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
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    • About Christine Valters Paintner
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  • 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
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      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
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      • Sacred Time art series by Alexi Francis
      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Walk the Ancient Paths: Pilgrimage
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      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
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      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
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      • 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)
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
    • 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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Uncategorized

Guest post from the online Prior: John Valters Paintner

The Abbey is so delighted to be offering an online retreat for men starting January 20th – Exile and Coming Home: Priest, Prophet, Politician, and Poet – An Online Journey for Men – facilitated by John Valters Paintner, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, Roy Deleon, and Michael Landron. John shares some insights and an invitation to join him:

Greetings My Fellow Monks!

John CorcomroeA year and a half ago, I made a huge life change.  I gave up a full-time job teaching theology at a Catholic high school.  The main reason for leaving my teaching position was because the Hebrew Scriptures class I had taught for nine years was being dropped to make room for the new curriculum mandated by the US Catholic Bishops.  Over the course of the nine years I taught the Hebrew Scriptures I delved into my own study for continued education and really fell in love with these ancient stories of faith.  I loved teaching teenagers and believe it to be very important, but I could not get behind a curriculum that I felt was both theologically and educationally lacking.

And so I am thrilled to be teaching the Hebrew Scriptures again here at the Abbey of the Arts with our first men’s-only online retreat (Exile and Coming Home: Priest, Prophet, Politician, and Poet – An Online Journey for Men).  Certainly things are different this time around.  I will be co-teaching with some wonderful men rather than teaching alone.  My fellow pilgrims along this spiritual journey (we are all students) will be more mature and are willing participants.  And best of all, I am free from the constraints of a Church structure.

I am not anti-Church, but my spiritual journey has taken me beyond the pale of traditional Church confines.  I still consider myself a Catholic and while the course is not Christ centered, Jesus of Nazareth is very central to my faith.  However, as a Christian theologian I believe very strongly that the Old Testament is an equally sacred text that can stand alone as a testament to our human understanding of God and should be studied as such.

As much as I love the Bible, I have come to realize that it has not necessarily traveled well down through the centuries.  There is much in those ancient books that are difficult or troubling for many modern readers.  Finding a good linguistic translation is easy, they abound.  The difficult part of modern Biblical studies is the cultural translation.  By this I mean to say that most of us are not nomadic herders or farmers and so some of the analogies and the very mindset of the Biblical authors are easily lost.  These cultural misunderstandings lead, unfortunately, to the Bible often being misunderstood.  The biggest issue, I feel, is made by both fundamentalists and (some) atheists, alike.  They both demand that the Bible be perfect.  Therefore the fundamentalist reads every line of Scripture as literal fact.  (I have heard some remarkable leaps and twists of logic to explain away or ignore blaring contradictions or troubling texts from some otherwise very erstwhile Christians.)  Similarly, expecting the Bible to be true in every detail, the atheist will dismiss the entire Bible over the first inaccuracy.  (I have heard atheists, who I otherwise greatly respect, ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ when it comes to the Bible.)

But love (of Scripture) is neither blind to faults nor critically dismissive.  True love sees the flaws and understands them as part of the whole, which can then be loved and understood for what it really is.  The Bible is the inspired word of God, not God’s dictation.  The Bible is not definitive proof of God, the assumption is one of a divine presence . . . even if the nature of the Divine is always just beyond our grasp.  The Bible (Old & New Testaments) is the collected sacred writings of ancient people trying to understand God.  The three key moments of questioning that led to the writing of Scripture are the Exodus, the Exile, and the Crucifixion.  In each of these instances, people thought they understood God, but are then so surprised by God’s actions that a great spiritual wrestling begins that ultimately results in the writing of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The answers that the Biblical authors arrive at are deeply profound, but often colored by their ancient cultural worldview.  And so to best understand
what they are trying to tell us through their writings, we must do our best to understand who they were (to put ourselves in their sandals, so to speak) to better understand their message.

We won’t have time to delve into all three of these big questions of Biblical faith in one class.  We will only scratch the surface of one of them in our online men’s retreat, but what better place to begin than at the start of the Bible.  Not chronologically at “the beginning,” but with the event that prompted the ancient Jews to sit down together and ask themselves, “if we are the beloved children of God, how did we become Exiled and how do we return home?”

I invite you to join me on a journey through some of these ancient stories and listen for the wisdom they offer to us as we strive to live in more contemplative ways in the world.

Join us starting January 20th: Exile and Coming Home: Priest, Prophet, Politician, and Poet – An Online Journey for Men

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35 Comments January 2, 2014

Upcoming Programs

The Way of the Hermit:
A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times

January 22-24, 2021
with Kayleen Asbo, PhD

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Recent Reflections

  • 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
  • Celebrate the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle podcast with us!

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