Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Prayer Cycle Video & Audio Podcast Launch ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle: Day 1 Morning Prayer from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo. Dearest monks and artists, Happy Feast of St. Francis! It is an especially appropriate day to announce that today we are launching a series of audio & video podcasts for our Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle. It has long been a dream of mine to create a series of morning and evening prayers for the Abbey of the Arts community, prayers that were inclusive and poetic, that celebrated our kinship to all of creation, that encouraged us to sing and dance. This Prayer Cycle really came

October 4, 2020

Monk in the World Guest Post: Liz Hill

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Liz Hill’s reflection, “Who Needs A Church?” For many years, I was an active member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation, a denomination known for its non-creedal spirituality and its long history of social justice work. Whenever I talked to friends or co-workers about my church, there was curiosity. What did we believe? What kinds of people attend? How do you join? More than once, the conversation ended with the other person concluding, “If I needed a church,

September 30, 2020

What She Does Not Know Poetry Video ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

What She Does Not Know – Poem Video from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo. What She Does Not Know (for unsuspecting Selkies everywhere) She does not know there is a reason she always feels out of place her life rigid and small, like living in a doll’s house a marriage more trap than longing and when she chokes on courtesy and convention the salt which burns her throat is not just tears. She does not know that when she stands on the sea’s wild edge and can finally breathe, dream, weep, her body strains forward seawater in her veins,

September 27, 2020

Monk in the World Guest Post: Tara L. Eastman

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Pastor Tara L. Eastman’s reflection “Car Wash Prayer By.” Recently, when heading to my local gas station to fill up my car, the cashier swiped my “discount card” and said, “Hey there, you have points for a free car wash.” So, with gas tank filled, my reusable coffee mug re-filled and my “Free Car Wash” points in hand – I pulled around to the back of the store. There were lots of things on my mind and

September 23, 2020

Once Poetry Video + Autumn Equinox ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Once – Poem Video from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo. Once my hands were made of silver, delicate, refined, needing to be polished daily, glinting on sun-heavy days until I made my way into the woods listened for long while, ear pressed to soft earth thirsty for the song I heard among roots and moss, rumors that spring was coming, could even hear the magnolia bud rumbling. I stayed that way for years, prone, breathing in scent of fur and feather until everything silver fell away until flesh rose back up my arms pink covered me like the promise

September 20, 2020

Earth, Our Original Monastery Journeys in Community!

During these coming months (Oct 2020 – April 2021) I am working with a group of dancing monks from our Abbey community who want to facilitate my book Earth, Our Original Monastery with their own small groups and retreat settings. Below I will be adding the details for those offerings which have open registration in case you’d like to join some folks local to you in making this journey together. Some programs will be entirely online, some a hybrid of live in-person (with social distancing outdoors) and online gatherings. [siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] St Bede’s Pastoral Centre in York UK – ONLINE

September 18, 2020

Monk in the World Guest Post: Maria Rodgers O’Rourke

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Maria Rodgers O’Rourke’s reflection on Morning Pages. Morning Pages saved my life. They started with The Artist’s Way and are now central to my “Monk in the World practice.” Here’s my story. Years ago, as a new wife and mother, mornings meant a deluge of To-Do’s and anxiety. Waking from a dream, after a few tender moments of peace and clarity, my brain chattered away with tasks and regrets. I wanted nothing more than to pull the

September 16, 2020

St. Columba and His Horse (a new poetry video) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

St Columba and His Horse – Poem Video from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo. St. Columba and His Horse The old man hobbles down the road toward the monastery gate, rests on a roadside stone, hears clip-clopping of hooves approach and his faithful companion arrive. The horse nuzzles Columba’s shoulder, shudders all down his white length eyes glisten round and brown, great teardrops pool and drop sounding like rainfall. Columba rests his forehead against the horse’s broad skull, closes his eyes and each imagines the other, galloping together across heather and buttercups. The horse knows his dear friend will soon

September 13, 2020

Earth, Our Original Monastery:
Dancing Our Way to the Divine – DVD now available!

Abbey of the Arts presents our newest DVD offering 13 contemplative prayer dances for every-body created by Betsey Beckman and one poem video! All Teaching and Dance-Along videos are filmed outdoors to invite you into the joy of encountering the Divine in nature. Through embodied prayer, celebrate Earth as our original cathedral, scriptures, saints, spiritual director, icon, sacrament and liturgy. Move with the gifts of Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Pray with Saint Gobnait, Saint Francis, and walk with beauty in honor of the Diné Navajo tradition. The DVD accompanies the CD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Singing Our Way to

September 10, 2020

Monk in the World Guest Post: Bjørn Peterson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Bjørn Peterson’s reflection on hospitality and presence as the fruits of gratitude, awareness, and vulnerability. They had just walked into Kaffeeklatsch along Lake City Drive in northeast Seattle. I’d been sitting there for about an hour, writing and listening to a podcast on the power of loving-kindness in everyday life. I felt deeply grounded, as if my heart were big enough for the suffering of the world in which I was seated. Perhaps the public solitude I had

September 9, 2020

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Prayer Cycle Video & Audio Podcast Launch ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World Guest Post: Liz Hill

What She Does Not Know Poetry Video ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World Guest Post: Tara L. Eastman

Once Poetry Video + Autumn Equinox ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Earth, Our Original Monastery Journeys in Community!

Monk in the World Guest Post: Maria Rodgers O’Rourke

St. Columba and His Horse (a new poetry video) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Earth, Our Original Monastery:
Dancing Our Way to the Divine – DVD now available!

Monk in the World Guest Post: Bjørn Peterson

Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

Monk in the World Guest Post: Rochelle Rawson Naylor

Easter and the Journey to Joy! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World Guest Post: Lori DiPrete Brown

Ripened (S)aging: A Good Friday Invitation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

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