Monk in the World: Kinship with Creation 6 – Reflection Questions and Closing Blessing ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle.

Principle 4: I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish.

Reflection Questions

How are you being called to awaken this new day?

Where are you being invited to embrace your own radiance in the fullness of the day?

What are you being summoned to release as the day ends?

Where are the places you are being called to surrender into deeper unknowing and a sense of the mystery of night?

Closing Blessing from Christine

God of fecundity,

you overflow into creation

with each moment,

offering the gifts of beauty, wildness, and nourishment.

I embrace the sacred rhythms of light and dark,

rise and fall, fullness and emptiness,

as the pulse which animates every living thing.

Enliven my commitment

to live as a member of the whole earth community.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Image credit: Star image above is a word cloud made up of words from this community to guide them in 2020