The Love of Thousands
A self-study online retreat
- Companion retreat to the book
- Online retreat
- Self-study, start anytime
- Move at your own pace, in your own place
- Lifetime access
Registration Fee: $200 USD
Do you long to connect with your wise and well ancestors?
Do you have an affinity for a particular saint but don’t know why?
What would it be like to feel the presence of angels supporting you through your life in a real way?
Program Description
The infinite community and the love of thousands who shimmer beyond the veil between worlds can help sustain us in dark times.
We can often feel alone and isolated in our individualistic culture. The frenzy of working long hours and keeping up with all of our commitments can mean there isn’t time to cultivate our relationships with others. In addition we are encouraged to bear the burdens we carry on our own and not show signs of vulnerability or ask for help. This is an exhausting way to live.
The support we need to thrive in life comes not just from people who are living in this physical world alongside us but also from those who have passed beyond the veil, such as saints and ancestors. Jewish, Islamic, and Christian scriptures also reveal to us a long tradition of encounters with angelic beings who bring messages and protection.
Angels are those spiritual presences who act as guardians (Eden), appear in dreams to offer a calling (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, and Joseph) or new name (Isaac), who wrestle with us (Jacob), who ask us for hospitality (Abraham, Sarah, and Lot), and who minister and tend to us in the wilderness (Elijah and Jesus). We will begin our own retreat by asking the angels to support and minister to us as we listen more deeply for our authentic calling.
In the Christian tradition saints are those wise and well ancestors of spirit who have passed through the veil in a state of vibrant wholeness. Not everyone who dies is a well presence and so we look to the saints to be able to call upon those who lived lives transformed by their intimate and abiding connection to the sacred and deep rootedness in Love.
Christian tradition also has a vibrant practice for honoring our ancestors of blood and bone, those beings who walked this earth, struggled with life, celebrated, grieved, and whose choices brought us into being. Our ancestors, just like human beings, have varying degrees of wellness upon death and can continue to heal even after they have passed on. We can do the inner work needed to heal the wounds we inherited and we can open to the blessings they bestow upon us.
We will be standing on the threshold between worlds, courting connection with all those well and wise ones who dwell beneath the surface of everyday awareness. In Celtic and many other indigenous traditions, the belief is that we are part of a great communion of beings who live in the Otherworld. Angels, saints, and ancestors are sacred presences we can call upon and develop intimacy with, just like any human friendship. By cultivating this practice of connection, we are nourished with tremendous resources of emotional and spiritual support for the challenging times of our lives. It is an act of humility to yield our own agendas and need to carry everything ourselves and ask others to journey alongside of us and support us into our own vibrant wholeness.
You will need to order a copy of The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness in addition to registering for the program. *Artwork on book cover above by Elise Ritter (used with permission).
You have lifetime access to all online programs.
What's Included
- 14 webinar recordings in audio and video format with Christine Valters Paintner
- 14 guided audio meditations from Christine Valters Paintner
- 14 scripture reflections from John Valters Paintner
- 14 visio divina videos with Elise Ritter’s artwork
- 14 recorded conversations with guest teachers. Many of these conversations include bonus meditation experiences from the teacher.
- 14 dance prayer videos from Betsey Beckman
- 14 closing blessings videos
Weekly Rhythm of Content
Day 1: Recorded webinar with Christine including teaching and meditation
Day 2: Scripture reflection from John
Day 3: Visio divina with Elise Ritter’s art
Day 4: Guest teacher conversations
Day 5: Dance prayer videos with Betsey
Day 6: Closing blessing video and reflection questions
Day 7: Time for rest and integration
All video recordings have the option to view with closed captions and cc transcripts are available.
*art by Elise Ritter (used with permission)
What's Included
- Six days a week you receive an email with a link to the day’s content. The materials are in written, video, and/or audio format which you can view and listen to at any time. The seventh day is a day for rest and integration.
