Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

About Christine Valters Paintner

There are three identities I currently hold dear:

Poet: I look beneath the surface to find beauty in all things and then offer that back to others. I seek to cultivate this kind of presence in the midst of ordinary life, finding poems everywhere.

Hermit: Silence nourishes me deeply and I take regular times of solitude, often in the woods or by the sea to help me hear a deeper voice.

Mystic: I am called to follow in the tradition of the many who have felt a passionate desire for connection to the divine and I am blessed to share this path with others.

When I was growing up in New York City, one of my favorite places was The Cloisters, which is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the northern tip of Manhattan.  It is a reproduction of a medieval monastery with cloistered garden, unicorn tapestries, glorious arches, and a stunning view of the Hudson River. It was the aesthetic dimension of monastic life that captured my imagination long before I understood anything of its religious side.

My spiritual roots are in Catholicism with a special love for the sacramental imagination, mystical love, and commitment to radical justice.

Later in life, while studying Christian spirituality in graduate school, I fell in love with the great 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen.  I was smitten with her creative breadth and outpouring, her love of music, her poetic writing.  I wanted to know more about what shaped and inspired her soul which led me to the Benedictine path.  She was the doorway to my growing love of monasticism and eventually my becoming an oblate.

I bring my scholarly heart in service to this love of contemplative practice and tradition, rooted in the ancient ways of desert, Celtic, and Benedictine monks, as well as the contemplative streams found in other traditions, such as the path of yoga.  These paths lead me to the heart of stillness, the place of deep healing in the world.

My creative heart has led me to the study of the expressive arts, dream work, Jungian psychology, and work with archetypes.  While my earth-cherishing heart loves the wisdom to be found in the seasons and presence to the voice of creation.

I also have the heart of a pilgrim.  In spring 2012, my husband and I sold everything we owned in Seattle, WA, where we had lived the previous 9 years, including home, car, books, and most of our belongings, to set off on a grand life adventure and live overseas.  This pilgrimage brought us first to Vienna, Austria for six months, a place of great personal ancestral significance and where my father is buried.  We then moved to Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, the land where monasteries were once thriving and integral to the community, and where we now live. Here we have fallen in love even more with the wisdom of Celtic monasticism and the desert tradition which influenced the Irish monks so strongly. From this place on the sacred edge I continue to serve the Abbey through online programs, as well as welcoming monks in the world who come on pilgrimage.

I believe that the spiritual life is right here and now, in the midst of the quotidian.  We are not waiting for some better opportunity or clear space which will never arrive as we imagine.  As a Benedictine oblate, I commit to live as a monk in the world, bringing presence to paying my bills, washing dishes, being a partner in marriage, and navigating the ordinariness of life.

I come most alive in that fertile space where the inner monk and artist meet and dance together.  I created the Abbey out of a desire to host a space where other monks and artists could find a welcoming place for deep inner work and an encounter with the great Source of both silence and creativity.

I am committed to contemplative living, one rooted in Sabbath rhythms, and consider myself an urban monk and part-time hermit.  Most days you can find me praying lectio divina, writing, receiving photos, preparing to teach, collaborating with fellow monks and artists, going for a long walk along the shores of Galway Bay, swimming in the pool or the sea, practicing yin yoga, dancing, having tea with friends, cooking a meal, or on a date with my husband.

I believe in the revolutionary power of stillness and spaciousness,

and of practicing presence to life's unfolding. I believe this commitment can change the world.

I believe in radical hospitality

to both the inner and outer stranger so that all parts may know themselves as welcome and part of a wholeness.  The monk's path matters in this world of division, speed, and productivity.

I believe, along with the great writer Dostoevsky, that "beauty will save the world." 

At the very least it has saved me more times than I can remember from dwelling in a place of despair at the world.  I believe that when we tend to the birthings in our hearts, we cooperate with a divine creative force at work, always bringing something new into being.  The artist's path matters in this world where it is so easy to grow cynical and believe nothing will change.

