Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

  • Welcome
    • Prayer Cycle
      • Introduction to the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle
      • Day 1 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Cathedral
      • Day 2 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Scriptures
      • Day 3 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Saints
      • Day 4 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Spiritual Directors
      • Day 5 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Icon
      • Day 6 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Sacrament
      • Day 7 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Liturgy
      • Prayer Cycle Leader Resources
    • About the Abbey
    • About Christine Valters Paintner
    • About John Valters Paintner
    • About the Wisdom Council
    • Monk Manifesto
    • Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks
    • Subscribe to Our Love Notes
    • Website privacy notice
  • Books
    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
    • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
    • Earth, Our Original Monastery:
      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
    • The Wisdom of the Body:
      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
    • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
    • Eyes of the Heart:
      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
    • The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
    • Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained
    • Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
    • Awakening the Creative Spirit:
      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
  • Poetry | Art | Music
    • Music + DVD
    • Poetry by Christine Valters Paintner
    • Poetry Videos
    • Dancing Monk Icons
    • Other Art Collaborations
      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
      • Saints & Animals art series by David Hollington
      • Sacred Time art series by Alexi Francis
      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
      • God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila (Book Club – February 2021)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
      • Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
      • Novena for Times of Unraveling
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • The Two HT’s-Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
      • Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World:
        An Online Writing Retreat
    • Self-Study Online Spiritual Retreats
      • Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:
        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Day 6 Morning & Evening Prayer:
Earth as the Original Sacrament

Return to Prayer Cycle Home Page
MAKE A DONATION

Audio Podcast

Abbey of the Arts · Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle: Day 6 Morning Prayer

Video Podcast

Day 6 Morning Prayer

Opening Prayer: All of Creation is a window onto the divine presence and unfolding. We pray today that we may have eyes to see the shimmering moments calling to our hearts that help us fall ever more in love with this beautiful world.

Song: O Sun

First Reading: Francis of Assisi

The Sacraments

I once spoke to my friend, an old squirrel, about the Sacraments –
he got so excited

and ran into a hollow in his tree and came
back holding some acorns, an owl feather,
and a ribbon he had found.

And I just smiled and said, “Yes, dear,
you understand:

everything imparts
His grace.”

Sung Psalm Opening: O Beauty, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)

Psalm 87

The whole earth is holy
loved into being with delight.
The earth is beautiful
every mountain, every bush, every fish.
Love encompasses all
Love encompasses all.
Give thanks and praise, use it well
and dance the holy dance.

Sung Doxology: Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.

Second Reading: Julian of Norwich

And in this he showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, and I perceived that it was round as any ball. I looked at it and thought: What can this be? And I was given this general answer: It is everything which is made. I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that it was so little that it could suddenly fall into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and always will because God loves it; and thus everything has being through the love of God.

Silent Contemplation

Prayers of Concern:

We offer prayers now for all that is on our hearts.

I’m out walking.  I watch her run ahead, stopping to sniff each blade of grass, then running back to nuzzle my hand and gaze up at me with adoring eyes.  My heart softens to the love she pours in and I marvel at her delight in living fully each moment.  I give thanks for her, and for you who created her.  And I pray for humanity, that we might live with such joyful attentiveness and adoring love.

Sung Response - O God of Earth, reveal to us your splendor.

I’m out walking.  I notice the strike of my boots on the hard ground of the trail.  I kneel and feel the rock’s weatherworn roughness, wondering about the generations of footsteps it has known.  I am in awe of its resiliency, and the resiliency of the human spirit.  I give thanks for endurance which comes from you.  And I pray for humanity, that we might have strength to resist all that threatens to destroy Mother Earth.

Sung Response - O God of Earth, reveal to us your splendor.

I’m out walking.  I find myself standing by a cairn gazing at snow-capped peaks glistening in the sun as far as my eye can see.  I feel profoundly at peace, at one with myself and with you.  I give thanks for this Earth-gift and wonder at the mystery of how you knit her together in such beauty.  And I pray for humanity, that we might fall in love with beauty - in each other and in all creation.

Sung Response - O God of Earth, reveal to us your splendor.

Please add the prayers you are longing to express.

Sung Response - O God of Earth, reveal to us your splendor.

Closing Song: It's a New Day

Closing Blessing

May Christ who shimmers in all creation
surprise you each day with glittering moments,
when you can see again how
Light lives in everything,
how it partners
with dark soil to bring forth
aster and lavender,
rosemary and daffodils,
a hundred kinds of squash,
kale and cabbage, apple and berry,
grapes sweetened by the sun.

How the dough you knead in your hands
is an alchemy of touch and time,
how everything is
a call to communion –
the wafer of moon,
a chalice of stars.
Let the Mystery of it all
dance in your heart,
always widening your horizons,
inhabiting new landscapes.

