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
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Monk in the World (Ireland)
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Vienna Monk in the World (Austria)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color
      • The Way of the Hermit:
        A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times
        with Kayleen Asbo, PhD
      • 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
      • The Two HT’s-Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • 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
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Contemplative Living

What is your holy direction?

Invocation

Let us try what it is to be true to gravity,
to grace, to the given, faithful to our own voices,

to lines making the map of our furrowed tongue.
Turned toward the root of a single word, refusing

solemnity and slogans, let us honor what hides
and does not come easy to speech.  The pebbles

we hold in our mouths help us to practice song,
and we sing to the sea.  May the things of this world

be preserved to us, their beautiful secret
vocabularies.  We are dreaming it over and new,

the language of our tribe, music we hear
we can only acknowledge.  May the naming powers

be granted.  Our words are feathers that fly
on our breath.  Let them go in a holy direction.

—Jeanne Lohmann, Between Silence and Answer

This is my last week of sabbatical from teaching and it is a rich time of transition where I am gearing up for the fullness of fall.  Autumn is my favorite season though, and so I feel exuberant inside at this journey toward all the awaits me.  In September I will be traveling to Louisiana and Mississippi to lead workshops for spiritual directors in the arts and then on to Michigan here I will teach the Awakening the Creative Spirit 5-day intensive with Betsey Beckman.  My heart feels full of anticipation at spending time with groups like these.  It is such an extraordinary privilege for me to work with such hungry and questing souls.

Once back from those travels, I will have just a few days in between to re-group, and then will be attending a two-week yoga teacher training retreat through my yoga studio. I love this place
dearly because of their emphasis on making yoga accessible to everyone. As a non-profit they offer yoga to veterans, homeless, those who are dying, and those with addictions.  I have practiced yoga for many years and have found the philosophy to be so deeply resonant with my monastic heart.  The physical practice has been a grace as I continue to listen into this incredible vessel that carries me through my days.  Being a monk in the world means always cultivating deeper ways to listen and honoring all of life, including our bodies as a holy text.  I am not going on this retreat to become a "yoga teacher" per se, although I do want to bring the wonderful, contemplative practice of yin yoga to my retreat work.  I am going because I want to deepen into this tradition and be challenged by it in the context of community.  This is what monastic hospitality is all about, welcoming in the stranger at the door.  The culture out of which yoga arises is in many ways a stranger to me.  The philosophy is one that seems so deeply familiar, and yet because it comes from another place, can offer me a window into what I love most about my own Benedictine path.

Jeanne Lohman's poem of "Invocation" above speaks to my heart in this moment between the grace of rest and the grace of meaningful work.  They nourish one another. My prayer is that this time of sabbatical has renewed my spirit so that I can be fully present once again with this community of monks in the world.  And my prayer is that I continue to follow the holy direction of
my deep longings. The holy direction that has brought me to this moment where I am in service to all of you. It feels amazing really. What is your own holy direction as we transition to a new life season?

I take these journeys while also beginning to teach two sections of Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist in its new 12-week version accompanied by my book The Artist's Rule.
I am so delighted to be doubling the time I get to spend with these monks and artists, border-dwellers who long for a different way of being in the world.  If you would like to join me for the winter session (January 9-April 1, 2012) you might want to drop me a note to be added to the early notice list as there are quite a few folks on there already.

Looking ahead to this fall, in addition to our fabulous monthly Soul Care supervision group here in Seattle (limited space left!) and our new 6-week online class to support soul care practitioners – Live it to Give it (starts October 3rd and also limited space left), the Abbey will also be offering a series of monthly Monk in the World phone calls, a 3-week online retreat on Honoring Saints and Ancestors (October 30-November 19), and another fabulous online retreat for Advent on Birthing the Holy: Becoming a Monk in the World (November 27-December 24) with special guest teachers Roy DeLeon, Mary Earle, Paula Huston, Dana Reynolds, and Jan Richardson.  They are monks in the world, oblates, and authors and each will bring a luminous perspective on living contemplatively to the journey toward Christmas.  Registration for the monthly calls and the Ancestors and Advent online retreats will open in late September.

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1 Comment August 30, 2011

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

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