April 20: Threshold – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)
Word for Today: Threshold [The Desert Mothers and Fathers] journey into the desert was the crossing of a threshold towards an intentional awareness of God’s presence and recognizing that worldly pleasures bring little long-term satisfaction. The aim was to experience God in each moment and activity. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight […]
April 17: Beauty – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)
Word for Today: Beauty If we’re really honest with ourselves, in a world where terrible things happen there must be room made for doubt. We must give ourselves and others space to wrestle with the essential questions of our lives. Believing in times of beauty and transcendence leads us to the idea there must also […]
The Grace of Flowering
This is not a poem but a rain-soaked day keeping me inside with you and you loving me like a storm. This is not a poem but a record of a hundred mornings when the sun lifted above the stone hills outside my window. This is time for boiling water poured into the chipped cup […]
Making Space for the Divine: The Gift of Silence
To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) For the next few weeks I will be offering you some gems from the Abbey archives as I create the space I need to finish several writing projects and prepare for spring’s teaching: It was said of Abba Agathon […]
Invitation to Photography: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?
Welcome to this month’s Abbey Photo Party! I select a theme and invite you to respond with images. We began this month with a Community Lectio Divina practice with our reflection on Kinship with Creation (the fourth principle of the Monk Manifesto) with a quote from Psalm 104 (read them here). I invite you for this month’s Photo Party to hold these words in your heart as […]
Sit in Your Cell: Desert Reflections for Lent (a love note from your online Abbess)
For the next few weeks I will be offering you some gems from the Abbey archives as I create the space I need to finish several writing projects and prepare for spring’s teaching. Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, The road of cleansing goes through that desert. It shall be named the way of holiness. —Isaiah […]
Invitation to Community Lectio Divina: Kinship with Creation – How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness?
With March we offer a new invitation for contemplation. Our focus for this month is Kinship with Creation. We are continuing our monthly exploration of each theme of the Monk Manifesto. Our focus for this month is Kinship with Creation — How might you nourish an Earth-cherishing consciousness? The fourth principle reads: I commit to cultivating awareness of my […]