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Christine Interviewed on the Three Association Podcast

Christine was interviewed by Maria Tattu Bowen and Vanessa Carusoon on the Three Association: A Supervision Podcast for Spiritual Direction to discuss the ways art and creativity can bring fresh awareness, freedom, and delight to the practices of supervision and spiritual direction.

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Katharine Weinmann

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Katharine Weinmann’s reflection and poem “A Holy Balance.” Grieving the loss of my professional vocation due to Covid and needing to find my footing with the world’s unravelling, I enrolled in the Abbey of the Arts Fall 2020 intensive online retreat, “Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist.” During a session of Lectio Divina in which Christine read Ecclesiastes 3, A Time for Everything, I reflected in my journal: “… Humming to the Byrd’s musical interpretation,

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Abbess love notes

Listening at the Threshold + Prayer Cycle Day 3 ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims,  I love this time of year as autumn envelopes us in the northern hemisphere and the days grow shorter. I find the dark nights inspiring. I love that in the Christian church November is the time of remembering the saints and ancestors.  My new book – The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness – is the culmination of many years of practice and healing. We are thrilled to also have a new album and prayer cycle as well (day 3 of the prayer cycle is now available!) These rich resources are to help provide

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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Katharine Donovan Kane

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Katharine Donovan Kane’s reflection In Search of the Ordinary Mystic. I’m a mystic. It sounds right to say but none-the-less it feels uncomfortable. In my family’s Catholic heritage, I learned that only special people are mystics. And they are almost always saints. My mother used to read an old text called Lives of the Saints to my siblings and me when we were little. Does anyone else remember that book? It was filled with the challenges of men and

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Abbess love notes

Decolonizing Contemplative Practice + Prayer Cycle Day 2 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims,  Today we release Day 2 of our Love of Thousands prayer cycle. Our theme for morning prayer is wrestling with angels, inspired by the ancient biblical story of Jacob who wrestled with a powerful being all night and then demanded a blessing in the morning. I imagine, many of us have had those kinds of seasons of our lives where we walk away wounded but also with new gifts to carry forward.  The theme for evening prayer is we are all called to be saints. St. Paul wrote that we are all “called to be holy”

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Angels, Saints, and Ancestors

The Love of Thousands Reviewed by Spirituality & Practice

I’m honored to share this beautiful review by Jon M. Sweeney at Spirituality and Practice of my latest book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness. Here is an excerpt: Christine Valters Paintner is one of our favorite spiritual writers, winner of several of our “Spiritual Book Awards,” and a member of our Living Spiritual Teachers Project. Her latest book is wonderful. Particularly if you find yourself lonely or losing hope, her words of support and encouragement from angels, saints, mystics, and other friends along the spiritual path will buoy your spirits. This is

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Shelley Ferro

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post from the community. Read on for Shelley Ferro’s reflection on contemplative photography and view the accompanying images. Art, any art, helps us to stay present.  Each day (weather permitting) I walk along the shore of a nearby lake as part of my intent to live as a monk in the world.  I show up without expectation and ready for unfoldment.  I delight in the creativity and beauty of the nature and of all life.  My camera becomes a portal, and this practice invites me

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Abbess love notes

The Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle, Book, and Album Launch ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

“Walking, I can almost hear the redwoods beating. And the oceans are above me here, rolling clouds, heavy and dark. It is winter and there is smoke from the fires. It is a world of elemental attention, of all things working together, listening to what speaks in the blood. Whichever road I follow, I walk in the land of many gods, and they love and eat one another. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” ―Linda Hogan, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World

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Monk in the World Guest Post: June Mears Driedger

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for June Mears Driedger’s reflection Yielding to Emerging Life. I learned the story of Celtic Saint Kevin of Glendalough, the founder of the ancient Glendalough monastery, while on a Celtic pilgrimage with Abbey of the Arts in 2016. As the story is told, St. Kevin was praying with his arms outstretched in his monastery cell which was so small his right arm extended through the window. As he prayed, a blackbird nestled in his hand then began to

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Art and Spirituality

Awakening the Creative Spirit In-Person Retreat

Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education in the Expressive Arts (Northwest) April 21-26, 2024 – St. Andrew’s Retreat Center in Union, WA with Kayce Stevens Hughlett and Betsey Beckman We are excited to announce our only in-person retreat for 2024! Join Kayce Stevens Hughlett and Betsey Beckman for this five-day experiential intensive exploring tools for integrating the arts and imagination into spiritual direction and other healing ministries. This retreat is designed for those who are ready to explore the arts for yourself, for your work with others, and for the world.  Anyone called to the practices of soul care (mentorship, spiritual companion,

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