I believe that all of life is an ever-unfolding journey

and we never fully "arrive" in this lifetime, but commit to always beginning again and to always being surprised by God. Pilgrimage offers us the opportunity to encounter the stranger within ourselves, to journey to places which make us feel uncomfortable in the service of breaking something free inside of us. The pilgrim's path matters in this world where we are encouraged to hold onto and accumulate comforts at any cost.

Welcome. . . 

If what I write here resonates with your heart and soul, then you are truly welcome to this safe space of radical hospitality where you come as you are.  Feel free to bring your doubts, your longings, your dreams, and your laments.  There is space for all of it here.
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Training and Certification

While I hold my life experience in the highest regard as preparation for this work, I have also dedicated myself to ongoing education and development. Here are some of the programs I have completed:

Poetry Bio and Publications Online

Christine Valters Paintner is an American poet and writer living in Galway, Ireland. She is the author of twelve books of nonfiction on creative process and contemplative practice and her poems have been published in several journals in both the U.S. and Ireland including Stinging Fly, The Galway Review, Boyne Berries, Headstuff, Skylight 47, Spiritus Journal, Anchor, Presence: Journal of Spiritual Directors International, ARTS, Crannog, North West Words, Tiferet, Artis Natura, The Blue Nib, and U.S. Catholic, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry, and Tales from the Forest. Her first collection, Dreaming of Stones, was published by Paraclete Press in 2019.

You can read some of her poems online:

Podcast Interviews with Christine

On The Soul's Slow Ripening at Awakened Woman Self-Care

On Silence, Art, and Contemplation at Encountering Silence

On Celtic Spiritual Practices at The Soul-Directed Life (Unity Radio)

On Celtic Spiritual Practices at Radiant River Wellness

On Ancestral Pilgrimage at A Sacred Journey

On Urban Monks and Part-Time Hermits at Makers and Mystics

On Soul of a Pilgrim at Out of the Fog with Karen Hager

On pilgrimage and vulnerability at A Congruent Life

How Monastic Wisdom Nurtures Creativity at The Soul-Directed Life (Unity Radio)

On The Wisdom of the Body at The Soul-Directed Life (Unity Radio)

On Soul of a Pilgrim at Faith Conversations with Anita Lustrea

Video interview on Soul of a Pilgrim with Kayce Stevens Hughlett

Video interview on spiritual direction and the arts with Spiritual Directors International

Comments

  1. Surprised that it tool me this long to find my way to this particular page, I am so grateful and inspired to hear the music of your soul as expressed here, Christine. So much speaks to me here! This is just one of many notes you struck within me: "I come most alive in that fertile space where the inner monk and artist meet and dance together." Thank you for listening so attentively to your inner being and calls. I look forward to continued connection with this home of the heart. ~Ani

  2. My cousin sent me your newsletter & I am really enjoying your writings. I just noticed the reace after your name & am also a lover & practioner of expressive arts. Having just been at an IEATA conference in Canada connecting with the indigeneous roots of expressive arts, the ancestor's place in our lives was understood and respected. I am glad to be connected with Abbey of the Arts. Mindy from Rye, NH

  3. How wonderful! I am doing a Spirituality & Practice Lent Course and an artist on there recommended you. So grateful to her and glad I looked you up. Love & blessings to all from England.

  4. This is brilliant. Your Work, your combination, your gifts. Resonates with every fiber of my being. I look forward to meeting you one day, perhaps on the dance floor, maybe in the monastery. From Savannah, GA, Tricia Richardson, monk in training.

Upcoming Programs

Lectio Divina:
The Sacred Art of Reading the World
(6-week companion retreat to the book)
(Use code Lectio20 for 20% off until Feb 29th)
with Christine & John Valters Paintner

Awakening the Creative Spirit:
Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts
(Pacific Northwest)
November 1-6, 2020
with Kayce Stevens Hughlett and Betsey Beckman

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