- 14 webinar recordings in audio and video format with Christine Valters Paintner
- 14 guided audio meditations from Christine Valters Paintner
- 14 scripture reflections from John Valters Paintner
- 14 visio divina videos with Elise Ritter's artwork
- 14 recorded conversations with guest teachers. Many of these conversations include bonus meditation experiences from the teacher.
- 14 Movement and dance video invitations with Betsey Beckman
- 14 closing blessings videos
- Closed captioning and transcripts
- Lifetime access to all material in our private and easy-to-navigate retreat platform
Stand at a threshold and whisper some of their names, grandmothers and grandfathers, back through hundreds and thousands of years.
Weekly Themes
Week 1:
Calling on Archangels
Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Urial each express a different quality and way of being: protector, messenger, healer, and bearer of wisdom. We are invited to call upon these archangels to encircle and strengthen us with their presence.
Week 2:
Encountering Your Guardian Angel
A Guardian Angel is a spiritual being assigned to be your guide, protector, and companion through this life. Through attending to our dreams, emotional landscapes, symbols, and synchronicities, we can begin to attune our spiritual senses to these extensions of divine grace.
Week 3:
Wrestling with Angels
The story of Jacob wrestling with an angel is an invitation to ponder our own times of wrestling with the divine and our own appeals to be blessed. As Jacob receives a new name, we might consider what new name and blessings we’re being asked to claim.
Week 4:
We are All Called to Be Saints and Mystics
The Holy One calls us to be mystics and saints — to be a mystic is to allow our contemplative and creative practices to prepare our hearts for intimate connection with the Divine and to be a saint is to let that encounter guide us on a path of Divine Love into the fullness of who we are.
Week 5:
Embodied Love
The Incarnation teaches us that all flesh is infused with grace, sacredness, and beauty. Through honoring the relics of saints, we honor our own incarnation and embodiment and are invited to connect to the loving community that extends beyond the veil.
Week 6:
Saints and Pilgrimage
Whether an external journey or purely internal, the gifts of pilgrimage continue to emerge throughout our lives. Both intention and holy disruption are integral to pilgrimage, inviting us to navigate the tension of carrying with us our desires but doing so lightly to remain open to the unexpected.
Week 7:
Blessings of Our Ancestors
Death is not the end of consciousness or the end of the desire of a soul to be in relationship with the living, and we are invited into this intimate exchange. This week we’re focusing on those ancestors who are wise and well, the blessings they bring us, and the potential for partnership.
Week 8:
Intergenerational Wounds and Our Responsibilities
Wounds are passed down intergenerationally through both patterns and our bodies, and we are invited to lean on the support of the angels, saints, and wise and well ancestors to engage these wounds. This healing work has vast ripples: threading through future generations, liberating our ancestors, and impacting our very own lives and journeys.
Week 9:
Grieving Our Losses
Grief is a witness to the love we carry for the world, and we’re called to let the river of grief flow through us and open our hearts. We make this journey with grief not just for ourselves, but for the sake of all who grieve, knowing sorrow is more endurable when we do not walk its landscape alone.
Week 10:
Ancestral Pilgrimage
Through a pilgrimage of the heart, we’re called to connect to our ancestral landscape and to commit to cultivating belonging wherever we find ourselves. In this ancestral pilgrimage, we encounter tension between feeling a sense of ancient belonging and a disorientation of being a stranger in a strange place.
Week 11:
Cosmology, Myth, and Song
Cosmology pertains to how a people group understands the world and makes meaning from life. We’re invited to consider the myths, stories, and songs that helped shape our ancestors and consequently discover how this inheritance can connect us with our community now.
Week 12:
Becoming Wise and Well Ancestors
Becoming wise and well ancestors is a natural extension of our work to open our hearts, minds, and spirits to the wisdom of angels, saints, and ancestors. We’re invited to carry the wisdom we’ve received into the future through cultivating embodied, spiritual practices that nurture joy, justice, and freedom for all people.
