you seek their guidancein moments of illness, confusion, gratitude.We remember their own struggles,living their humanity, enfleshed and tender.We ask those across the threshold to pray for usknowing what it is to be wounded.Call on the canonized saints,Benedict, Francis, Ignatius, Hildegard,Thea Bowman, Oscar Romero,and the saints of spirit,Howard Thurman, Dorothy Day,and thousands of otherswho witnessed to another way of being,who helped to build a community of love.Let them tether us to their earthiness,and remind us of the holinessof bone and blood, the grace of our bodiesin bringing love to

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Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 2 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Wrestling with Angels*You have knownthe long nights of wrestlingwith mysterious beings,your breath hard and fast,your heart poundinglike furious wings. The dark seems to stretch foreverand you wonder how longyou will be in the gripof this powerful stranger,how long you will have to hold on. Then slowly the black pool above yougives way to violet, fuchsia, tangerineand you feel your hip wounded,throbbing, pulsing with pain,know you will be limpingfor many years to come,but before letting goyou make your demand: Bless me, your voice thundersand the being erupts into golden lightso glad that you had finally asked.A new name

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Soul of a Pilgrim Video Prayer Cycle Day 7 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Today we release the final day of the Soul of a Pilgrim video podcasts on the theme of Coming Home. We hope you enjoy these resources which we offer as a free gift to this wondrous community. If you are able to offer financial support so we can continue creating these resources, please click here. We are enormously grateful for all of your support in so many ways.  I am pondering this pilgrimage theme of coming home in light of our featured book for the Lift Every Voice book club this month, Hurting Yet Whole: Reconciling Body and Spirit in Chronic Pain and

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