Christine, Author at Abbey of the Arts

Monk in the World guest post: Judy Smoot

I’ve known Judy Smoot for several years now, first connecting through Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist, then several other online classes, and finally the pleasure of spending time with Judy in person at our Awakening the Creative Spirit intensive. Judy is a fellow Benedictine oblate, a spiritual director, a lover of the […]

Invitation to Photography: Holy Waiting

Welcome to this month’s Abbey Photo Party! I select a theme and invite you to respond with images. We began this month with a Community Lectio (Visio) Divina practice (stop by to pray with this beautiful image from Mary Southard). As I prayed with Mary’s art I felt held in this womb of waiting and watchfulness, attentiveness and presence, […]

Earth Monastery Project: Grant Winners Announced

This past autumn, Abbey of the Arts launched a new initiative – the Earth Monastery Project – as a way of encouraging creative visions for nourishing an earth-cherishing consciousness. We had a marvelous batch of applicants for this first round and John and I along with Wisdom Council members Cheryl, Stacy, and Richard, truly had a […]

Monk in the World guest post: Mary Earle

I first encountered Mary Earle’s work several years ago in her book Beginning Again: Benedictine Wisdom for Living with Illness and Broken Body, Healing Spirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness. Her books helped me fall even more in love with the balanced way of monasticism and to see it as a profoundly healing path as […]

Community Lectio (Visio) Divina: Art by Mary Southard

Artwork: “In the Shelter of Your Wings” © Mary Southard, CSJ Used with permission courtesy of www.marysouthardart.org With December comes a new invitation for contemplation. This month I invite you into a visio divina practice, which is an adaptation of lectio divina. In visio divina we are invited to see with the eyes of our heart, much […]

With Gratitude (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) Thanksgiving I have been trying to read the script cut in these hills— a language carved in the shimmer of stubble and the solid lines of soil, spoken in the thud of apples falling and the rasp of […]