Amber Andreasen! Amber, let me know your choice of self-study/on-demand classes for your prize (which you can also give as a gift). Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s Poetry Party celebrating summer. Pour yourself a cup of tea (maybe iced!) and go linger for a while with the words offered there. Abbey Poetry Parties will be on a break for July but will return again as a monthly feature in August.
I have the tremendous privilege of working with several beautiful souls in this Abbey work, each of whom has their own flourishing body of work. Here are some recommendations for other resources to explore to support your own deepening journey: The lovely Kayce Stevens Hughlettt is a Soul Care Institute core faculty member, with whom I teach the powerful live retreat Exploring Archetypes through the Expressive Arts (offered next in 2013) and who is also the solo facilitator for the online class Live it to Give it: Essential Practices of Soul Nourishment and Self-Care (offered next this fall). She is also the author of
My four-week online class on the Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers has begun over at Spirituality and Practice, if you want to join us it is not too late. You can still register and once you log on you will be able to read any emails from the first couple of days you might have missed at the website. Then you can dive right in and continute the journey. . . If you love becoming a monk in the world, the wisdom of the desert elders is really foundation to this practice. Consider joining me!
For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! –Song of Songs 2:11-13 Dearest kindred souls, I am finally starting to catch up with myself after a few very full weeks. You mean, your online Abbess gets busy and overwhelmed too? Yes, indeed. Sometimes it is impossible to avoid
Hello dear monk friends, I am so excited to be offering a 30-day course on desert wisdom and spirituality through the wonderful folks at Spirituality and Practice. I have been working on completing my manuscript on the desert mothers and fathers this past year, and have absolutely fallen in love with the wisdom and insights they have to offer us in our twenty-first century world. If you want to explore the roots of Christian monasticism and contemplative practice, this is where you begin. If you are intrigued by these fierce companions on the journey, here is your chance.
Easter blessings my dear monk friends! I hope your Lent was a rich and meaningful journey through the desert to the place of your resurrection. Beyond bunnies, baskets, chocolate, and jelly beans, Easter calls us to the profound practice of resurrection of the body. Resurrection is about entering the fire of our passion and letting it burn brightly. It is about what enlivens us and makes us feel vital, releasing fear and anxiety over what is to come, and embracing this moment here and now. Resurrection calls us to experience the full weight and lightness of our physical being. In the
A deep bow of gratitude to everyone who participated in this week’s poetry party “In praise of detours.” As always, the Abbey community came through with a beautiful gathering of poems – definitely worth a visit and some time to linger. The winner of the random drawing for a book of their choice is Deanna Cattell. Deanna, send me your snail mail address and which of my books you’d like for me to send you (signed of course) and I will get that out to you. I am away this coming week leading a retreat on the archetypes and expressive arts with a
