Celebrating Autumn’s Harvest and Release ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The autumn equinox falls today in the northern hemisphere (click here if you are in the southern hemisphere welcoming spring)—a time when the sun rests above the equator, and day and night are divided equally. It heralds a season filled with change, celebrates the harvest, and ushers in the brilliant […]
Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen ~ A love note from your online abbess
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 issues who wandered in one night and stayed. New complaints arrive each day. She […]
Dreaming of the Sea: A Journey with the Selkie Myth ~ A love note from your online abbess
What She Does Not Know (for unsuspecting Selkies everywhere) She does not know there is a reason she always feels out of place her life rigid and small, like living in a doll’s house a marriage more trap than longing and when she chokes on courtesy and convention the salt which burns her throat is […]
The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred ~ A love note from your online abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, In 2007 I traveled to Ireland with my husband John and began to fall in love with the path of Irish monasticism. I discovered stories and a way of moving through the world that felt more spiral and less linear, more organic and less structured. The early period of Irish […]
Celebrate the Sacred Feminine ~ A love note from your online abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, August 15this the Feast of the Assumption, a feast which celebrates Mary’s elevated role in the Christian church as the bringer of the holy to birth. Mary has received many names and titles over the centuries: Star of the Sea, Greenest Branch, Seat of Wisdom, and Gate of Heaven to […]
Summer Sabbatical (we return on August 5th) ~ A love note from your online abbess
Dearest monks and artists, Every summer we try to step back from this wonderful work and take a bit of time off for planning, dreaming, and resting. Sabbath is one of the profound gifts of a generous and abundant divine presence who says that work is good and rest is necessary. We are so grateful […]
Summer Solstice ~ A love note from your online abbess
Dearest monks and artists, In the northern hemisphere we approach the celebration of the summer solstice, the longest day. The seasons are connected to the different cardinal directions, as well as the four elements. Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century Benedictine Abbess, allied the direction of the south and the season of summer with the element […]