Community & Solitude (a love note from your online Abbess)
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, John and I just completed another pilgrimage here in Ireland with a beautiful group of pilgrims. We are continually amazed and humbled at the deeply soulful and wise folks that join us for our programs. Dancing monks are the most wonderful folks there are. Dwelling in these holy places where countless have prayed […]
St. Hildegard Strolls through the Garden
To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a gift!) St. Hildegard Strolls through the Garden Luminous morning, Hildegard gazes at the array of blooms, holding in her heart the young boy with a mysterious rash, the woman reaching menopause, the newly minted widower, and the black Abbey cat with digestive […]
Embracing Vulnerability + Self-Study Summer Sale!
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to introduce the latest in the dancing monk icon series above of St. Francis of Assisi. (I will let you know when prints become available.) The same day that artist Marcy Hall sent me this newest addition, I also stumbled across the poem above in a book […]
Practicing Resurrection (a love note from your online Abbess)
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am still traveling and teaching, so this week I offer you a reprise of another article I wrote for Patheos last year on Practicing Resurrection this Easter season: Lent is a powerful season of transformation. Forty days in the desert, stripped of our comforts, and buoyed by our commitment […]
Easter Blessings! (a love note from your online Abbess)
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Joyous blessings on this celebration of Easter and the season of resurrection stretching out before us! I am in the midst of some travels in the U.S. for about a month which began with a lovely visit to my sister-in-law in South Carolina, and now I am heading to Santa […]
“Soul Awakes and Sings” (a love note from your online Abbess)
“Even under its burden / the soul awakes and sings” —Trish Bruxvoort Colligan, from her song “Soul Awakes and Sings” off her just about to be released album Wild Acre) We must risk delight. . . We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure […]
Gifts of Slowness (a love note from your online Abbess)
To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a gift!) “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself […]