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Featured Self-Study for September: Hildegard of Bingen

To celebrate the feast of St Hildegard of Bingen we are offering a $10 discount off the cost of the Creative Flourishing in the Desert self-study retreat. It includes rich reflections from Christine on Hildegard’s spirituality for today, daily invitations to draw mandalas, links to her music, and invitations into body prayer with Betsey Beckman. Or join us in the Rhine Valley of Germany May 29-June 6, 2016 for a pilgrimage walking in the landscape which shaped her. Your registration for the pilgrimage includes access to the self-study retreat above to help you prepare for the journey. Details and registration here>>

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September 14, 2015

Celebrate the Feast of St. Hildegard! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, September 17th will be the Feast of Holy Hildegard, one of the patron saints of our work here in Abbey because of her roots as a Benedictine monk and Abbess, and her incredible commitment to creative expression and nurturing aliveness. She is featured in our upcoming online retreat for women Coming Home to Your Body. I offer you this brief excerpt: I am the living breath in a human being placed in a tabernacle of marrow, veins, bones, and flesh, giving it vitality and supporting its every movement. —St. Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias I 4:4 Hildegard of

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September 13, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Gerry O’Neill

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Gerry O’Neill’s poem about ways to practice the sacrament of Communion. Strange Communion No altar, No bread or wine, No priest, No word spoken To stir the dangerous memory of Jesus (John Baptist Metz) The drama is enacted Under a different form: Paper cup, coffee and hot roll, Offered up In a liturgy of love. The salivated cup passes, From lip to lip, Measured bites so all may have food For the journey To the sheltered workshop. Real presence in

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September 10, 2015

Coming Home to Your Body: A Woman’s Contemplative Journey to Wholeness ~ A Love Note

Dearest monks and artists, I offer you a brief excerpt from our upcoming online retreat for women Coming Home to Your Body: Every breath is a resurrection. —Gregory Orr (excerpt from poem “Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved”) In the Benedictine tradition there is a monastic practice called statio, which is the practice of stopping one thing before beginning another.  Imagine, instead of rushing from one appointment to the next, that between each one you pause, you breathe just five long slow breaths. Imagine how this might transform your movement from one activity to another. Or even

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September 7, 2015

Monk in the World guest post: Rich Lewis

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rich Lewis’ reflection on centering prayer. When I slow myself down I remember I am a divine being.  One way I slow myself down is through the practice of centering prayer.  I have been practicing centering prayer since June 1, 2014.  The recommended guidelines are twice per day, twenty minutes each time.  Previously, I dabbled with centering prayer.  For a few months, I practiced once per night.  Each session lasted no longer than ten minutes.  I knew this was not enough.  I knew God was calling me.  I knew

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September 3, 2015

Monk Manifesto appears at the On Being Blog

I am delighted that the Monk Manifesto appeared this past week on the On Being blog as well as a reflection by me about it. I submitted this to them quite a while ago, so it doesn’t include our 8th added principle: 8. I commit to being a dancing monk, cultivating creative joy and letting my body and “heart overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.” (You can see the full Monk Manifesto here) But worth a stop by their site to see the dancing monk community around the web. Stop here to read the article>>

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September 1, 2015

Coming Home to Your Body – an online retreat for women

September 21-November 28, 2015 | 10-week online retreat with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE + ten fabulous guest teachers + two amazing forum facilitators = a recipe for deepened body love! If only we can bring the wisdom of the body to consciousness, spirit will no longer be homesick for home.” –Marion Woodman, Leaving my Father’s House What if you made a radical commitment to embrace the gift of your body as sacred vessel? What if you began the long and beautiful journey home? Together in this 10-week online retreat for women we will create a body wisdom tribe of dancing monks, sensual monks, monks delighting in

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August 31, 2015

Love note: Writing as a Spiritual Practice

Dearest monks and artists, I am delighted to share an article of mine published in the most recent issue of Network Ireland Magazine on Writing as a Spiritual Practice. Read on for more insight into how I approach this work: I am deeply inspired by monastic tradition, one of the great contemplative and mystical strands of Christian heritage, and also present in other religions. Monks were the keepers of wisdom through their commitment to spiritual practice and to the art of writing. Manuscripts were illuminated, bringing word and image together, to shine a light on the poetry, stories, and other wise

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August 30, 2015

Abbey Sabbatical

The Abbey is going to take a sabbatical from the weekly newsletters through August. Look for us back in your in-box in early September. Please note: If you subscribe to the daily nourishment, you will still receive those Monday-Saturday during this time. Blessings on the Celtic Feast of Lughnasa! To join us in honoring the rhythms of the Celtic wheel of the year, consider registering for Sacred Seasons which is a yearlong journey including reflections, poems, songs, dance, and more for each of the eight thresholds of the natural cycles. You can work through the materials year after year.

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August 3, 2015

Giving Up a Too-Small God

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Another reflection from the Abbey archives for you on expanding our understanding of the divine: Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for an unknown God. — from Amiel’s Journal, translated by Mrs. Humphrey Ward John Cassian, one of the ancient desert

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August 2, 2015

Upcoming Programs

Writing on the Wild Edges: St. Brendan’s Voyage as Creative Guide
Writing on the Wild Edges: St. Brendan’s Voyage as Creative Guide
12 May 25
Sourcing From the Well: Songs of Strength and Resilience
Sourcing From the Well: Songs of Strength and Resilience
23 May 25
Brother Lawrence, Friar of Love, and His Transforming Presence Practice
Brother Lawrence, Friar of Love, and His Transforming Presence Practice
13 Jun 25

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