This 7-day Prayer Cycle of morning and evening prayers is a gift to our Abbey of the Arts community to support you in your daily contemplative practice.
On this page you will find links to the text versions of the prayers. We will be slowly releasing printable PDF versions of the text and starting in October, audio podcast versions of each prayer service.
While this is a free offering we rely on donations to help to cover our many operational costs. We hope to be able to create additional weeks to the Prayer Cycle over time and your contributions will help us in being able to make time to do this and support the writers, musicians, and other artists involved.
You can also visit our Music & Video store to purchase the songs and dance prayers used in these services.
Introduction to the Prayer Cycle
Abbey of the Arts is a virtual monastery and global community of monks, artists, and pilgrims dispersed all over this beautiful globe. The Abbey was founded by Christine Valters Paintner in 2006 with a vision of supporting people to integrate contemplative practice and creative expression. In 2013 she and her husband John moved to Ireland and he joined her in co-shepherding this community. They are joined by a team of treasured Wisdom Council members who support this work with their own gifts.
We are not affiliated with any particular institution and open our doors to people from any denomination or none at all. We strive to create a place of welcome and hospitality where we might dialogue with one another and grow. Our spirituality is steeped in the rich Christian mystical tradition, and three strands of monasticism: desert, Celtic, and Benedictine, all of which profoundly influences our ways of praying.
We are an open and affirming community and strive to be radically inclusive. We delight in being joined by people like you, who are seeking to be monks in the world and artists of everyday life, seeking kindred spirits, a community committed to contemplative rhythms and creative expression.
Poetry is our nourishment. Art inspires our souls. We dance and sing for the joy of it.
Morning and evening prayer nourishes many monastic communities and we have integrated this rhythm of prayer into our live retreat and pilgrimage programs. Our participants expressed a hunger for a prayer cycle that could be used by community members no matter where they were, that reflected our values and emphasis.
We are thrilled to present you with the first week of our Abbey of the Arts Prayer Cycle which takes as its theme Earth as Original Monastery, inspired by Christine’s recent book. Nourishing an earth-cherishing consciousness is central to our vision and practice.
Each day you are invited to morning and evening prayer with the original cathedral, scripture, saints, spiritual directors, icon, sacrament, and liturgy. These prayers bring together the rich tradition of monastic prayer, the wisdom of ancient mystics, songs from our album compilations, embodied prayers to accompany each song, contemporary versions of the psalms, and poetry and blessings.
You are welcome to pray through on your own or with a group. We provide all of the written texts for seven days of morning and evening prayers in this free handout. Duplication is permitted with attribution. The songs are available to purchase as a CD or mp3 download and the dances are available for purchase on DVD or streaming format. Your purchases help to support our ability to offer these resources and continue to develop more weeks of the prayer cycle on different themes.
How to Pray with the Prayer Cycle
Make some time each morning and evening to pause and join with us by entering into the prayers offered. You can pray with the songs and movement, or leave them out if you want to keep a simpler focus. If you are praying on your own, read through each section aloud, pausing between each one to allow a few moments to rest and integrate what has been said.
You can also pray this with a small group local to you by gathering together at a regular time. Divide up who reads which parts aloud, again leaving some quiet between each section.
