For Glimpses of Heaven Here and Now*
Sacred Source of Joy,
help us to see glimpses
of heaven all around us,
in the urgency of each spring’s blooming,
in the simple gifts of water
to bathe in and drink,
in our morning tea or coffee,
with steam rising like this prayer,
in the dog’s pleading eyes
or the warm embrace of a friend,
in the food that nourishes us
and the herbs given freely for healing.
May we behold wonder in the way
sunlight illumines and moonlight glows.
May we treasure moments of laughter and
see paradise shimmering forth
wherever we look.
Help us savor moments
of ease and hope in whatever forms they take.
Strengthen and nourish us
to share a vision of Eden with the world.
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,
Tomorrow we begin a new offering of Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist, the 12-week companion retreat to The Artist’s Rule with loads more resources and practices for you. It is the heart of what we practice here at Abbey of the Arts – to nurture and nourish our inner contemplatives and creatives.
Here is an excerpt from The Artist’s Rule:
This is the invitation extended to—let us be so bold as to say this—the new monk. The new monk, who will never enter traditional institutions, is yet impelled by the attractions of a life built upon principles that are thoroughly monastic. Our path requires, as an initiation into a new (or renewed) way of life, a different consciousness. We must disrupt old ways, shattering the planes upon which we have unwittingly built lives that do not bring us the happiness, the fulfillment, the transcendence for which we hunger. We need not turn our back and flee to the monastery; rather we must turn toward the world, our lives, our work, our community, our loved ones, in a new way.
—Paul Wilkes
The monastic way and artist’s path are both ways of being in the world and journeying through life. The monk and artist each represent an archetype.
Archetypes are psychological structures that are reflected in the symbols, images, and themes common across cultures and time periods. Archetypes reflect different energies working within us. We each contain a multiplicity of selves. This becomes most obvious to us when we experience an inner conflict of desires. Perhaps our desire for a more creative life feels like it is in conflict with our desire for financial security.
Or our desire for a more contemplative life conflicts with the part of ourselves that loves to get everything done. One of these desires is not necessarily better or higher than the other; at their root each desire teaches us something about ourselves and our deeper longings. In this program we will apply the monastic principle of hospitality to making room within ourselves for the full spectrum of inner dialogue. But for now, we focus on the two aspects that drew you to this book: the “inner monk” and the “inner artist.”
The “inner monk” seeks God as the source of all being, searches for a mystical connection to the divine source, longs for what is most essential in life, and cultivates this through a commitment to spiritual practice. The monk is nourished through silence and a commitment to see everything as sacred.
The “inner artist” engages the world through the senses and is passionate about beauty, seeking to express it through a variety of media (including visual art, poetry, movement, song, gardening, cooking, relationships, etc.) Artists bring a sense of wonder to their work and open up new ways of seeing the world.
In this book, we are essentially exploring what it means to be a “new monk”—one who lives beyond the monastery walls but brings the gifts and graces of monastic tradition to everyday life. We are also discovering what it is to be a “new artist”—one who seeks to satisfy a deep longing of the soul by making space for the delight and passion of creative. These two paths meet in several places. Both monk and artist:
• cultivate a contemplative capacity for seeing the world deeply beyond the surface appearances.
• welcome in awe, wonder, and holy curiosity as nourishment for the journey and as the seeds for new visions.
• live on the edges and in border-spaces.
• serve the mysteries of the world.
In a world that is filled with cruelty and harm to so much life, to commit to the way of the monk and the path of the artist is to say that I am on the side of Love in the world. I am aligned with a holy direction, calling me inward to listen, calling me outward to create new possibilities.
To choose this path means to look for glimpses of paradise all around.
Our featured book for January and February in the Lift Every Voice book club is Here: A Spirituality of Staying in a Culture of Leaving by Lydia Sohn. Her book explores the Benedictine commitment to stability through lots of lovely storytelling. Stability is about staying present to a world that can feel hard to stay present with. Stability calls us to honor the sorrow and celebrate all that shimmers. I highly recommend making time to listen to our conversation (and buying the book!)
I’ve been pondering Lydia’s invitation to deepen into stability a lot in my own life and the word “stay” seems to have chosen me for the coming year. (My word was slow to appear, so hoping that gives some of you comfort!) The phrase, “stay here my love, stay here now” has been ringing in my ears. There are so many times we want to run far away, especially in such challenging times globally. Stability sings out that the sacred is always in our midst. That gentle abiding presence is what we are called to offer to ourselves and others. In our monk and artist retreat journey we explore the connection between stability and the creative process, among other monastic principles!
Our monk and artist journey begins tomorrow!
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
*Blessing is from Christine’s forthcoming book A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Artists, and Pilgrims (Ave Maria Press)
Poem video created with Canva
