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
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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
    • 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
    • Walk the Ancient Paths: Pilgrimage
      • Monk in the World (Ireland)
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World (Ireland)
      • Vienna Monk in the World (Austria)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
    • Live Programs and Spiritual Retreats
      • 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)
      • 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
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World guest post: Jim Cyr

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jim Cyr's wisdom about the grace of stories:

“My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours… it is precisely through these stories in all their particularity, as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us more powerfully and personally. If this is true, it means that to lose track of our stories is to be profoundly impoverished not only humanly but also spiritually.” ? Frederick Buechner

“Everything happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” –Malcolm Muggeridge.

Do you know why God created people? Because God loves a good story! For me, being a monk in the world is all about hearing and telling God’s story.

Hearing God’s Story

How do I hear God’s story? Through auditus orantis, prayerful listening: prayerful listening to God through centering prayer, prayerful listening to the Scriptures through lectio divinia, prayerful listening to great teachers of wisdom like Fr. Richard Rohr, through books and audio, prayerful listening to my clients and their families as I intervene in their crises, prayerful listening to the experiences of my life through my journal writing, and finally, prayerful listening to the folk and sacred stories of many traditions.  All of these happenings, great and small, become parables whereby God speaks to me. Sometimes I get the message and sometimes I don’t. But God is always speaking God’s story to me.

When I hear it, God’s story is sometimes hilarious, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes terrifying, sometimes infuriating, and sometimes perplexing. God’s story is always transforming when I hear it with the ear of my heart.

For some reason, God has wired me with an antenna for hearing his voice through stories, both sacred and secular. I have heard God’s voice through the story of Longinus, the centurion who pierced Jesus’ side with a spear. When the blood and water from Jesus’ side spurted into his eyes, his growing blindness was healed and the darkness of his past life was washed away. Longinus went on to be martyred for Christ for refusing to bow down to a Roman idol.

I have heard God’s voice through the story of St. Godric, who for years struggled between the pull of worldly passions and the call of God on his life. Godric finally decided to follow the call of God and became a hermit on the hunting preserves of Sir Flambard, a powerful knight. There Godric became a shepherd to God’s wild creatures and God’s hurting people.

I have heard the voice of God through the story of St. Kentigern, or St. Mungo (“My Darling”) as he was nicknamed. Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow, Scotland. He was the illegitimate son of a princess of the Scottish lowlands. When it was discovered that the princess was pregnant and she refused to reveal the father, she was rolled down a steep hill and survived only to be set adrift in the ocean in a coracle. Unborn Mungo and his mother were rescued by a hermit who raised Mungo as his foster son. Mungo went on to be a champion of those who were falsely accused and persecuted. Through these stories God has taught me that God can use me even though the first half of my life was broken by abuse, sin, and failure.

Telling God’s Story

How do I tell God’s story? First I attempt, though most times poorly, to incarnate God’s story through listening presence. My work in a jail, a prison, a residential facility, and now as a crisis intervention specialist has allowed me many opportunities to be an ear of God “listening people back into existence.” Listening with compassion is the best way I’ve found to tell God’s story by incarnating it. Putting flesh and blood on the story of God allows people experience God’s love in real time as they struggle with making sense of their own story.

I also attempt to tell God’s story by literally telling it. As a storyteller I tell God’s story from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Biblical storytelling has been a way for me to enable people to hear God’s story again as if for the first time as the story becomes incarnate through the teller. Since all truth is God’s truth, and since the truth of God is too big to be contained only in one tradition, I also tell God’s story as it is found in the sacred stories of other traditions and in folktales of different cultures.

I close with a brief story from Iceland of hearing God’s story, telling God’s story, and the power of compassionate listening to incarnate the story of God.


Jim CyrJim Cyr is a crisis intervention specialist for the NJ Division of Children and Families’ Children’s Mobile Response and Stabilization Services through Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen. Jim’s storytelling, called “Heart Tales,” seeks to energize people for whole-hearted living through stories of healing, wisdom and faith. Find Jim at www.hearttales.net.

Click here to read all the guest posts in the Monk in the World series>>

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7 Comments April 24, 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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