Stop by Patheos for the second part of my article on Mandalas in the church.
For Trust in Abundance*Spirit of Generous Abundance,remind us there is always more than enough—enough food, enough love, enough time, enough resources.Help us to see how our disconnected patterns of livingamplify our scarcity.Bring us into the joy and challenge of communitywhere bread divided multiplies, where laughter
Christine Valters Paintner had a conversation on Creativity, Chronic Illness, and Contemplation with Mike Petrow on his podcast The Healer with a Thousand Faces (also available through audio podcast channels). Joins us in Lent 2027 for the retreat The Wisdom of Our Wounds: Chronic Illness
I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jaqui Eicher’s reflection and poem. After reading Christine Valters Paintner’s poem, “St. Gall and the Bear,” I responded in writing to the prompt:
3 Responses
In a Hindu scripture, there is also an exact description of passing through 7 gates in a palace to reach God. There is also quite a lot of mention of mandalas as well. It is really interesting.
Thanks for this comment kigen. Yes, there are lots of wonderful nuances which get left out of a brief article for the web, so nice to explore some of those here, perhaps others in more writing. :-)
Christine, loved taking that walk with you into St. Teresa’s mandala-Castle — and it’s so delightful to see Teresa and Hildegard’s imagery presented together so seamlessly! In Tibetan art I’ve seem some architectural mandalas drafted as squares, which I like a lot. So your photo montage really can work as a mandala — as Jesus says, “in my father’s house there are many mansions.,” and Teresa quotes that too, and describes her castle as ” having rooms above and below and on the sides.”