This month’s theme at the Abbey is hospitality. You can find more reflections here, here and here. There are lots of wondrous resources to share and upcoming classes to consider in support of your own journey of inner hospitality: Live it to Give it If you are a soul care practitioner in need of some support in practicing generous hospitality to your own beautiful self, please consider joining Kayce Stevens Hughlett for her upcoming online Soul Care Institute class Live it to Give it: Essential Practices of Soul Nourishment and Self-Care which begins November 5th and offers a wise and generous space for you

. . . Nancy Flowers!  Congratulations Nancy – you won a space in my upcoming online retreat – Honoring Saints and Ancestors: Peering through the Veil. Thank you to eveyone who shared images of hospitality at the Photo Party.   Some beautiful images over at Flickr, stop by to take a look. Our next Poetry Party will start on Monday, October 15th!

Forgive my delay in posting the winner of the drawing from this past week’s Poetry Party on the theme of silence. . . I have been teaching in Ireland all weekend and arrived back yesterday trying to catch up with myself. I just spent some reflective time with the beautiful poems offered and my heart is, as always, full of gratitude for all my fellow monks and poets willing to share their heart’s expression with this community.  Pour some tea and linger there for a while and really experience the depth of silence’s gifts. The name I pulled in my

. . . Gayle Sommerfeld!  Congratulations Gayle!  Send me your snail mail address and I will get a copy of Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings — Annotated & Explained sent to you straight from SkyLight Paths. If you haven’t yet had a chance to stop by the Photo Party, you can see the photo pool here.  Thank you to everyone who participated, what a gift it was to receive everyone’s images and be immersed in a visual ode to silence.  This was such a delightful experience we will definitely be continuing them monthly. A week from Monday,

Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings — Annotated & Explained will be available by late August.  In the meantime it is available for pre-ordering at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and SkyLight Paths. When you pre-order your copy, I have a special gift for you: a retreat and reflection guide to accompany your reading.  Just forward me your online receipt for pre-order and I will send that to you as a thank you for your support.  Or if you have a copy of the actual book, you can just send me a photo of you holding the book up

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.