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A Disciple of Silence

This past weekend I co-led our annual Oblate retreat with Sister Lucy, our Oblate director, on the theme of simplicity. Being with my fellow Oblates and supporting one another on the Benedictine way is always tremendous nourishment for my spirit.  Life has been so full these last few months and now I get to step into a simpler time and space myself.  My heart has been drawn to explore new ways of simplifying beyond just doing with less things, but to consider the way my thoughts and desires can clutter my heart. I often find my creative energy drawn in

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Threshold Spaces

It is a time of many endings and beginnings for me, a threshold space as I let go and embrace again and again.  I am making more room for my Abbey work and that fills my heart with joy.  I find it is requiring a lot of energy for me to be fully present, so unfortunately this space is getting a bit neglected for the time being In another week or two there will be a new design to this website which I am very excited about.  After four years it is time for some updating and a new look

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The Call of Retreat: Solitude

I sink into the silence and stillness.  Solitude calls my name and shows me my reflection as a sacred offering.  Here in this place the sea asks me to embrace my truth once again.  The hummingbird invites me to sip holy nectar, the heron to stretch out my wings, the gulls to remember my flock.  In each shell is an epiphany, each smooth stone offers a revelation.  I watch and witness as the sun slowly makes her long arc across the sky and discover my own rising and falling.  The tides are singing of quiet miracles – like those which

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The Call of Retreat: Unfurl

I go on a long walk through the forest listening for the word calling to me.  It is a form of lectio divina I practice where nature is the sacred text revealing holy wonders to my heart.  I step further into the silence of trees and moss and ferns.  The forest floor is covered with ferns, creation’s lush and extravagant gesture.  At first I notice the large and mature ones with their wide leaves, but soon my gaze is called to tend to these tender shoots unfurling themselves.  If I listen closely I can hear the quiet movements of a

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Retreat

I am heading out for some time of retreat by the forest and sea and dreaming of the year ahead. Thank you so much to everyone who already commented on last Tuesday’s invitation to share what you need for your own retreat time. Reading through them has been true refreshment for my own spirit. I encourage anyone who hasn’t yet, to stop by with a cup of tea and a journal and begin dreaming your next retreat into being. You can still add your comment until next Monday, May 10 and enter for a chance to win a set of

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Holy Pause: The Practice of Retreat

Last Friday and Saturday I was at St. Placid Priory leading a workshop and a retreat.   Much of my work is leading retreats – and while I spend a lot of time designing the flow of experiences, ultimately it is about creating and holding sacred space for others.  On retreat the invitation is to cross the threshold of ordinary awareness and enter liminal space for a few hours or days to receive the new questions waiting for us. This coming weekend I go on my own time of retreat to the place where the forest meets the sea.  This space

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A Monk in the World

One of the ways we become intimate with the fire in our lives is to explore our passions, our deepest desires, the commitments which make our hearts burn with love.  The mystics across traditions describe God as the spark or flame dwelling in each of our hearts, the source of infinite compassion.  When we live from the heart – which is where Ignatius of Loyola said that God plants our deepest desires – we become a temple of fire and reveal the splendor of God to the world. I feel deeply blessed to be intimate with my own deepest desires,

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Pink Petaled Profusion

What are your pink-petaled dreams? What is the longing deep within you just beginning to blossom forth into the world? Will you say yes? And YES? ________________________________________________ © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts: Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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Practicing Resurrection through the Elements

Our Easter Season E-Course is underway and it is a joy to guide others through the practice of praying with water, wind, earth, and fire as vessels for awareness of the ways God moves through the world. This first week’s focus is on wind.  Click the links below for some blog posts written by participants: Mind Sieve and Diamonds in the Sky With Lucy both offer their beautiful poetic reflections on the gift of wind. Laurel at The Rose Window shares her thoughtful reflections as she begins this time of retreat. ___________________________________ David Crumm at Read the Spirit shares these

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On Angels

On Angels All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence. Yet I believe in you, messengers. There, where the world is turned inside out, a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts, you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams. Short is your stay here: now and then at a matinal hour, if the sky is clear, in a melody repeated by a bird, or in the smell of apples at close of day when the light makes the orchards magic. They say somebody has invented you but to me this does not sound convincing for the humans invented

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