Week 13:
Ancestral Earth and Deep Time
Our ancestors are not just human but also all of creation. When we honor this relationship with our ancestral earth and the generative cycle of life and death, we begin to enter into a deeper relationship with time, recognizing the vastness beyond our own perception.
Week 14:
The Love of Thousands
Bringing awareness to the fullness of the love of thousands, we consider how to carry this love forward, each of us with a unique expression. The angels, saints, and ancestors remind us we’re not alone in this work, and we’re invited to ask them to hold us in their love as we journey forward.
Weekly Rhythm of Content
Six days a week you receive an email with a link to the day’s content. The materials are in written, video, and/or audio format which you can view and listen to at any time. The seventh day is a day for rest and integration.
Day 1: Recorded webinar with Christine Valters Paintner including teaching and meditation
Day 2: Scripture reflection from John Valters Paintner
Day 3: Visio divina with Elise Ritter’s art
Day 4: Guest teacher conversations
Day 5: Dance prayer videos with Betsey Beckman
Day 6: Closing blessing video and reflection questions
Day 7: Time for rest and integration
All video recordings have the option to view with closed captions and cc transcripts are available.
Art by Elise Ritter (used with permission)
Your Guides for the Journey
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
Christine Valters Paintner is the online Abbess and director of AbbeyoftheArts.com, a virtual monastery exploring contemplative practice, creative expression, and ways to nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness. She is a spiritual director, teacher, pilgrimage guide, Benedictine oblate, and author of numerous books on spirituality and the arts. Her deepest belief is that the earth is the original monastery—a wisdom guide and mentor in living a soulful and vibrant life. Visit the “About Christine” page for more information.
John Valters Paintner, MTS
John Valters Paintner is the online prior for Abbey of the Arts, where he assists his wife Christine in ministering to global community both online and through in-person programs. John was a youth minister and pastoral associate for four years before becoming a high school religion teacher for twelve years. He has a Masters of Theological Studies from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. His love for the Bible, particularly the Hebrew Scriptures, emerged when he taught the “Old Testament” at an all-boys high school. John is also a lover of the art of story-telling and has written dozens of short stories, one-act plays, and short films in a variety of genres. Visit the “About John” page for more information.
Betsey Beckman, MM
Guest Teacher Conversations
Imam Jamal Rahman, Sufi Interfaith Minister and author of numerous books including The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam
Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, musician and composer of progressive community songs for the global church
Beverly Lanzetta, theologian, contemplative scholar, and author of numerous books including The Monk Within: Embracing a Sacred Way of Life
Carl McColman, spiritual director, retreat facilitator and author of numerous books including The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism
Carmen Acevedo Butcher, teacher, author, and award-winning translator of many mystical texts including The Cloud of Unknowing and The Practice of the Presence
Mary Earle, Episcopal priest, poet, spiritual director, retreat leader, and author of numerous books including Celtic Christian Spirituality: Essential Writings
Lindsay Sudeikis, spiritual director, Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner, and Theology Educator
Catherine Dunne, psychotherapist, an Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner, and a Movement Medicine Teacher
Rabbi Zari Weiss, spiritual director, teacher, writer, and Rabbi in the Jewish tradition
Lydia Violet, musician, composer, scholar, teacher, social justice advocate
Patrick Reyes, theologian, executive leader, host of Sound of the Genuine podcast, and the author of The Purpose Gap and the forthcoming Pedagogy of the Ancestors
Alana Levandoski, singer songwriter, recording producer, folk opera composer, and essayist
Justin Coutts, Celtic scholar, contemplative leader, and writer
Breathe once slowly, then again, and with a third deep breath, close your eyes and attune to the warmth of sheltering wings.
Praise for the Retreat
Registration
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$200
Registration Fee
Purchase the Companion Book
The book is not included in the registration fee. You may purchase the book at the links below or at your local book seller. Thank you for your support!
Terms and Conditions
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