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
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        Earth as the Original Liturgy
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    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
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      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
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      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
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      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
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      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
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    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
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    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
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      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
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      • 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
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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Wisdom Council: Guest Post from Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan - webTime to hear from another of our amazing Wisdom Council members!  I first met Richard Bruxvoort Colligan through his wife, Trish (another Wisdom Council member) several years ago in my very early time of blogging (under the name Sacred Art of Living – a few of you are still around from those days!)  I fell in love with the music they co-created as River's Voice (which has been featured in several Abbey online retreats), and then got to work with them in person at the Spiritual Directors International conference in San Francisco, and fell in love with both of them even more. I love how they live out their partnership and they each have their own distinct work as well.  Richard has been working for several years on songs around the Psalms (and I am delighted he will be releasing a new album very soon of Taize-style Psalm songs).  Read on for Richard's reflections about being a monk in the world:

Primates, Eunice and the Psalms: Being a Monk in the World

When I was six, I took piano lessons. My teacher once told me a story about a devoted monk who practiced daily his craft of calligraphy. Though I’m sure she intended this to inspire me as a student, I hadn’t the faintest idea what a monk was. My little mind scanned my imagination and grabbed the closest image I could find: a monk-ey.

Yeah, that story didn’t make much sense to me.

For me, being a monk in the world means something stupidly simple: following one’s nature. Which, turns out, means practice. Both the “practice makes perfect” sense– training ourselves in what is most important– and the “practicing medicine” sense– there’s no getting it perfect, it’s just what we do as part of our livelihood.

Following one’s nature seems to come easy for our dog Willow, and for the ox in the Zen koan “Ten Oxherding Pictures.” Newborn babies seem to have no trouble either. Is it just me, or is living true to one’s nature a challenge for most of us?

It’s probably a human thing to struggle with individuality. When we know uniqueness, there is a reverence for every piece of creation’s array and a clarity of personal purpose, yet we fear being self-centered. When we know our sameness with all humanity, there’s a natural humility that opens way to blessed company, yet we fear being like everyone else.

Which is why we practice. Your unequalled Youness is a gift to the world (Who’s Eunice?) and also a pain in the ass. Your Youness brings what’s real to people and allows them to evolve. However they respond to your presence, this practice of being-doing a Unique You is important, and perhaps even  life-or-death essential.

In the midst of what would become known as the Reformation, Martin Luther had a famous response to his critics: “Here I stand. I can do no other.”

Now there’s a guy who knows his Eunice.

Our dog Willow is a curious, loyal and comical canine. She enjoys certain kinds of treats, she likes to be scratched around her neck and is deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner. She enjoys dancing and has wonderfully expressive eyebrows. She’s really good at being herself, and I don’t think she even thinks about it.

Thomas Merton wrote that a tree gives glory to God by being a tree. Don’t you love being around people who know who they are?

In case it’s helpful in your own story, let me describe the Richard-nature I practice and must do no other.

I love moments of discovery. I am consistently enthralled with music and songwriting. I enjoy laughter, blue, James Taylor, sangria, naps, Star Wars and a good bosc pear. I enjoy movies and popcorn. I’m fond of reading Gretel Ehrlich, Paul Tillich and Thomas Moore. I love sex with my wife. I tend toward introversion and I enjoy being part of a family. Try as I might, I cannot bring myself to like olives, museums and most jazz. My favorite word is “lotion,” and dark chocolate is almost as good as the aforementioned sex.

In attempting to follow my nature, I’ve noticed that one particular activity consistently brings me into alignment with joy, transformation and purpose. Some might call this a spiritual practice.

For the last nine years it has been immersion in the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible. When I am studying, singing and teaching the Psalms, there is nowhere I’d rather be. I’m a joyfully devoted monk-ey.

But being in the Psalms has also wrecked a whole lot of my life. Giving myself to them has been exceedingly difficult at times as my ideas have been dared to expand.

To be a monk in the world is a brave thing. It’s transforming the world.

However you play out your own spiritual practice, it’s for us a riverstream of concentrate to respond to. It help us practice our unique natures, and break through to more of it that is whole-ing our own life as well as the world.

I’m wondering if someday the Psalms will give way to some new thing for me. I’m wondering where your monkey-in-the-world Eunice most desires right now?

I’m grateful for the Abbey as a place of community for us. Here’s to being monks in the world together. *Clink*

Click here to find out more about Richard's work>>

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2 Comments July 7, 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

  • 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

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