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Gratitude and Thanksgiving ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, The United States celebrates the feast of Thanksgiving this week. I have always loved this time of gratefulness and sharing with loved ones. My heart overflows with gratitude for this beautiful community we have created together. I delight daily in knowing there are dancing monks all over the world. The 5th century monk and mystic Benedict of Nursia counsels in his Rule for monastic life an attitude of contentment among his community. Whatever the circumstances they find themselves in, they are to find some satisfaction with what is in the moment. In a world of

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Christine Interviewed at Encountering Silence

Christine joins Carl McColman at Encountering Silence to explore the intersections of silence, spirituality, contemplation, creativity, and living as a monk in the real world. “I believe in the revolutionary power of stillness and spaciousness, and of practicing presence to life’s unfolding. I believe this commitment can change the world.” — Christine Valters Paintner Christine offers a special treat at the end of the conversation — she reads a never-before-published poem of hers, “Saint Francis and the Grasshopper.” Listen to the interview here >>

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Christine Interviewed at Encountering Silence 

“I believe in the revolutionary power of stillness and spaciousness, and of practicing presence to life’s unfolding. I believe this commitment can change the world.” — Christine Valters Paintner Christine joins Carl McColman at Encountering Silence to explore the intersections of silence, spirituality, contemplation, creativity, and living as a monk in the real world. She also offers a special treat at the end of the conversation — she reads a never-before-published poem of hers, “Saint Francis and the Grasshopper.” Listen to the interview here >>

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Debby Bellingham

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Debby Bellingham’s reflection on trusting that God will speak. I recently moved to the Hudson River Valley of New York and I am awed and beguiled by the beauty of the seasons, each with it’s unique wonder. In California seasons were days on a calendar, not events to be experienced. My home in San Francisco had variations on one season: cool, windy and foggy. It is autumn in New York. I look west over the Hudson River

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Join Us for an Advent Online Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This is my favorite time of year, these months of autumn’s arrival, then this time of remembrance in the church of those who have passed away, and finally the season of Advent which asks us to quiet ourselves and listen to the holy birthing happening within each one of us. It can be a rich contemplative time if we give ourselves the gift of space. Each year we create an online retreat offering for Advent to support you in creating a space dedicated to retreat in daily life so that you might be even more

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Lorraine Roy

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Lorraine Roy’s reflection “Thinking in Circles: A Journey Through the Rings.” At the moment I’m shutting down my textile studio after a long day. The chaos of my work surface recedes. My thoughts take a quiet stroll through the day’s creative journey, where my eyes and hands led me outward from the warm heart of a tree, and back in again. I have been a professional artist working with textiles for over 30 years. I also hold

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Orchard and Forest ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest Monks, artists, and pilgrims, I have been going back through the Abbey archives and found this sweet post written almost six years ago when John and I were living in Vienna and making plans to move to Ireland. It was a very sweet and vulnerable time of our lives. So I am offering these words to you once again, several years on, from a different place in my life: John and I have made the discernment to move to the west coast of Ireland at the end of December and so this threshold time left here in Vienna has

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Barb Morris

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Barb Morris’ reflection on the Hospital of the Soul. This is a story of following hunches, nudges, and breadcrumbs dropped by the Holy Spirit. I found El Hospital del Alma on a cold, rainy day on the Camino. El Hospital del Alma, “Hospital of the Soul,” is in Castrojeriz, along the Camino de Santiago, on the vast, interior Spanish plateau called the Meseta. The Camino Francés begins in the beauty of Navarra and Rioja among the Pyrenees,

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Join us for Honoring Saints and Ancestors (an online retreat) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Inheritance I take down the generic white jug from the shelf, the one made with ten thousand others in a factory in Taiwan. I wish it were the Meissen porcelain one with the blue onion pattern that survived two world wars, but not my need for funds to finish graduate school. I long, too, for the cut crystal bowl, etched with delicate flowers in which you served ripe, sweet berries but was later sold to pay for books. Or the silver set with your initials engraved on the handles, I imagine a stranger now running her fingers along the grooves

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Jamie Marich

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read of for Jamie Marich’s reflection “Jerusalem.” I can fit the old city In the palm of my hand From where I stand On the Mt. of Olives Oh, Jerusalem— The vision of what Spirituality could be And yet religion divides you Religion causes war Religion tears people to shreds Because everyone believes Their word to be the holiest Yet as I hold Jerusalem In the palm of my hand I know that the Holy of Holies Lives inside of me

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