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

Uncategorized

Homecoming (a love note from your online Abbess)

My final question, 'How will I know when I have reached the destination?' brings me full circle, and I face the Mystery again. Perhaps the truth is that we never arrive, not because the journey is too long and too difficult but because we have been there all along. I am coming to believe that there is no final destination except to continue to be on the journey and to know that every place along the way is a holy place because God is present. I believe that God is calling us to stand on our own ground and know that it is holy and let our roots grow deep. And yet at the same time, the journey goes on. It is a paradox, I know, but perhaps we are traveling most faithfully when we know ourselves to be most at home.

—Judith E. Smith, from "This Ground is Holy Ground" in Weavings Journal

Dearest monks and artists,

A dear friend and fellow monk in the world sent me the words above recently. They express so well the truth I am being called to embrace on this time of pilgrimage. Of course, my Benedictine commitment to conversion teaches me that there is no "destination," only a continual unfolding, ripening, and ongoing revelation. My practice is to stay awake to this, receive each moment as gift and invitation.

The six months I spent living in Vienna were a tremendous grace, full of joy and delight, as well as roadblocks and frustrations. I try my best to be present to it all, to embrace the full spectrum of what is happening in any given moment. Without this, I am just on a vacation rather than a pilgrimage. I know if life allows me, I will return to Vienna again and again.

We came to Ireland full of possibility, with even a rainbow to greet us on our arrival. We have already had some roadblocks and frustrations here, needing to move homes again to Galway because I did not have the resources and connection to do my work where we were. I had to cancel several things and make hard choices because our financial livelihood depended on it. It has been an uneasy time and yet our new home is wonderful with wide views of the sea to keep my heart and imagination expansive.

I sometimes describe the artist as one who creates out of the materials given, not necessarily the materials they wish they had. To be an artist of everyday life means to stay fluid and flexible, responding to the invitation in each moment. I cringe a little when I hear people say things were "meant to be" or "happened for a reason." I don't believe that life is planned out ahead of time, but that God is immersed in a creative outpouring moment by moment and we are called to dance with whatever emerges. Sometimes it is not as we would want it, often this is because of the choices or limitations of others, or our own, not some God-given struggle to strengthen us. And yet, the divine presence is always there in the midst, helping us to create beauty right there.

In this last month I have also been to the U.S., my first time back since moving overseas, spending time first with nearly 300 monks and artists at a conference I was leading in Denver, and then 11 beautiful souls on the shores of the Hood Canal in the Pacific Northwest. It has been a time full of grace and joy and feeling very at home in my work and ministry, feeling at home being with some wonderful new friends. It was a gift to be back in my beloved Northwest, a place that will always feel like home to me. And always on returning from such an outpouring of heart and energy, it is time for me to move inward for a while.

I am feeling a bit buffeted these days, unsettled, stretched thin at times, and longing for homecoming, but knowing it is not time yet for that. Pilgrimage is about letting myself be a stranger for a while and breathing into the discomfort of it. I need to allow days and weeks to pass in this new place, to build connections, and feel the energy of the sea moving in to greet me again and again. And at the same time, I do have many moments of homecoming, glimpses of what Judith writes about above, to see this place as holy. Moments of joy and a sense of rightness that I have said a wholehearted "yes" to the invitation to not take my life for granted and to not let opportunities for exploration and adventure pass me by. This is the path of the monk in the world.

In this quiet space before Lent begins, I am being extraordinarily gentle and generous with my tender self. I am inhabiting a space of deep rest and recovery, of embracing winter's stillness, of sending down roots into the earth for nourishment. My word for the year is "breakthrough" and right now it feels like a series of quiet breakthrough moments as I continue to soften into this space I find myself. I have had so much inspiration these last few weeks, so many amazing things are coming to birth, I need to find some fallow ground in which to plant the seeds and witness what grows forth. And I will share more as the time becomes right.

What is the invitation of this season for your own heart? Can you be gentle in the midst of transitions and disappointments? How is your word for the year working through you?

May you find yourself at home wherever you are,

With great and growing love. . .

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE
www.AbbeyoftheArts.com

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Leave a Comment January 30, 2013

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

  • 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
  • Hildy Tales One: Dia dhuit, is mise Hildy! by John Valters Paintner, Your Online Prior

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