So, anyway…moving on from yesterday’s blog post…

Monkfish Abbey took up the task of making prayer flags this year as a form of intercession. We experimented with prayer flags because most of our tribe are recovering evangelicals and/or artists and your basic “Dear God, please help such-and-thus” kind of prayer isn’t really functioning for them anymore. But we do want a transformative faith, we want to be about something much larger than ourselves. So we needed to find a way to connect with the wider world around us, and to join our siblings in sorrow and hope, loss and recovery, and to talk to God about all that stuff. Prayer flags, in Seattle, are a fairly common site — … {read more…}

Okay, ya’ll. I often get asked for stuff like this…but I rarely have the time to edit it. So here it is completely un-spellchecked. This is just what I use to keep me from forgetting what I am doing in a moment of panic. (Yes, even twelve friendly people in room can make me panic when it comes to leading new-to-us rites and rituals. It’s a risky thing, this new kind of liturgy stuff! You can really fall on your face, often and spectacularly!) Anywho, here is it.

Guided Meditation for Advent
While lighting a three wick candle or three candles:

I bind unto this place today the strong cords of the trinity, by invocation of the same the three in one and … {read more…}

Lighting of the Advent Wreath

Tonight, our nights grow shorter and our days grow long!
We look once more on these earthy symbols–firelight and evergreens–
and remember God’s promise to our world:
That our Light and our Hope, will come.

The Words of the Prophet

What came into existence was Life,
And the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; … {read more…}

Last night was our last gathering of Monkfish Abbey before Christmas. I really enjoyed preparing for it. To me, as the Abbess, the preparation is nearly as holy as the gathering. I love spending time thinking of the people who will come, offering little thoughts and prayers for them, and vesting our house for worship. I love creating holy space. I just might be a holy space addict.

Paul was home on vacation so he lovingly made the soup. (No migraines for me from chopping onions!) We made our traditional Winter Minestrone with red bell peppers and zucchini. The girls helped clean the house and put the cookies out on a very special tray that my sister in law … {read more…}

My husband Paul, is not a naturally artsy guy. He doesn’t often join us in the collage world, or even in the world of journaling. So when he makes something with the Monkfish folks, I pay attention.

At our All Soul’s night Paul made this memorial for Rosa Parks. He found a picture on line of Ms. Parks holding her police booking number. (She was arrested for refusing to sit in the back of the bus, which is where the “coloreds” were supposed to remain.) In most icons there is a lot of symbolic imagery — St. Julian is always holding a cat, St. Catherine is often pictured with a … {read more…}

Way back when, I started what I said was going to be a series on all the little altars we’ve built–mostly unententionally–around the house. You can read about Recovering She, and the Backyard Mad/Sad Altar, and our altar for Sudan. This little altar is about to be put away, so I thought I’d memorialize it before it goes. I think these things sort of have a life cycle and this one has come to an end –maybe forever, maybe just for awhile

A couple of months ago we did the Artist’s Way at Monkfish. It took a bit of focus, the AW, and … {read more…}

The Scripture:

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my delight, for I bear you name, O Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelors, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grevious and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? Therefore this is what the Lord says, “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman.”
Jeremiah 15:16-19a

Phrases that … {read more…}

The Scripture:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you wehn I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were it’s footings set, or who laid it’s cornerstone — while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”

Phrases and images that arose during lectio:

while the morning stars sang in chorus…all the angels shouted … {read more…}

Guest Blogger: Lindell Alderman

Most days my faith is not a comfortable place. It’s not a warm, fuzz-balled sweater that snuggle over myself when I’m feeling lost or confused or depressed. It’s not a shot of whiskey that I take to turn off my brain when the thoughts won’t stop racing. It’s not an epic liturgical drama that allows me for a moment to suspend my disbelief. It’s not the thump of a bass drum and the drone of a keyboard that wash over me in estatic worship.

Faith is tension. Faith is paradox. Faith is struggle. Faith is forcing myself to sit in uncomfortable spaces: Wrestling with ideas and … {read more…}

A week ago Thursday, we celebrated Diaz des los Muertos, Day of the Dead, All Saints … there are lots of names for this set of holidays. I tend to gravitate towards “All Souls,” myself, because it includes both the family members we want to remember and the historical figures that have inspired us.

In typical Monkfish fashion, we did our religious buffet and sampled from a bunch of traditions. Mr. Gill, the librarian at Eden and Cate’s school gave us sugar skulls to decorate. A stack of art supplies, saint cards from the local Catholic supply store (trippy!), and some family photos gave us plenty of fodder for creating icons … {read more…}