Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Abbess love notes

The Cloud of Unknowing and the Greening Power of Contemplation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Last spring I received an email from my editor at Broadleaf Books to connect me with Carmen Acevedo Butcher who had a new translation of Brother Lawrence’s writings out. That connection was such a gift as I have been a fan of Carmen’s work for years, having especially loved her work with the women mystics. We went on to record a conversation about The Practice of the Presence for our book club and found Carmen to be not only a wise teacher of contemplative practice, but a beautiful human being full of kindness and enthusiasm. A friendship

August 20, 2023

Books

The Love of Thousands Book Released Today!

I am delighted that my latest book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness officially released today, August 18th! This book has been gestating for close to twenty years and I am thrilled with how it has formed. I pray it becomes a rich resource of support for many. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s description: Christine Valters Paintner, popular spiritual writer and abbess of the online Abbey of the Arts, says these sacred beings are paving the way for our journey toward God’s love, even as we pass through a world rife with struggle,

August 18, 2023

Monk in the World Guest Post: Cassidhe Hart

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Cassidhe Hart is one our newest Wisdom Council members. Read on for her reflection Walk Barefoot. walk barefoot wherever you go you are standing on holy ground there’s a burning bush on every block the sound of sheer silence in every person who passes the hem of your neighbor’s garment an accomplice to miracles During the times I lived abroad, outside my native US, I carried a notebook with me everywhere, recording the tiniest details to help me depict my

August 16, 2023

Abbess love notes

Love Holds You Poetry and WritingMini-Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Whatever I Find hidden among the stones piled by lake’s edge — a beetle, a coin, a candy wrapper — let it be a portent, a cypher. Let me seek a new direction among what is hidden, lost, discarded, rather than always grasping at some bright, invisible future. —Christine Valters Paintner, Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This coming Friday, I am delighted to be leading an online program, hosted by Mercy by the Sea retreat center, called Love Holds You: Yielding to the Sacred Presence through Poetry and Writing. This mini-retreat

August 13, 2023

Abbess love notes

Christine’s Article on Exile Published by US Catholic

At the heart of exile is a longing to come home again. What does this mean for us in this world? Home may be a place, a house we love, in a landscape we love, with a community who cares for us. It may be a more ethereal kind of reality, like a feeling we have when we experience complete acceptance by others. Or the feeling we have when we walk along the seashore or in a woodland and feel ourselves aligned with God’s creation and its pulsing aliveness. Being at home indicates a state of ease, of feeling welcome,

August 11, 2023

Update on In-Person Pilgrimages

Dearest monks and pilgrims, It seemed time for an update on our in-person pilgrimages as it has been a while since we posted about this on our website and we continue to get inquiries. We have not scheduled any in-person programs since the pandemic and we won’t be doing so for the foreseeable future. The reasons for this are many including the intensive time investment and financial risk of planning programs in uncertain times. Primarily though, it is because of my own health challenges over the last couple of years. Due to being immune compromised and ongoing fatigue and pain,

August 9, 2023

Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Justin Coutts

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest series from the community. Read on for Justin Coutts’ reflection “The Mystical Path of Poetry.” There is an ancient teaching in the Christian tradition about the soul’s journey into God. The spiritual journey is understood as a threefold path which begins by healing our spiritual wounds, passes through the beauty of creation, and culminates in ineffable union with Christ. You can read an introduction to the triple way which I wrote a little while back HERE. In this article, I will give you a brief glimpse

August 9, 2023

Abbess love notes

Transfiguration and Program Updates

A Blessing for Transfiguration Radiant God, open our eyes to all the ways the sacred shimmers before us, how gold pours forth from the robin’s throat, how sunlight returns each morning, how the moon glitters across still water, how laughter around the table kindles joy, how kindness can change lives. Free us from our need to seize these moments, to make of them stone monuments rather than tabernacles of light we carry with us in our hearts. This vision is not a call to stay on the mountain but to gather our treasures into an open embrace, to make the

August 6, 2023

Abbess love notes

Abbey of the Arts Welcomes New Wisdom Council Members!

Abbey of the Arts is extraordinarily delighted to welcome four new members to our Wisdom Council! Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD is an amazing scholar and translator of mystical texts (including most recently Practice of the Presence from Brother Lawrence and she will be leading a program for us on The Cloud of Unknowing in August). We were introduced by our mutual editor and discovered we were both fangirls of one another’s work. She has a beautiful warmth and is rooted deeply in the wellspring of Love. We also invited three young adult members recently to expand perspectives on our council

August 2, 2023

Lift Every Voice Book Club

Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – August Video Discussion and Book Group Materials Now Available

Join Abbey of the Arts for a monthly conversation on how increasing our diversity of perspectives on contemplative practice can enrich our understanding and experience of the Christian mystical tradition. Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month’s selection is In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit by Yolanda Pierce.

August 1, 2023

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The Cloud of Unknowing and the Greening Power of Contemplation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

The Love of Thousands Book Released Today!

Monk in the World Guest Post: Cassidhe Hart

Love Holds You Poetry and WritingMini-Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Christine’s Article on Exile Published by US Catholic

Update on In-Person Pilgrimages

Monk in the World Guest Post: Justin Coutts

Transfiguration and Program Updates

Abbey of the Arts Welcomes New Wisdom Council Members!

Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – August Video Discussion and Book Group Materials Now Available

Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

Gratitude Blessing + The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 7~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World Guest Post: Janeen Adil

Spirituality of Blessings and The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle Day 6 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World Guest Post: Michael Moore

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