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Virtual Book Tour: Guest Post at June Mears Driedger – “Tending the Moments”

The next stop on the Virtual Book Tour is at June Mears Driedger‘s blog with a guest post from me on Tending the Moments.  June is also hosting a book giveaway if you leave a comment at her blog before this Wednesday: You have undoubtedly had an experience similar to this: you are moving through a most ordinary day, when suddenly something shifts.  Where there was drudgery and habit, suddenly you become aware of the way sunlight is spilling across the living room rug and your heart breaks open at the splendor of it all.  Or you see a loved one

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Remember (a poem)

Remember Inspired by Theo Dorgan’s poem “The Angel of Days”* And what did you do on earth? I descended daily into the hush – if only for a moment, but sometimes for blessed hours at a time. I followed the shimmering threads which lured me into the night, full of wonder at all that was unfolding. I opened myself wide to gratitude, to the delight that there was anything at all, much less pink-petaled peonies and generous handfuls of red berries, the incredible sweetness of things, or the way dawn and dusk could reveal my own new thresholds, how a

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Earth Your Dancing Place (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) Earth Your Dancing Place (excerpt) Take earth for your own large room and the floor of earth carpeted with sunlight and hung round with silver wind for your dancing place —May Swenson, Nature: Poems Old and New Dearest Monks and Artists: I have had the great pleasure of sharing Ireland with John’s two sisters these last couple of weeks.  It was their first time here and so everything was a new discovery.  We loved having family so close and exploring this place we have

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Virtual Book Tour: Interview at Always We Begin Again

Today’s stop is for an interview at Always We Begin Again, a wonderful organization founded by Judy Smoot to support those with chronic illness.  Judy is also a Benedictine oblate, and she and her fellow board member Michael Landon both attended Awakening the Creative Spirit a couple of years ago: Some of our readers may not be familiar with your work as an author, spiritual director, retreat leader and online Abbess of Abbey of the Arts; could you share a little about yourself and the many aspects of your ministry? Abbey of the Arts is a virtual monastery dedicated to

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Virtual Book Tour: Guest Post at A Photographic Sage – Quieting the Mind through Contemplative Photography

Last week Patricia Turner at A Photographic Sage reviewed my new book and today I offer up a guest post at her blog on Quieting the Mind through Contemplative Photography: Abba Poemen said: “A (person) may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another  who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent; that is,  he says nothing that is not profitable.” (Poemen 27) Quieting the mind may be the biggest challenge we face as people desiring a more  contemplative way of being.  Finding external

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Virtual Book Tour: Book Review at GodSpace by Christine Sine

The next stop on the Virtual Book Tour is a review by Christine Sine at GodSpace: I don’t often do book reviews, but when Sorin Books contacted me about doing one on Christine Valters Paintner’s latest book Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice, I was delighted. I love Christine’s contemplative books and this one did not disappoint. I am a keen photographer but this book’s appeal goes far beyond that. Its contemplative exercises adapt the contemplative practices of lectio divina and visio divina into a new form of spiritual observation. Through the lens of a camera we can

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this week’s winner is. . .

. . . Wronda!  Please send me your snail mail address and I will get a signed copy of Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice! Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the Poetry Party – your celebrations of springtime brought forth a blossoming of the soul.

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Virtual Book Tour: Review at A Photographic Sage

The next stop on the Virtual Book Tour is a review by Patricia Turner at A Photographic Sage:  What I find especially refreshing about Christine’s book is how it draws each individual into the experience of contemplative photography…it never lectures, it makes you a part of the on-going process. “One of the most important things I think I can teach is learning to make space to listen to your own deepest longings and begin to trust those more.” -page 31  Hers is a gentle touch and a reassuring one. Click here to read the whole review>> Click here to purchase

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Virtual Book Tour: Review At Sense of the Faithful

Next stop on the Virtual Book Tour is a review by Peg Conway at Sense of the Faithful: An inspiring new book by Christine Valters Paintner called Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice provides a transformative path for the digital age.  Christine is the founder and abbess of the virtual Abbey of the Arts, where she offers online and in-person classes and other resources for contemplative living, with an emphasis on the expressive arts.  From reading her blogs and newsletter and taking her free “monk in the world” e-course, I regarded Christine as a wise and

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Virtual Book Tour: Guest post at Expressive Prayer – Contemplative Photography in a Time-Obsessed Culture

For today’s stop on the Virtual Book Tour, I offer you a guest post at Roy Deleon’s blog Expressive Prayer and Praying with the Body on “Contemplative Photography in a Time-Obsessed Culture.” Roy and I are fellow Benedictine oblates with St Placid Priory in Lacey, WA so he has a similar contemplative vision of the world. (He is also the author of the wonderful book Praying with the Body: Bringing the Psalms to Life which I highly recommend for those who want an embodied approach to praying the Psalms): We live with a scarcity of time in our culture.  We lament how busy

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