May you know each moment as sacred
and everything around you a call
to remember this one true thing.

Sung Amen

 

 

Credits: All songs and texts used with permission

Opening Prayer written by Christine Valters Paintner

Opening Song: O Sun by Peter Mayer

First Reading from Francis of Assisi. Quoted in Daniel Ladinsky, trans., Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and the West. New York: Penguin Books (2002) p. 53.

Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Interpretation of Psalm 87 by Rev. Christine Robinson

Second Reading from Julian of Norwich. Julian of Norwich: Showings (Classics of Western Spirituality.) New York: Paulist Press (1978) p. 130.

Prayers of Concern written by Valerie Allen

Sung Response by Betsey Beckman

Closing Song: It's a New Day by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Closing Blessing: Earth as the Original Sacrament written by Christine Valters Paintner

Please note: All of the Opening and Closing Songs are published on CDs in the Abbey of the Arts collection. In addition, these songs have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding DVD (each album has a DVD companion).  The Psalm Opening, Doxology, and the Response to the Prayers of Concern also have accompanying congregational gestures. The audio and video recordings of these are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.

 

 

Audio Podcast

Abbey of the Arts · Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle: Day 6 Evening Prayer

Video Podcast

Day 6 Evening Prayer

Opening Prayer: As the day descends into darkness, let us remember all the ways the world was illuminated today. Let us give thanks for the truth that everything is sacred and savor the reality that holiness embraces us.

Opening Song: Illumine Me

Sung Psalm Opening: O Beauty, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)

Psalm 65  

It is good to give thanks,
for the boundless mercy
which renews us and makes us whole.
Happy are those who know this
and open themselves to the Light.
and sing—

You make the sunrise and the sunset shout for joy.
You are the earth’s fertility.
Your law governs her cycles of snow, run-off, flood, and rain.
You crown the year with abundance
The wild lands are watered with dew.
The hills deck themselves with green.
The meadows adorn themselves with flocks,
The valleys gown themselves with grain.
They dance together.
They join in song.

Sung Doxology: Glory to the Maker, Lover and Keeper as ago, in this breath and will be ever Amen, Amen.

Reading of the Night: John Klassen, OSB

Jesus shows a wonderful attitude toward created things by using water, bread, fish, wine, light, creatures such as birds of the air, foxes, seed and mud. The parables show that Jesus assumed the worth of the created universe, the dependability of nature, the recurrence of the seasons, the normal pattern of sowing and harvesting, of planting a vineyard and caring for it, of seeing the clouds and counting on the rain. The natural world is the stage where the reign of God is enacted, the place where faith in God with all of its dimensions is lived out.

Silent Contemplation

Closing Poem: A Glimpse of the Underglimmer

You can see it sometimes in October
when the sun’s low angle slides
gold over the field,
effervescence of light,

or you stand in a forest of cedars
and March rain pads
hundreds of tiny feet across
the emerald canopy,

or the fireflies of July form
new constellations, then vanish
into summer’s night leaving only
trails of light in your memory,

or you stand in a May meadow,
a fox crossing quietly, you hold
still as possible, the sliver of moon
above, holding its breath with you.
 
Closing Song: Saint Gobnait
 
Credits: All songs and texts used with permission

Opening Prayer written by Christine Valters Paintner

Opening Song: Illumine Me by Trish Bruxvoort Colligan

Psalm Opening and Doxology by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Interpretation of Psalm 65 by the Rev. Christine Robinson

Reading of the Night from John Klassen, OSB. Quoted in Nature as a Spiritual Practice by Steven Chase. WB Eerdmans (2011) p. 80.

Closing Poem by Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of Wild Grace. Paraclete Press (2020).

Closing Song: Saint Gobnait by Simon de Voil

Please note: All of the Opening and Closing Songs are published on CDs in the Abbey of the Arts collection. In addition, these songs have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding DVD (each album has a DVD companion).  The Psalm Opening, Doxology, and the Response to the Prayers of Concern also have accompanying congregational gestures. The audio and video recordings of these are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.

 

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print

Upcoming Programs

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers
Retreat for Lent 2021

February 17-April 1, 2021
with Christine & John Valters Paintner and Betsey Beckman

Recent Reflections

  • Celtic Spirituality and the Spiral Way ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 3: Ní heolas go haontíos ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Humility + Join us today for live prayer! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 2: Tús maith leath na hoibre – by John Valters Paintner
  • New Book Club for 2021: Lift Every Voice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Connect with the Abbey

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
JOIN THE HOLY DISORDER OF DANCING MONKS
SIGN UP FOR UPDATES
DONATE TO SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY

Copyright © 2021 BY ABBEY OF THE ARTS · WEBSITE PRIVACY NOTICE

Copyright © 2021 · Flourish Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in