Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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  • Books
    • Breath Prayer:
      An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred
    • 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
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      • 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
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
      • Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color (Book Club – March 2021)
      • God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila (Book Club – February 2021)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
      • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: A Weekend Retreat Online
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Sacred Balance:
        Aligning Body and Spirit Through
        Yoga and the Benedictine Way
    • 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 (SELF-STUDY)
      • 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
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
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Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Melissa Layer

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission for the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Melissa Layer's reflection on finding the healing presence of God among the pines.

Praised be you, my Lord,
with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day,
and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful
and radiant with great splendour;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High one.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them
clear and precious and beautiful.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather
through which you give sustenance to your creatures.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through Sister water,
who is very useful and humble
and precious and chaste.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through Brother fire,
through whom You light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful
and robust and strong.

Praised be You, my Lord,
through our Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us,
and who produces various fruit
with coloured flowers and herbs.

from The Canticle of Creatures
(St. Francis of Assisi)
One might ask when a child first becomes aware of God’s presence and is called into a sacred union before words have formed.  For me it was on the warm breast of the nurturant earth.  My earliest memory is of a spring day in southern California in a baby buggy beneath a flowering orange tree.  Mom described how she stood at the kitchen sink, washing dishes, and watched me through the open window.  Whenever the breeze rustled the glossy leaves and fragrant blossoms, she could hear my peals of laughter and see the excited kicking of my legs and waving arms.  Somewhere within my mother’s description and my own embodied experience, I believe this was my baptism in God’s glorious creation – a baby monk in the world!
When I was 5 years old, my parents loaded camping gear into the station wagon and we journeyed to northern Idaho.  I have a small photo of my brother and me in our white cotton underwear, standing in a slow moving river.  It was here that I made the acquaintance of evergreen trees.  I loved the sticky, fragrant pitch and the way the wind sighed through the dancing boughs.  As we returned home to California, the evergreen trees gave way to sagebrush and a lump formed in my throat.  “Liss, why are you crying?” my mother asked as she turned to look at me in the back seat.

When I was 7 years old my father accepted a job transfer to a remote northeastern corner of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, an hour away from that Idaho campground.  I had been a sickly child, but when we moved to my beloved pine forests a healing miracle occurred in my young body.


The robin’s song calls Liss from sleep,

bare feet wet in morning dew
as she runs into the forest.
White Trillium and lavendar Lady’s Slipper
nod shyly in mossy pockets
where she crafts a fort of hemlock boughs.
She lies on her back
hidden, silent
drawn up and away into the endless blue sky
hitching a ride on a slow-moving cloud.
Her faithful dog’s head is warm beneath her palm
and her tabby cat watches from the shadows.
Later she collects purple Shooting Stars and yellow Fawn Lilies
from the banks above the green ribbon of the Pend Oreille.
She tucks herself into the old apple tree
above the gray Appaloosa
grazing belly deep in summer grass.
Cedar Creek washes her thin pale body
and rocks her to sleep in a black inner tube,
teaching her about currents and deep places
how all things grow and flow
seeking the distant sea.
The sun slips through her fingertips, west
over the old red barn
where golden shafts pierce weathered planks
and dust motes dance
over sweet hay from last summer’s mowing.
In the deepening dusk
her mother’s voice calls her to supper, asking
“Where have you been?”
And she is shy, quiet
because she cannot describe
a holy communion, so sweet and secret.

The 23rd Psalm is the first scripture that I memorized and recited in the country church I attended as a little girl.  I felt as though these verses had been written just for me:  “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.”   And I knew with certainty that I had felt that loving warm palm in the golden heat of the sun  “. . . thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

A luminous Mystery pulsed in the rhythm of the four seasons that encircled and carried me. I ripened and flourished in awe and reverence for the Beautiful One that had breathed form and life into earth’s body . . .  my body.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the earth,
the dirt between my toes,
the sun pours down upon my crown,
the mighty river flows.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
of bird song in the trees,
the air is dense with fragrant scents
soft floating on the breeze.

Amazing Grace the ocean swells,
the waves break on the shore,
the moonlight rides upon the tides,
oh, who could ask for more.

(by Elizabeth Cunningham)


Melissa Layer, MA serves as a psychospiritual therapist and interfaith spiritual director from her home in the evergreen forests of Washington.  Utilizing expressive arts and curious exploration of the Great Mystery, Melissa offers her compassionate presence and deep listening via Skype, phone, e-mail, and in-person.  She is a member of the Abbey’s Wisdom Council.

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13 Comments May 3, 2017

Upcoming Programs

  • The Two HT’s Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman on Being Free with Therese Taylor-Stinson
    • Apr 17, 2021
  • Writing Into Bloom with Christine Valters Paintner
    • May 1, 2021
  • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
    • May 13, 2021
  • View All Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

  • Monk in the World Guest Post: Greta Kopec
  • Monk in the World Podcast + Harriet Tubman Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – April Video Discussion and Book Group Materials Now Available
  • Hildy Tails 12: Is ait an mac an saol ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Easter Blessings + An Elemental Journey ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

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