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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

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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

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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

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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

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Things I Didn’t Know I Loved Poetry Video~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Things I Didn’t Know I Loved – Poem Video from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo. Things I Didn’t Know I Loved (after Nazim Hikmet) I never knew how much I loved heavy rain on a Sunday morning curled in bed with coffee a Morse code tapping the windows telling me I have no reason to leave. I didn’t realize how much I adored peonies until one May afternoon I spent four hours photographing the bouquet you brought me for no reason on our dining table. I never knew how much I cherished the alchemy taking place in kitchens until I

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Keren Dibbens-Wyatt

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Keren Dibbens–Wyatt’s reflection, “Hidden Treasures.” I have long been nurtured and consoled by the life and writings of the 14th Century English Saint, Julian of Norwich. On what she thought was her deathbed, Julian, aged thirty, received a series of visions. They came whilst gazing on the crucifix brought along by a boy attending the priest who gave her the last rites. She survived her illness and spent the rest of her life meditating on the feast of

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Nocturne (a new poetry video) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Nocturne – Poem Video from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo. Nocturne Sometimes I awaken at night although still in a dream and the air around me is violet. Here in the heart of the forest I am elegance of swan, fierceness of bear, sweetness of squirrel, I am all these things under night’s generous embrace, how the moon, a broken dinner plate has the courage to soar how my prayers for the world grow more intense and I wonder what of this grace will still be left by morning? —Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of Wild Grace Dearest monks and

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Karly Michelle Edgar

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Karly Michelle Edgar’s reflection, “The Spiritual Practice of ‘Not Rushing’.” I began offering a weekly church service as part of my lifestyle work in an aged care facility when the church that had been coming could no longer continue. The service was squashed in between my other daily activities and every time I finally sat down and began to read the first line of the liturgy I noticed how strong the impulse was to read quickly, rushing

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Aubade (a new poetry video) ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Aubade – Poem Video from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo. Aubade The day opens its white page, spreading herself like so much possibility, you take your pen, pausing before you begin so you can hear the jackdaw caw high above your tiny shadow and the snowdrop’s insistent blooming, somewhere is the knowing glance of badger, each unafraid to write their stories on wind and soil and you see they offer ink for your pen in a hundred different colors. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of Wild Grace Dearest monks and artists, Like many monks and writers, I love morning time

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Heidi Beth Sadler

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Heidi Beth Sadler’s reflection, “Urban Monk.” Through the glass windows of the meditation chapel, I watch the Portland fog meander through the evergreens. Except for a sculpture of a crucified Jesus in the arms of his mother, I am completely alone, and I am grateful. As the Pacific Northwest morning proceeds, the fog gradually dissipates, and I can’t help but notice the power lines zigzagging through the trees. My eyes catch the movement of commuter traffic below,

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