A visual meditation with images from my travels during the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates in October 2009. The photos were taken in the Vatican City, Rome, Subiaco (Benedict’s Cave), Monte Cassino (Benedictine monastery), and Sant’Anselmo (Primatial Abbey). The music is by Hildegard of Bingen.
© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative [...]

Posted in Monastic Spirituality, Visual Meditation | 14 Comments »

*JUST ADDED: A NEW E-COURSE for LENT*
Join me for a transformative journey through the ancient contemplative practices of lectio divina, centering prayer, and praying the hours.  This Lenten season, create a supported retreat for yourself.  Click the image below for more details.
I have taught several different versions of this Benedictine spirituality course with enthusiastic [...]

Posted in Abbey Online Classes, Contemplative Living, Lectio Divina, Lenten Online Retreat, Monastic Spirituality, Praying the Hours | Comments Off

A quick note to let you know that my Teaching Calendar has been updated with several upcoming retreat & workshop opportunities.
A reminder to join Betsey Beckman and me for a wonderful Art & Movement retreat to Honor Our Ancestors over the weekend of Halloween, Samhain, and All Saint’s.  This will be a beautiful time of [...]

Posted in Art, Creativity, & Spirituality Retreat, Monastic Spirituality | 1 Comment »

Hildegard of Bingen was my doorway into the Benedictine life.  While in graduate school I was studying for my “History of Christian Spirituality” comprehensive examination (a fearful and awesome task if there ever was one) and actually had a slight disdain for those ancient monks.  My spirituality up until that point had been quite infused [...]

Posted in Monastic Spirituality | 6 Comments »

A monastery can never be merely an escape from the world. Its very purpose is to enable us to face the problems of the world at their deepest level, that is to say, in relation to God and eternal life. Everything in the monastic life down to the deepest level has to be viewed from [...]

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Those of you who follow the Abbey regularly know that this has been a very full summer for me, filled with good and wonderful opportunities. When I said yes to each of these I was aware that I was committing myself to a season of hard work.  Being my monk-ish self, I value working hard [...]

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Here are some of my favorite posts on monastic spirituality, sort of a “Best of Benedictine Spirituality” in honor of his Feast Day today:
How to Be An Artist-Monk
 

Radical Hospitality
 
Rule of Life at the Abbey
 
Standing in Place (on Stability)
 
I Live My Life in Widening Circles (on the Hours and Sacred Rhythms)
 
Telling the Truth (on Humility)

** SPECIAL OFFERS [...]

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Be. Here. This Moment Now is all there is, don’t go seeking another. Discover the sacred in your artist’s tools, they are the vessels of the altar of your own unfolding. Look at this cup of holy water, washing clean the brushes. See the blank page, awaiting your blessing. Gaze on the colors before you, [...]

Posted in Monastic Spirituality | 8 Comments »

Growing up in New York City, my favorite place was The Cloisters (a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with art from medieval European monasteries). I had fallen in love with the aesthetic dimension of monastic tradition long before I understood what that way of life really meant. The art, architecture, music, and illuminated manuscripts all [...]

Posted in Lectio Divina, Monastic Spirituality | 6 Comments »

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning is a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
[S]he may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the [...]

Posted in Contemplative Living, Monastic Spirituality, Poetry, Spirituality | 12 Comments »