Have you ever gotten into trouble for just being yourself? You are being who you are and someone else takes offense and gives you a nasty look, a word of reproach or a hard time. Like me, have you then been puzzled and wondered why the kerfuffle? Is it wrong that I...
"See how the Lord in his love shows us the way of life."Prologue 20It is the liturgical season of Lent as I write this. Is it for you as well?Many of us spend Lent in clutch mode, interspersed with bouts of guilt when we fall off the Lenten wagon. Suddenly we...
Purpose of the Tool: To help you develop a practice of realizing God’s love for you in the ordinary stuff of daily life. Background on the Tool: God’s love is with us all the time. We just need to open our eyes and ears to this love. The Tool: To adopt a practice...
Purpose of the Tool: To help discern the desire of your heart and take steps to bring this desire to life. Background on the Tool: Every day we make choices in what we do and say that are impacted by what we truly desire. We are not always aware of what these...
“Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God. Prologue 9a What is living from the spiritual heart? What does this way of living look like when we fix a meal, drive to work, or mow the lawn? How might a spiritual heart impact how we approach and do those...
Do playing games and The Rule of St. Benedict seem miles apart? On first glance it might seem so. St. Benedict was serious about the search for God and salvation. And the times were uncertain and harsh. Yet Benedict was understanding and compassionate. Might he...
Hello there! Glad to be back with you again. I just heard that Amma Jane is planning yet another trip. I questioned her on that, mewing that Benedict encourages us not to leave the enclosure because it’s not good for our souls (RB 66.7). She nodded absently and...
Way back in August of 2015 Esperanza ( "hope" in Spanish), Espy for short, then a four month old kitten, appeared at Amma’s back door. Acting really cute so that Amma Jane and Prior John were enamored, she landed abruptly in the cloister. Well this really disrupted...
I have some sad news to report. We lost one of our faithful members in the cloister of eight. Marcy had cancer and got really thin and weak. Amma Jane and Prior John did all they could to help her. The vet tried hard as well. But when Marcy left the house...
Hello! Hope you are having a good day. Do you ever think about things that happened to you years ago, maybe when you were a child or teenager? This morning I was thinking about my early history, living with my mother, my sisters and my brothers in the "wilds" of...