Your Online Monastery for Your Spiritual Practice

Love Note, Novena, and Praise Song for the Pandemic ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This is a special love note because these are special times. During this Jubilee year we have been sharing our Monk in the World retreat content in this space and you will find this week’s below. But I felt moved to write to you directly. The global disruption happening demands that our usual patterns and rhythms be disrupted as well. We are experiencing an event unlike anything any of us has ever gone through before. There is much unknowing about the road ahead and where it will take us. We know that there will be

March 21, 2020

Monk in the World: Sabbath 4 – Guided Meditation by Christine + Audio

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle 6: I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do. Listen to the audio version below. To create your own Sabbath practice begin by reflecting on the best day of the week. Sabbath may not happen on the traditional

March 21, 2020

Ave Maria Press – Huge E-Book Sale on Several Titles by Christine

Ave Maria Press is having a huge sale on their e-book versions of their titles including 7 of the 8 books Christine Valters Paintner has published with them (AND this includes her newest one coming on April 3rd). Sale goes until April 15th! Earth, Our Original Monastery is $8.99 The Soul’s Slow Ripening is $4.99 The Wisdom of the Body is $2.99 Illuminating the Way is $2.99 The Soul of a Pilgrim is 99 cents! The Artist’s Rule is 99 cents! Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire is 99 cents! Visit Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and GooglePlay to purchase! Note: Eyes of

March 21, 2020

A Different Kind of Fast: Part Five – Embrace Attention

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, * This is the fifth part of a seven-part series we will publish weekly during this Lenten season. It can be so tempting to think, that in our busy lives multitasking will somehow make us more efficient and productive. We bemoan not having more hours in the day, but the hours we do have our attention is scattered, always trying to keep up. We spread our gaze between so many demands that we may get many things done, but none of it is nourishing. St. Benedict wisely wrote 1500 years ago, that we are called to always

March 21, 2020

Praise Song for the Pandemic

Praise be the nurses and doctors, every medical staff bent over flesh to offer care, for lives saved and lives lost, for showing up either way, Praise for the farmers, tilling soil, planting seeds so food can grow, an act of hope if ever there was, Praise be the janitors and garbage collectors, the grocery store clerks, and the truck drivers barreling through long quiet nights, Give thanks for bus drivers, delivery persons, postal workers, and all those keeping an eye on water, gas, and electricity, Blessings on our leaders, making hard choices for the common good, offering words of

March 19, 2020

Monk in the World Guest Post: Kayce Stevens Hughlett

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Wisdom Council member Kayce Stevens Hughlett’s reflection on her path of becoming a monk in the world. When I first met Christine Valters Paintner at a Seattle coffee shop in the spring of 2006, there was no Abbey of the Arts. No official dancing monks or manifesto. The “Awakening the Creative Spirit” program was one year old. If anyone had called me an artist or even creative at that time, I would have laughed it off as silly and impossible.

March 18, 2020

Monk in the World: Sabbath 3 – Reflection by Christine + Audio ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle 6: I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do. Listen to the audio version below. We live lives stretched thin by doing. “I’m so busy” becomes either a badge of pride or a lament depending on which

March 14, 2020

A Different Kind of Fast: Part Four – Embrace Slowness

Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, * This is the fourth part of a seven-part series we will publish weekly during this Lenten season Modern life seems to move at full speed and many of us can hardly catch our breath between the demands of earning a living, nurturing family and friendships, and the hundreds of small daily details like paying our bills, cleaning, grocery shopping. More and more we feel stretched thin by commitments and lament our busyness, but without a clear sense of the alternative. There is no space left to consider other options and the idea of heading

March 14, 2020

Monk in the World Guest Post: Joni Sensel

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Joni Sensel’s reflection, “From Monk to Mummy and Back.” Monks have always interested me; my second novel is set in a tenth-century abbey, and as a long-distance hiker I’ve long considered myself a peregrina, not in medieval robes but in Gore-Tex. So when I discovered Abbey of the Arts a few years ago, I was immediately intrigued. To explore my evolving identity as a monk in the world, I signed up for one of the Abbey’s five-day

March 11, 2020

Monk in the World: Sabbath 2 – Scripture Reflection by John ~ A Love Note from Your Online Prior

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle. Principle 6: I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do. Exodus 20:1-11 The Ten Commandments Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house

March 7, 2020

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Love Note, Novena, and Praise Song for the Pandemic ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Monk in the World: Sabbath 4 – Guided Meditation by Christine + Audio

Ave Maria Press – Huge E-Book Sale on Several Titles by Christine

A Different Kind of Fast: Part Five – Embrace Attention

Praise Song for the Pandemic

Monk in the World Guest Post: Kayce Stevens Hughlett

Monk in the World: Sabbath 3 – Reflection by Christine + Audio ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Different Kind of Fast: Part Four – Embrace Slowness

Monk in the World Guest Post: Joni Sensel

Monk in the World: Sabbath 2 – Scripture Reflection by John ~ A Love Note from Your Online Prior

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New Prayer Cycle Launch and 20th anniversary celebration! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

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

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