The Celtic Monk

5 of 55 packed boxes             My husband Sam and I started planning for this move almost four years ago when we decided that where we live now (and have lived for the past 12 years) was not where we would retire.  At that time we had no more specific location other than somewhere in Florida, which we've both taken to like fish to water.           So when I began doing some work 88 miles north of here, we wondered together if Sarasota might be an option for the move that has been in the back of our minds. In reality we tried not to make this decision quite yet. I spent the better part of July and August looking at options for renting for a year or so to 'try it out.'  But our immediate family includes two dogs which the rental community frowned upon again and again. If we liked a location, they wouldn't accept the dogs.  And if they accepted them, we didn't want to live there!          The day finally came when we looked at one another and said, let'

A SACRAMENT OF CREATION   i hurried to worship at the rising of the sun - a sacrament of creation i bundled against the sea breezes; covering all exposed skin especially from the salt water mosquitos i positioned myself in the 2nd chair...not 1st chair like the violinist at the philharmonic You see the 1st chair always arrives early, his prayer beads in hand. But now together yet separately we await the holy drama We wait...   We wait... Ten minutes past curtain time, his beads completed with the traditional crossing and kiss the hooded 1st chair departs the coastal theatre. i linger here only to realize that sometimes we must simply believe that the sun has risen indeed. What our eyes do not witness is an exercise of faith.    

Speaking with Laurence Freeman in Cork, Ireland at the World Community of Christian Meditation Conference.           There are two wisdom writings that come to my Inbox each morning and, even if I leave all the other emails for later, I accept their invitation to be read.  The first is Daily Wisdom and comes from The World Community of Christian Meditation most often a sentence or two by John Main, or Laurence Freeman.   The second is from The Center for Action and Contemplation a short devotion from the writings of Richard Rohr. I find that along with my morning meditation, these are what I  am drawn to as I begin my day.          But depending on the length of my to-do list and the pace of my day this small morning routine of mine is more or less profitable.  Do you know what I mean?  Some days (and some days might add up to a number of days in a row)  I go through my morning ritual, but it doesn't seem to go through me. Indeed I read with interest-and maybe even an

  When I write my first book, "Finding Peace in Ancient Practices" will be its title.  Not only because I am a contemplative with leanings towards the spiritual practices of the early church, but because it seems to me that the time is ripe for 21st century individuals and the Church to be able to hear how our mirroring this fast and furious culture isn't working either for people or institutions. Keeping ourselves and others busy and/or connected 24/7 has done nothing for our happiness, our peace, or our souls and likely the opposite is true.  Maybe the subtitle of my book will be "why the Church doesn't need IM, billionaires and Facebook." These ideas were sparked this week from sources as diverse as Ted Talks on NPR and Sr. Joan Chittister, author and social justice activist.  This weeks Ted Talks covered some disturbing brain science that showed how excessive money/power made people mean [an over statement, but really close]. And from Joan Chit

This could easily be a photograph of a winding road in Northern Ireland.  The winding, the variety of greens, the stone fence, the economy of a road without any shoulder all serve to lead us to our conclusion.  And yet all might lead us to the wrong conclusion. It is "Monks Road" in Kentucky. I wonder if we, in our lives, aren't sometimes like this photograph; wondering if sometimes when people see us, that they are misled.  Do others see us and assume one thing, when something else is true?  And what about us-ourselves?  Is there a way in us--or are there parts of us--that on close inspection, upon serious reflection are not true of us, or not true of us anymore yet we continue behaving the same, continue going through the motions?  Are we living our real lives? I'm not offering a value judgment.  I'm not saying we are disingenuous. What I am saying is that when there is a picture in our mind sometimes its easiest even seemingly most natural to continue li

          M. Scott Peck's best seller began famously: "Life is Difficult."  While I agreed with him whole heartedly 25 years ago and still do, I'm more aware today of the nuances, difficulties and my own ability to be present to life and changes especially when they present themselves as difficulties or challenges. In other words, the parameters of what constitutes difficult has changed for me.  It's been a journey.            For so long I saw events, people or situations in black or white; good or bad in and of themselves. If "a" happens its good, if "b" happens it will be bad--very, very bad.  What I realize now is that that kind of thinking and responding created its very own kind of hell and suffering.  Because "b" happens a fair bit of the time--and if I allow myself to only see "a" as good...and allow no room for "b"  "c" "d" "e, f, g" or the rest of the alphabet, I will

        It is true that a picture is worth 1,000 words.  Above is the church of my youth.  I was baptized there. As a second grader, I made my First Communion there.  I was confirmed at that altar while in fourth grade and took the name of "Bernadette." I went to mass not only on Sunday, but Monday thru Friday most of my grammar school days because St. Alphonsus was also my school.  I was in the building next to this amazing sanctuary when the news came over the PA system that John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot and the country was for a few hours without a President.         Maybe surprisingly to some it was here that I learned the love, reverence and awe of God that I practice still.  All those days surrounded by statuary and stained glass imprinted something on my soul. I can hear phrases of the Latin mass echoing through the gothic architecture.  God befriended me here in ways I did not even know.         Last December, at the end of a long Interim, I took the op

        I recently completed a paper on the theme of the dark night of the soul as found in John of the Cross and the interior castle as described by Teresa of Avila.  It was a timely topic for this season of my soul, as I both invited and allowed myself to step out of the false surety of Enlightenment thinking and into the place where mystics meet God.         The paper  opened with these assumptions from which to dialog with John and Teresa:  "the fullest understanding I bring to this theme is that the spiritual journey far from being a common path, is unique to each person as we undertake to follow the pull of the Spirit.  Implicit are these assumptions: Each person is uniquely created; There is a will great than our own and a purpose beyond what we see; though we can journey with others, no one else's journey is ours.  Ultimately, our spiritual journey is custom designed and to each of us God delights to reveal our way."       Surely saying things like this sen