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Priory in Images

 

This statue is of St. Placid and stands in front of the main building at St. Placid Priory.  Click the link to read the story of this relatively unknown Saint. I love what the sisters say about the anawim and being in solidarity with the least.

Their chapel is very modern and simple.  My favorite part are the windows that look out onto the lush trees surrounding the Priory. They remind me when we pray the Psalms together here that creation is God’s first scripture.

I also love watching the stained glass under the skylights above cast their hue on the wall and make their slow pilgrimage of color as the sun arcs across the sky.

This retreat I was very taken with a statue of Mary that has been standing at the entrance to the chapel in the four years I have been going, but I never lingered with her before.  Something about the presence of the divine feminine touched me deeply and I will be holding her image in my heart for a while and letting it unfold.

-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

(scroll down for more information about our creative retreat in November — please join us for a celebration of spirituality and the arts!)

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5 Responses

  1. Thanks Tess, one of my favorite quotes is from William Stafford where he says something like, the world keeps on trying to tell us something through the scripture of the leaves. Now I think of that almost everytime I go outside.

    A lovely insight Bette, yes Mary is carved from wood, I altered the photo a bit in Photoshop to give it a different kind of look.

  2. All four of these lovely photos show the beauty of man’s creations reflecting God’s nature. Mankind giving back to God. I love the statue of Mary. It looks like it is carved from wood.
    Thank you for sharing!

  3. Reading this, my eyes were drawn not to the photographs (as they normally would be) or to the story of St Placid, but to your phrase “creation is God’s first scripture”, which jumped out at me. I LOVE this, it is a wonderful phrase which for me encapsulates exactly the instinctive pull I feel to the natural world around us. Thank you.