Reflections

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today we take a journey over to Lacy Ellman’s blog, A Sacred Journey, where I share some wisdom for planning your own personal retreat.  Lacy’s wonderful site focuses on pilgrimage as a powerful metaphor for life and she has attended live programs through the Abbey.  Read on for more: What do silence and solitude have to do with spirituality and Christian tradition? There is a long and rich tradition of seeking the gifts of silence within Christianity.  One of the earliest is the desert monks who wrote extensively about hesychia, which is a deep inner stillness and silence.  Hesychia isn’t