Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Always Act Great

Act Great What is the key To untie the knot of your mind’s suffering? What Is the esoteric secret To slay the crazed one whom each of us Did wed And who can ruin Our heart’s and eye’s exquisite tender Landscape? Hafiz has found Two emerald words that Restored Me That I now cling to as I would sacred Tresses of my Beloved’s Hair: Act great. My dear, always act great. What is the key To untie the knot of the mind’s suffering? Benevolent thought, sound And movement. -Hafiz ***Please scroll down to the next post and participate in my

September 11, 2007

Invitation to Poetry: Rumpled Sheets

Welcome to another poetry party and you are invited to participate. This is my third installment, you can click to see the first and second ones. I shared the other day about the freedom a messy spirituality is inviting me to and my dream of rumpled sheets. Then over the weekend there was this brilliant moment when the sun was illuminating my sheets and I captured it in the photo below. What does the image evoke for you? What words are stirred? I invite you to share your poems (maybe you even want to try a Pantoum?), thoughts, quotes, or song lyrics in

September 9, 2007

God Loves Us When We Dance

My friend Rachelle over at Magpie Girl will be issuing a creative challenge and invitation twice a month to experiment with some sort of simple art process to get the creative juices going. She posted her first one today–altering a photo. Go here to read more about it and here to see the images already contributed. I have been praying a lot with this photo of my paternal grandmother (who was once a dancer) and decided to play with it in Photoshop Elements a bit. I added a purple hue, some diffuse glow, and an antique border. Then I wrote in a

September 7, 2007

Photo Essay: Point Defiance, Tacoma

“Come to the edge, He said. They said: we are afraid. Come to the edge, He said. They came. He pushed them, and they flew…” -Guillaume Apollinaire. (quote courtesy of lucy) -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

September 6, 2007

Messy Spirituality

I freely admit that I crave a certain degree of order in my life. On the Myers-Briggs I am an INFJ with a fairly strong organizational J. That J serves me very well in work and thrives on deadlines. It is certainly what got me through a PhD program in under 6 years. I love my home to be neat and I have a hard time getting to work if its not (okay, so maybe it helps me procrastinate sometimes). I can be the queen of planning and every day make lists of things to get done (although I often don’t accomplish

September 5, 2007

Awakening the Creative Spirit

Time for another invitation to come join me and my delightful teaching partner Betsey Beckman in November for a week of integrating creative expression and spiritual practice. We already have several brave and beautiful souls signed up and there are just a handful of spots left, so won’t you come and play? Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Arts & Imagination with Betsey Beckman, MM and Christine Valters Paintner, PhD November 11-17, 2007 St. Andrews Retreat Center Union (Hood Canal), WA A week-long experiential intensive exploring tools for integrating the arts and imagination into spiritual

September 4, 2007

Freedom: On Being Uncaged

I am so very moved at the poetic response to my post of a few days ago. I have absolutely loved reading your words and have really gathered them close to my heart and reflected on the meaning of freedom and why the cage can sometimes be so inviting, so comfortable and what it takes to really claim my freedom. If you haven’t read the latest contributions, please scroll down (or just click here) and relish them. One of the poetic forms I often use with groups is the French Pantoum. It is a delightful and easy form to use,

August 30, 2007

Words

After spending much of my summer immersed in both images and words I have been contemplating the relationship between them. In my lettering class, the teacher began by saying that words are “bearers of meaning.” I like the image the poem offers, that we come to know things more deeply in naming them. And while words can feel ethereal or disembodied, it is true that there is something much more intimate about jasper, rather than red stone. The words help to root us in the beauty of the particular which is what an incarnational spirituality is about. My life is filled with

August 29, 2007

Invitation to Poetry: Freedom

I had such fun with my first Invitation to Poetry posted a couple of weeks ago and loved reading all of your contributions so here is another invitation for you, my wonderful readers, to add your own words to the image below. This is a simple collage I made in about five minutes during a design elements class I took while at the art retreat, but something about it really speaks to me — the tension between the open cage and the open feathers speak to me of the promise of freedom. What does the image evoke for you? Feel free to leave

August 27, 2007

Delight Under a Cloudy Sky

“O shy moon don’t give in to the pushy clouds you are above them” -one of the Haiku read aloud at the end of the evening written by a fellow moon-gazer (I apologize for not catching the name) We attended the Moon Viewing event at the Japanese Garden last night and I was entranced the whole evening despite the fact that the moon never fully appeared from behind the cloud cover. This is an annual event to celebrate the autumn moon (which will be full on Tuesday). There was beautiful music (I am now entranced by the koto), dancing, singing, launching

August 26, 2007

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

Reflections

Filter

Always Act Great

Invitation to Poetry: Rumpled Sheets

God Loves Us When We Dance

Photo Essay: Point Defiance, Tacoma

Messy Spirituality

Awakening the Creative Spirit

Freedom: On Being Uncaged

Words

Invitation to Poetry: Freedom

Delight Under a Cloudy Sky

Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

A Blessing for Creativity + Sabbatical Announcement

Monk in the World Guest Post: Teresa Calpino

Monk in the World Guest Post: Anne Marie Cribbin

Brother Lawrence and the Practice of the Presence + Prayer Cycle Day 6 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Connect with Us