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Hildy Tails 11: Is fada an bóthar nach mbíonn casadh ann – by John Valters Paintner

Hello, gentle readers! This series of 12 essays were composed during John & Christine’s Jubilee Year (which began pre-pandemic, but some of which was written during varying degrees of lockdown). They were dictated to John by the Abbey’s mascot, Hildy the Monk-ey. Hildy is a bit of a free spirit who likes to entertain and doesn’t normally feel constrained by conventional story structure . . . or grammar, in general. She lives by the motto that “all stories are true; some actually happened.” We wanted to share them with you, our wider Abbey community, to give you a small monkey-sized

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Sky, Sun, Sea, and Stone and Creative Inspiration ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, Thomas Merton, the 20th century Trappist monk, knew that the true mentor of the soul was nature itself. The fields, sun, mud, clay, wind, forests, sky, earth, and water are all companions for our own inner journeys. The elements of water, wind, earth, and fire offer us wisdom and guidance. They are the original soul friends. Air is the gift of breath we receive in each moment, the rhythm of life sustaining us. Fire is the gift of life force and energy and we might call to mind St. John of the Cross’ image of God

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Two new dancing monk icons!
Julian of Norwich & Clare of Assisi join the series

When John and I traveled to Assisi in 2019 to participate in a pilgrimage that started our sabbatical year, I went to encounter Francis more deeply. That did happen, but the holy surprise was encountering Clare, who I didn’t know as much about, and falling in love with her contemplative spirit. She was Francis’ treasured companion and she also struggled with poor health and has companioned me through my ongoing fatigue from chronic illness. Then as the pandemic began, like many people I found tremendous wisdom, solace, and inspiration in Julian of Norwich, the patron saint of lockdowns and compassionate

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Hildy Tails 10: Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine – by John Valters Paintner

Hello, gentle readers! This series of 12 essays were composed during John & Christine’s Jubilee Year (which began pre-pandemic, but some of which was written during varying degrees of lockdown). They were dictated to John by the Abbey’s mascot, Hildy the Monk-ey. Hildy is a bit of a free spirit who likes to entertain and doesn’t normally feel constrained by conventional story structure . . . or grammar, in general. She lives by the motto that “all stories are true; some actually happened.” We wanted to share them with you, our wider Abbey community, to give you a small monkey-sized

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A 12 Month Journey through “The Artists Rule” with Linda Courage

Join monk and artist Linda Courage at Living Spirituality Connections for a guided, 12 month long journey through The Artists Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom. Linda previously led a community course on Earth, Our Original Monastery as part of a mentoring program with us and is a longtime dancing monk and member of this community. Read some of her reflections and learn more about the online gathering here >>

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Spring (or Autumn) Equinox and Sacred Time ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, As the wheel of the year turns to the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere (and autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere) I invite you to deepen your relationship to the sacred rhythms of nature and the cosmos with its blossoming, fruitfulness, release, and rest. To become fully present to these moments of turning is to give ourselves over to Kairos time rather than chronos time. To help us understand this further, I want to share with you another excerpt from my new book Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life. The Greek myths may

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Hildy Tails 9: Bíonn adharca fada ar na ba thar lear ~ by John Valters Paintner

Hello, gentle readers! This series of 12 essays were composed during John & Christine’s Jubilee Year (which began pre-pandemic, but some of which was written during varying degrees of lockdown). They were dictated to John by the Abbey’s mascot, Hildy the Monk-ey. Hildy is a bit of a free spirit who likes to entertain and doesn’t normally feel constrained by conventional story structure . . . or grammar, in general. She lives by the motto that “all stories are true; some actually happened.” We wanted to share them with you, our wider Abbey community, to give you a small monkey-sized

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Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living

We are so excited to be launching our brand new album! We have been working on Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living for about a year now. The Monk Manifesto is a set of 8 principles for contemplative, creative, and compassionate living. It is the Rule of Life for the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks community at Abbey of the Arts. We embrace the practices of Silence and Solitude, Hospitality, Community, Kinship with Creation, Work, Sabbath, Conversion, and Creative Joy. In our last album (Earth, Our Original Monastery) we explored Kinship with Creation. This album is an opportunity

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 Monk in the World Novena ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists, A year ago the news of the pandemic’s spread around the world started becoming dominant news and countries were shutting down to prevent its rampant spread. We had no idea how the year that followed would unfold and how many hours we would spend in compassionate retreat to protect those most vulnerable among us (perhaps ourselves included). I awoke early one morning around that time with the thought of hosting a Novena for Times of Unraveling so our beloved community could gather together for nine days in prayer and reflection. I knew the monastic practices we

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Hildy Tales 8: Craic agus Ceol ~ by John Valters Paintner

Hello, gentle readers! This series of 12 essays were composed during John & Christine’s Jubilee Year (which began pre-pandemic, but some of which was written during varying degrees of lockdown). They were dictated to John by the Abbey’s mascot, Hildy the Monk-ey. Hildy is a bit of a free spirit who likes to entertain and doesn’t normally feel constrained by conventional story structure . . . or grammar, in general. She lives by the motto that “all stories are true; some actually happened.” We wanted to share them with you, our wider Abbey community, to give you a small monkey-sized

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