Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
My time of sabbatical from teaching is come to a close. During my writing time I was able to complete two manuscripts: a fourth collection of poetry titled What Enters Through the Open Heart (to be published by Monkfish Publishing in fall 2026) and a book of devotions for the Easter season about practicing resurrection (to be published by Broadleaf Books in spring 2027). I also completed the final edits for A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Pilgrims, and Artists (being published by Ave Maria Press in February 2026!) And of course my newest book, Give Me a Word: An Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year is out now to support you in receiving a word of guidance. We will be offering an online companion retreat to the book starting next Sunday during the seasons of Advent and Christmas.
Sabbatical time is a gift and a privilege I don’t take lightly. It is something everyone deserves to have—time and space to ponder, create, rest, be—these modes of being are at odds with our culture of incessant busyness and rushing. It is vital to me to live these rhythms to be able to teach in a way that is authentic to the practice.
I experienced immense joy at watching the recordings of the many online programs we offered this fall. I was awash in gratitude for Melinda Thomas, our amazing program coordinator, Delaney Hart, our wonderful abbey assistant, and all of the wisdom council members and guest teachers who created such rich offerings for our community. And of course so much thanks to all of you who participated and kept our community connected in joy and justice.
As we continue to move through our 20th year of Abbey of the Arts I wanted to share some projects we are working on behind the scenes:
- We are so excited to invite you to our Dancing Monks Map Project. We have wanted to find a way to connect dancing monks to each other locally and are so grateful to Liuan and Matthew Huska for creating a way to do just that. Please visit the page to get more details and share your information.
- We love our sixth prayer cycle on Cultivating Seeds of Liberation which was released in May and June of this year. Betsey Beckman, our resident dancer, is creating gesture prayers to companion this series and in fall 2026 we will have the video podcasts for this prayer cycle ready to share with the world.
- Our team has been working diligently to get the text versions of the prayer cycles all formatted consistently. The revised PDF files are available at each of our six prayer cycles.
- Our team has also been slowly working through our self-study retreats and updating the CC and transcripts for each to increase accessibility of these resources. Accessibility is something we value highly as integral to hospitality.
- We are also in the process of creating a series of free guides for personal reflection and small groups for many of the books I have written.
- We have been working on a book version of all the dancing monk icons (created by artist Marcy Hall) with life summaries, and creative practices and prayers for each person (written by Melinda Thomas). In addition, this book will debut six new dancing monks to bring our total to fifty of them. Look for the book in the spring!
Please consider making a donation to help support our many projects we offer at no charge including our six prayer cycles of morning and evening prayer, our Lift Every Voice book club, our scholarship program which makes it possible for anyone to participate in any of our online programs regardless of financial means.
When you visit this page, you get details of the different ways to donate based on your geographic location and needs.
Your support will also help us continue to connect dancing monks together locally and offering more free resources like study guides to deepen your contemplative practice and creative expression.
You help Abbey of the Arts continue to thrive and serve all dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims. Together we are creating a vision for how we want to move (and dance) through the world!
As always, if donating funds is not within your means right now, please know of our gratitude for all the ways you support our work by showing up for our programs and sharing our resources with others.
Please join us for our Advent and Christmas season retreat Give Me a Word. We begin with a live online retreat where I will be joined by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan offering his soulful gift of music and reflection. Then the retreat unfolds with daily pre-recorded content and a vibrant facilitated forum. I have recorded audio versions of the daily meditations for you and there are some bonus practices from our guest teachers as well.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
Image © Christine Valters Paintner, Connemara, Ireland
