Archive for September, 2010

Mike Rowe of Pilot Communications staged this gorgeous shot inside St. John’s Basilica. This time last year, Mike and Pete Laing (the other guy wearing glasses on the Pilot homepage) did much of the interior and exterior design work for Clairvaux Manifesto (including Mike doing a photo shoot with me that ends up in Christian Week).

The other day, I flew out of St. John’s an hour before a hurricane landed. I pray for my friends on the rock.

In our future international headquarters, I would like to see a lot of stone and water and light and wood; a waterfall falling from way up high, down into a pool which flows through the abbey like a stream, dancing underfoot, eventually swirling into an open deep well, re:feeding waterfall and still pool as a tributary flows outdoors; dreams and sketches.

Part 3 of Clairvaux Manifesto entitled Thinking & Acting dives into the life and times of active contemplatives. The phrase “contemplative activists” doesn’t ring true; our active focus must be on the right thing, contemplation!

If my prayer is not answered, I am.
If my petition is not fulfilled, my person, my soul, is;
as the artist comes to himself and his happiness
in the exercise of the talent he was made for, in spite
of the delay and difficulty of turning his work to money.
If the genius is happy who gets scope, the soul is blessed
that truly comes to itself in prayer.
P.T. Forsyth, The Soul of Prayer