The Call to be a Saint (a love note from your online Abbess)
Dearest monks and artists, November is the month of remembrance of all the many saints of our lives. It is a thin time in the Celtic imagination, when heaven and earth draw closer together. I spent the feasts of All Saints and All Souls at a small gathering at the monastery of Clonmacnoise, once a […]
Community Lectio Divina: Thomas Merton
With November comes a new invitation for contemplation. This month I invite you into a lectio divina practice with one of my favorite readings from Thomas Merton. I ran across it again this past week as I was contemplating the feast of All Saints and All Souls and what it means to live into our individual call to become […]
A Time of Remembrance (a love note from your online Abbess)
–Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey Dearest monks and artists, This is one of my favorite times of year with the darkening days of autumn and the spreading color across the trees. I have long loved the wisdom of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, but living here in Ireland I experience the […]
Monk in the World guest post: Paula Huston
I adore Paula Huston’s work and wise spirit. She is a fellow monastic oblate (Camaldolese Benedictine) and writer of several books on spiritual practice, including my favorites Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit and The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life. I had the gift of participating in a nonfiction writing […]
Invitation to Photography: Softening and Yielding
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 (stop by to read the beautiful responses). As I prayed with the poem by Yehuda Amichai, this phrase kept shimmering for me: But doubts and loves / Dig up […]
Community Lectio Divina: The Place We Are Right by Yehuda Amichai
With October comes a new invitation for contemplation. This month I invite you into a lectio divina practice with a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. Wisdom Council member Cheryl Macpherson (who co-facilitates our Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist class) suggested it, and I was delighted because it is one of my […]
Monk in the World guest post: Claire Bangasser
Our next post in the Monk in the World series is from Claire Bangasser, whom I have known for several years now in the virtual world of writing on faith and spirituality. She makes regular pilgrimages on the Compostelle and the subtitle of her blog is “I re-imagine a Church engaged in dialogue with people at […]