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Please send us your input for our Book Club

Greetings dear monks and mystics! While we’re taking a short hiatus to honor Claudia’s need for time and space to grieve we thought we’d check in with all of you about how our Lift Every Voice Book Club can better suit your needs. We are very committed to continuing this work in one form or another as it is so vital to these times and we have been deeply enriched by it and are hungry for more. WE’D LOVE YOUR INPUT ON THE FOLLOWING:  1. Do you find the *monthly video conversations* between the author, Claudia, and myself helpful? We

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Monk in the World Video Podcasts (Sabbath)

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to share the next in our Monk in the World Video Podcast series – morning and evening prayer exploring the principle of Sabbath. Sabbath is a contemplative practice found in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It is also at the heart of a yoga practice when we rest into “corpse pose” at the end and allow everything to integrate. Cultivating this rhythm of rest in our lives is part of our commitment to relishing joy.  The following reflection is excerpted from Imam Jamal Rahman’s recent co-authored book The Teachers of Spiritual Wisdom: Gaining Perspective on Life’s

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kristine Schnarr

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kristine Schnarr’s reflection on the labyrinth. During the majority of my 71 years on this beautiful earth, I have lived in the suburbs of various sprawling cities around the United States. However, born in Chicago, I am very much a city-girl at heart. I am also very much an introvert and very much a contemplative. Over the years, I have always gravitated towards places and spaces, that offer opportunities for quiet prayer and contemplation in the midst

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kate Kennington Steer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s reflection on the richness of photography within a contemplative cell. As a contemplative photographer I thought I knew quite a bit about light and brightness, shadow and darkness.  It appears I was wrong.  During 2020 and 2021 a series of COVID-19 ‘Lockdowns’ have been offering me a unique opportunity to maintain a watch on the seasonal cycles of light across my bedroom walls.  I have wanted to do this ever since, back in 2013-4, our online Abbess

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The Refreshment of Sabbath ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, When I moved to Seattle in 2003 one of the first people I met was Rabbi Zari Weiss through a mutual friend who introduced us. Zari quickly became a dear friend, especially when my mother died soon after moving, and she was one of the few people I knew at the time who had also lost both parents. She shared with me the tremendous wisdom of the Jewish mourning process where the person who loses someone significant goes into special status for a year and nothing additional is asked of them during this time to

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Justin Coutts

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Justin Coutts’ reflection, “A Monk with a Family.” One of the greatest of the ancient monastic teachers, at least in my own reckoning, is the Celtic monk Pelagius. His monastic style was to live in the world. His disciples, to whom he wrote letters of instruction, were people living within society but with a radical Chrisitan lifestyle. He wrote a letter to Celantia, a woman who had found her call to the monastic life after getting married.

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Dancing Monk Icon Cards Completion Packs

Over the last couple of years we have added some more dancing monks to our icon card set: Melangell of Powys, Muirgen of Lough Neagh, Clare of Assisi, and Julian of Norwich. This summer we have added four additional ones: Howard Thurman, Nicholas Black Elk, Sister Thea Bowman, and Abba Anthony the Great. Because many of you have ordered our icon card sets in the past and might want to complete your pack with these new ones we are offering a one-time chance to order a completion pack of these 8 cards. Order by August 31, 2021. Cards will be

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