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Virtual Book Tour: Review at Holy Ordinary

I am so delighted to have my book reviewed today by Brent Bill, author of many fine books including  Mind the Light: Learning to See with Spiritual Eyes, and blogger at Holy Ordinary: Musings and Photography from a Quaker Perspective: (The camera) is a gadget that is often thought of just as that – a gadget – rather than a entry into eternity and spiritual experience.  Christine’s book helps us broaden our spiritual horizons whether through phone camera or professional DLSRs. Make no mistake.  This is no book solely for photographers.  It is for anyone who desires a fresh way

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April 25, 2013

Landscape Mysticism (a love note from your online Abbess)

Dearest monks and artists, I have been back from Vienna for a week now, enjoying settling back into my life in Galway, and listening for how this time away has shaped me.  Pilgrimage always changes us because it always brings us to an encounter with the Holy.  As I return to Ireland, I find myself full of inspiration and dreams.  And I find myself deeply trusting the direction my life is moving. There is a part of me hungry to keep traveling more, living here in Europe with so many cultures and countries on my doorstep.  And while there are some

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April 24, 2013

Virtual Book Tour: Photography Party Book Giveaway at Anam Cara

Tara Owens at Anam Cara is hosting a Photography Party Book Giveaway! She invites you to share your own images on the theme of Resurrection or on Eyes of the Heart. Share your photos by Monday, April 29th and enter for a chance to win a copy of my book Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice! (And for a chance to win a space in my upcoming online class stop by the Abbey Photo Party) Previous Virtual Book Tour Stops: Book Review at Melanged Magic with Evelyn Jackson “Practicing Resurrection through the Eyes of the Heart” Guest

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April 24, 2013

Virtual Book Tour: Review at Melanged Magic

I am honored to have my book reviewed today by Evelyn Jackson at Melanged Magic. I found the book both very readable and very thought-provoking. As a person who wants to create beautiful photographs, I found myself challenged to release that expectation and just let myself be gifted with whatever appeared in my view finder. One of the most difficult changes I encountered was shifting the language with which we speak about photography. Think about how you describe photography..taking photos, shooting an image, capturing a shot or light or action. Very aggressive words that describe definitive actions, planning, and specific

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April 22, 2013

Virtual Book Tour: Guest Post at Anam Cara

From April 22-May 31 I am embarking on a virtual book tour to share the release of my newest book Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice.   There will be guest posts, interviews, and reviews by other bloggers. I am thrilled to kick things off with the lovely and wise Tara Owens of Anam Cara where I share my thoughts about “Practicing Resurrection through the Eyes of the Heart“: The season of Easter spans 50 days of celebrating the resurrection and culminating in Pentecost.  Yet, for many of us, Easter Sunday comes and goes and we forget

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April 22, 2013

Hildegard and the call of her landscape

I have a guest post up at the Spiritual Directors International blog in celebration of Earth Day and Hildegard of Bingen: “I am the fiery life of the essence of God; I am the flame above the beauty in the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life. For the air is alive in the verdure and the flowers; the waters flow as if they lived; the sun too lives in its light; and when the moon

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April 22, 2013

Invitation to Photography: Landscape Mysticism

Welcome to the Abbey Photo Party! I select a theme and invite you to respond with images. I have been pondering a great deal lately the ways the landscapes I have lived in shape my soul (this week’s love note from me will develop this theme).  My invitation to you is to ponder this for yourself: What is the impact of my physical landscape on my spiritual one?  How might I express this through a photo or image? You can share images you already have which illuminate the theme, but I encourage you also to go for a walk with the

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April 21, 2013

A New Name (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!) Dearest monks and artists, I am back in Galway after two magical weeks in Vienna.  This past week, Kayce Hughlett and I were leading our first ever retreat in Vienna, exploring the beauty of the city through the contemplative practices of writing and photography.  I had been eagerly anticipating this experience for months, so excited to show others this city I love so much.  To show them Vienna, not through the lens of a tour bus, but through the eyes of the heart. 

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April 16, 2013

Introducing John Valters Paintner!

I’m a Yankee-Doodle Catholic Greetings to The Abbey of the Arts community! My name is John Valters Paintner. I am blessed to be married to your online Abbess, Christine. And I am honored to be joining her in a more direct manner as your online Prior. I just returned from two weeks in Vienna, Austria where I assisted my wife and Kayce Hughett in leading a retreat. But before I begin more work with the Abbey, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you all a little about myself, my background and my inspirations. I was born on the

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April 15, 2013

Easter blessings (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!) Dearest Monks and Artists, Springtime seems to be breaking out slowly in the northern hemisphere, with its promise of renewal and new beginnings.  Here in Galway it has been quite cold and windy these last several days as we await the weather to begin to turn, to open toward the season of growing light. But springtime is as much an inner experience as it is an outer one. I am feeling this sense of opening within me.  My husband and I have been

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March 31, 2013