A visual meditation with images from my travels during the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates in October 2009. The photos were taken in the Vatican City, Rome, Subiaco (Benedict’s Cave), Monte Cassino (Benedictine monastery), and Sant’Anselmo (Primatial Abbey). The music is by Hildegard of Bingen. © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts: Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts
I was invited to be a part of Patheos‘ new Theoblogger Challenge – God in 100 Words or Less. (Patheos is a multifaith website where I occasionally write for the Catholic and Mainline Protestant Portals.) One of their regular features is the Public Square, and this week the subject is God. They decided to reach out to a handful of theobloggers (those blogging about God online) and launched their first-ever Theoblogger Challenge inviting a dozen bloggers to answer the question: *Who/What is God? … in 100 words or less.* Here is my response: ***** God Is… The One who pulses
** Stop by this week’s Poetry Party on Entering the Desert’s Fire ** The reflection below is a slightly edited reprint of something I wrote a few years ago for Ash Wednesday which still calls me to respond to its invitation: _____________________________________________________ Today we leave ordinary time to enter into the journey of Lent through the desert. The desert is that uncharted terrain beyond the edges of our seemingly secure and structured world, where things begin to crack. We begin this desert journey marked with ashes, the sign of our mortality. There is wisdom in these ashes. If you have
Welcome to our 44th Poetry Party! I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Add your responses in the comments section. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one) and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post) Poetry Party Theme: Entering the Desert’s Fire This week the Christian liturgical season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. For 40 days we are invited
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky
Over at Patheos is a reprint of an interview I did a couple of years ago with the wonderful and amazing Jan Richardson. It is definitely worth a re-reading (or first reading for my newer friends) for Jan’s insights into art as a sacred practice. Jan’s work has been inspiring me for many years, she is one of the first people I discovered as a kindred spirit in the contemporary connection between monk and artist paths (and her out-of-print Night Visions for the season of Advent is one of my favorite books ever). I am delighted to consider her a
Listen to the long stillness: New life is stirring New dreams are on the wing New hopes are being readied: Humankind is fashioning a new heart Humankind is forging a new mind God is at work. This is the season of Promise. -Howard Thurman A week from Wednesday the Lenten journey begins. On Ash Wednesday we always hear the words of the prophet Joel: “Return to me with your whole heart.” Lent is an invitation toward whole-heartedness. The heart is an ancient metaphor for the seat of our whole being – to be whole-hearted means to bring our entire selves
Monastic practice offers me the gift of paying attention to the seasons of the day and the year. February 1st is a potent time. On the Celtic wheel of the year it is Imbolc (meaning “stirring in the belly”) which is one of the cross-quarter days falling between the Solstice and the Equinox. Imbolc marks the first day of spring, the time when the very beginning of earth’s stirrings and awakenings from winter can be seen. In Christian tradition it is the Feast of St. Brigid (an Irish Saint who is associated with fire) and on February 2nd is Candlemas
Creation tells me a story – this is what beauty is for – it whispers, to soothe your wearied spirit, to enliven you, to invite you into dancing once again, to imagine gathering with a whole flock of kindred spirits who journey alongside you in grief and delight, who don’t ask you to be anywhere other than where your pulsing heart carries you right now. Sabbath begins for me this evening, a time when I can surrender into the restoration this time offers, a time to simply be and delight in my flock. Shabbat Shalom to all of the kindred
