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A Celebration of Stuff ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, In 2012 my husband and I decided to embark on a life adventure. We were living in Seattle and had been traveling to Europe twice a year to explore ancestral landscapes. He was growing more in need of a sabbatical from his position as high school theology teacher. I had recently applied for and received Austrian citizenship through my father. Between February and May, we began to sort through our things. It is amazing what accumulates in nine years in one place even in a small apartment with only three closets. “Honey, I just found

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Monk in the World guest post: Jamie Marich

  I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jamie Marich’s reflection on gratitude for a sacred convergence: Dancing Mindfulness Meets Dancing Monks: A Story of Gratitude Early last summer I received an inbox notification telling me that a woman named Christine from Galway ordered a copy of a DVD I produced called Dancing Mindfulness: LIVE. Although it always warms my heart to fill international orders, I grew even more excited when I saw the domain on her email: Abbey of the Arts. Curious, I looked up her website

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Order Dancing Monk Icons Prints for Christmas (by November 18th)

Our fabulous artist Marcy Hall is making prints available again for the wonderful dancing monk icon series she has painted for Abbey of the Arts. She also has two new Irish saints added this fall: Kevin of Glendalough and Gobnait of Ballyvourney (patron saint of bees!) In addition she has another beautiful series of Monastic Way/Monastery of the Heart prints for a series she painted for the Erie Benedictines and Sister Joan Chittister. These include figures such as Teresa of Avila, the Dalai Lama, Rumi, Georgia O’Keeffe and more! Discounts when you order multiple images. You can see both series

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Sacred Time: An Online Retreat for Advent & Christmas

  Advent invites us into the holy practice of waiting and attending the birth that is coming. Christmas calls us to celebrate that birth with wonder and awe. Our culture tells us the season should be filled with shopping and rushing. The wisdom of ancient monastic practices tells us that this is a time for pausing, savoring, and soaking in awe and wonder. Instead of becoming overwhelmed this year during the holidays, let this be an opportunity to move into a new set of rhythms which cultivate slowness through seasonal awareness. Imagine arriving at the New Year, not exhausted, but

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Blessings for the Feasts of All Saints and Souls ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Today in the Celtic seasonal calendar is the feast of Samhain and in the Christian liturgical cycle the Feast of All Saints (followed by All Souls tomorrow). It is a very special time of year when the northern hemisphere is moving toward growing darkness and is time of preparation for stillness and rest. In the Irish imagination, this is a threshold time, when the veil between worlds feels especially thin. Darkness invites us to rest into the mystery of things. This is one of my favorite moments of the year’s unfolding. Last year at this

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Monk in the World guest post: Melinda Thomas Hansen

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Melinda Thomas Hansen’s reflection turning on the homing beacon. “Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” ~ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows A table was set up outside the bookstore at Kanuga, the retreat center where my family and I spent our summer vacation. As so often happens, on our final day there I felt the stirring need to purchase a little

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St. Kevin and the Blackbird + Poems from the Wild Edges ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This fall has been a season full of wonderful opportunities for journeying alongside our beloved dancing monks in person.  When you receive this love note, we will be in the midst of our third pilgrimage group in Ireland, something we love doing because we continually see this amazing landscape through new eyes and are blessed by the community that forms. As many of you know John and I arrived in Galway almost three years ago in the midst of a life pilgrimage.  It can be hard to explain sometimes how we ended up in this

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Poems to Savor by Pilgrims on the Wild Edges

August 30-September 7, 2015 we had 13 pilgrims join us for a very special pilgrimage and writing retreat on the wild edges of the world. We stayed on the islands of Inismor and Inisbofin, off the coast of Connemara and let the landscape inspire our creative process. I am grateful to these dancing monks for sharing their inspiration so freely with the community. Pour a cup of tea and then savor these poems: A Pilgrim’s Progress She heard the call of wind and jagged earth, stones and hungry green; the raw bitter hum of want. Held to a moody sky

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Earth Monastery Project Grant Winners

The Earth Monastery Project is a small grant project we administer to help encourage projects which nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness through contemplative practice and creative expression. We were delighted with our batch of applications and have selected the following four to receive a small grant for the first half of 2016. We will post more details as they complete their work and report back to us. Laurel Dykstra, Vancouver, BC, Canada   Earth-Bible Curriculum Boxes: to encourage multi-age (3-11 years) groups of children to engage with scripture and creation. Sandi Howell, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Creating a series of art photographs

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Monk in the World guest post: Terrie Marie Childers

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Terrie Marrie Childers’ reflection on responding to God’s invitations. A few years ago I returned to the workplace full time, accepting a position as the administrative assistant to the police chief in our town. I enjoy working with the officers and this job was definitely a divine appointment. However, as a contemplative individual, the long work day in a secular environment often leaves my soul parched and thirsty for spiritual refreshment. The “Monk in the World” concept has been such a helpful perspective for

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