Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Instructions for Traveling Lightly

In my last post I wrote to you about the big decision my husband and I have made to move to Vienna this summer. We are going for a year and then will decide whether to stay there longer, perhaps move to Ireland, perhaps come back to the States. We are truly entering this as a time of listening and discovery. We are in the midst of many preparations for that journey. There is much letting go that needs to happen. We are selling our home in Seattle and so have been working hard to release everything we don’t absolutely need

March 19, 2012

Sacred Fasting

Here is my latest column for Patheos on desert wisdom for Lent: Abba Daniel used to say, “He lived with us many a long year and every year we used to take him only one basket of bread and when we went to find him the next year we would eat some of that bread.” (Arsenius 17) Abba Daniel used to tell how when Abba Arsenius learned that all the varieties of fruit were ripe he would say, “Bring me some.” He would taste very little of each, just once, giving thanks to God.” (Arsenius 19) –from Sayings of the

March 19, 2012

Invitation to Poetry: In Praise of Detours

Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #56! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post) On Sunday, March 25th, I will draw a name at random from the participants and the

March 17, 2012

Visual Meditation: A Monk Dreams of Paris

March 17, 2012

“there is always the risk / of remembering your name”

Prospective Immigrants Please Note Either you will go through this door or you will not go through. If you go through there is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen. If you do not go through it is possible to live worthily to maintain your attitudes to hold your position to die bravely but much will blind you, much will evade you, at what cost who knows? The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door. — Adrienne Rich

March 15, 2012

Join me for the Sacred Rhythms Writing Retreat (June 7-10)

I am so thrilled to be offering a brand new live retreat called Sacred Rhythms: Bringing Yoga, Movement, and the Wisdom of the Seasons to Your Writing Practice – June 7-10, 2012 at the Grunewald Guild near Leavenworth, WA. This will be a wonderful, nourishing time of diving deep into our bodies and telling the stories we discover there. Guided by the rhythms of the day, we will move through the hours of awakening, ripening, releasing, and being to listen to how these rhythms might support our creative practice. This retreat is for every body and anyone who loves to

March 7, 2012

“The way is made by walking”

Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the way is made by walking. —Antonio Machado The words above have been a kind of mantra for me in recent years. As my own spiritual path loosens its grip on plans and certainties and moves more deeply into unknowing and mystery, I am discovering the truth that “there is no road / the way is made by walking.” Sometimes when I am working with someone in spiritual direction, I hear the longing to know the path God is calling them to, to have some certainty

March 6, 2012

The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers with Christine Valters Paintner (spring online course)

I will be teaching an online class this spring through the Spirituality and Practice website:April 23 – May 18, 2012 $49.95 Click here to registerThe desert is a place of sparse landscape, where we are stripped down to our essence and confronted with our own deep needs and desires. Naturalist and writer Terry Tempest Williams described its spiritual significance in her memoir Refuge: “If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There is

March 5, 2012

A new interview with me about spiritual direction at Anam Cara

The lovely Tara at Anam Cara has interviewed me about spiritual direction. Here is an excerpt: Introduce yourself to the Anam Cara readers. Who are you? Where do you live? What do you do other than spiritual direction? I am Christine Valters Paintner and I live in Seattle, WA with my husband and my canine companion (who is one of my primary spiritual directors) in the heart of the city. I am a Benedictine oblate which means I have made a commitment to living as a monk in the world outside the monastery walls. I am also the online Abbess

March 1, 2012

Winner of this week’s Poetry Party

This past week for our Poetry Party I invited you to write love poems to the world – to those ordinary things of our everyday lives which might for a moment become luminous. Stop by to read the marvelous offerings. The winner of the random drawing for a free registration spot in my upcoming online art retreat for the season of Lent – Soul of a Pilgrim (February 22-April 7, 2012) is Phebe Allen Gustafson. Phebe, send me your email address and I can get you registered. Thank you to everyone who participated. If you want to join the online

February 19, 2012

Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Reflections

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Instructions for Traveling Lightly

Sacred Fasting

Invitation to Poetry: In Praise of Detours

Visual Meditation: A Monk Dreams of Paris

“there is always the risk / of remembering your name”

Join me for the Sacred Rhythms Writing Retreat (June 7-10)

“The way is made by walking”

The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers with Christine Valters Paintner (spring online course)

A new interview with me about spiritual direction at Anam Cara

Winner of this week’s Poetry Party

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Give Me a Word 2025

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sharon Dawn Johnson

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

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