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Category: Soul’s Slow Ripening

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The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, In 2007 I traveled to Ireland with my husband John and began to fall in love with the path of Irish monasticism. I discovered stories and a way of moving through the world that felt more spiral and less linear, more organic and less structured. The early period of Irish monasticism is quite unique in that it was less influenced by the Roman church and desire for uniformity of practice. The Irish monks integrated Christian teachings with the Druidic wisdom of their ancestors, and created a spirituality that was much more indigenous to the place

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Gift for Pre-Ordering The Soul’s Slow Ripening + other resources ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, It has been a wonderful time of sabbatical this summer, time spent resting, time spent dreaming, time spent writing. I even made a trip to the Collegeville Institute at St. John’s University in Minnesota for a memoir writing workshop with Lauren Winner which was a wonderful experience on so many levels, can’t recommend the Collegeville Institute or Lauren as a teacher (and writer) of memoir craft enough. But I also spent lots of days following my own rhythms, going to arts festival events, and taking our sweet dog Sourney on long walks up the canal

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Feast of St Columcille of Iona ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists, I am heading off to Scotland today to teach our Earth Monastery Intensive at the Bield retreat center in Perth with Betsey Beckman. Then we will travel together for four days on Iona, this will be our second visit and we are dreaming into a future retreat there. St. Columcille, whose feast day was yesterday, was an Irish saint who journeyed by sea to Scotland and founded the monastery at Iona. There is a beautiful story that when he left Ireland he was overcome with grief at leaving his beloved homeland, but he felt the call

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St. Enda – New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, We are in the process of sharing our four new Irish saints which Marcy Hall has painted, inspired by my new book forthcoming this fall – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: Twelve Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (through Ave Maria Press.)  Each of the twelve chapters includes a story of an Irish saint. In addition to the release of new icons, we are also releasing an album of Celtic songs compiled from several friends of the Abbey. Please see more details below! This week I introduce to you St. Enda: St. Enda Arrives on Inismor

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St. Dearbhla – New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, We are in the process of sharing our four new Irish saints which Marcy Hall has painted, inspired by my new book forthcoming this fall – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: Twelve Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (through Ave Maria Press.)  Each of the twelve chapters includes a story of an Irish saint. In addition to the release of new icons, we are also releasing an album of Celtic songs compiled from several friends of the Abbey. This week I introduce to you St. Dearbhla: Dearbhla is said to have lived in the sixth century,

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St. Sourney – New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, In January I shared two of the new dancing monk icons of Spanish mystics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. We also have four new Irish saints which Marcy has painted, inspired by my new book forthcoming this fall – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: Twelve Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (through Ave Maria Press.)  Each of the twelve chapters includes a story of an Irish saint, so we added four more to our original eight. In addition to the release of new icons (which are available as prints or cards), we are

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Sherri Hansen

We are thrilled and delighted to be releasing a brand new compilation of songs, curated from some wonderful musicians we know and love. These are songs for Celtic seekers as they are inspired by the tradition of pilgrimage in Ireland and accompany Christine’s newest book which will be released in September 2018 from Ave Maria Press – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred. For six weeks we will be featuring the musicians from this album who so generously agreed to share their beautiful music with our community for this project. First up is Sherri

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