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
    • 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
  • Contact

Abbess love notes

Join us on Pilgrimage or Retreat in 2018! ~ A love note from your online abbess

How to Be a Pilgrim

Air travel is like
ancient pilgrims walking on their
knees, flight delays and narrow seats
offer their own kind of penance.

You jettison excess baggage,
leaving behind the heavy makeup case,
knowing the rain will
wash you free of artifice.

Books you wanted to carry left too,
no more outside words needed,
then go old beliefs which keep
you taut and twisted inside.

Blistered feet stumble over rocky
fields covered with wildflowers and you
realize this is your life,
full of sharp stones and color.

Red-breasted robins call forth
the song already inside,
a hundred griefs break open under
dark clouds and downpour.

Rise and fall of elation and exhaustion,
the tides a calendar of unfolding,
a bright star rises and you remember
a loved one waiting miles away.

A new hunger is kindled by the sight of
cows nursing calves in a field,
spying a spotted pony, you forget
the weight and seriousness of things.

Salmon swim across the Atlantic,
up the River Corrib’s rapids to the
wide lake, and you wonder if you have
also been called here for death and birth.

This is why we journey:
to retrieve our lost intimacy with the world,
every creature a herald of poems
that sleep in streams and stones.

“Missing you” scrawled on a postcard sent home,
but you don't follow with
"wish you were here."
This is a voyage best made alone.

—Christine Valters Paintner

Dearest monks and artists,

We have been leading pilgrimages to the wild edges of Ireland for four years now, and the gifts and privileges it brings continue to multiply. We love standing in those sacred sites with our gathered community of kindred souls, spending time in silence listening to the wind and sea and stones, engaging in rituals to sing the places back to life again, the ways our pilgrims bond with one another so quickly and easily, seeing this beautiful land through new eyes again and again.

We have dates posted now for 2018 which includes three pilgrimage dates in Ireland, out of Galway, and one pilgrimage in Germany to follow in the footsteps of St. Hildegard. You can view these on our Calendar page.

To help you discern if this might be the right season to join us, I share with you a meditation from my book Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within. This meditation is also appropriate for those of you preparing for a time of inner pilgrimage, in the sanctuary of your home space.

Begin by allowing a few moments to sink into the stillness.  Deepen your breath and bring it down into your belly so that you feel your belly expanding with each inhale.  Then allow the exhale to be long and slow.  Imagine as you breathe in that you are receiving the gift of life which sustains you moment by moment even when you are completely unaware of it.  As you exhale, imagine that you are releasing, letting go of whatever is not needed for this time, anything that might be keeping you from being fully present.

Become aware of your body and notice if there are any places of tightness or holding and bring your breath to those places and see if you can soften and release.

See if you can draw your awareness with your breath from your head down to your heart center, placing a hand on your heart to make a physical connection.  Rest there a moment and just notice what you are experiencing, without trying to change it.  See if you can be with your feelings without judgment, bringing compassion to wherever you find yourself right now.  Remember what the mystics across traditions have told us about the infinite source of compassion which dwells in our hearts.  Breathe in that compassion.

In your imagination, see yourself at a doorway.  Spend some time being with the door and noticing its qualities.  What are the colors and textures?  Is it old or new?  Is it worn with time or shiny?  Is it closed or slightly ajar? See if you can be with whatever image comes to mind without trying to change it.

Imagine yourself pausing here, knowing that as you cross this threshold you enter into a liminal kind of time, kairos time as the ancients called it.  This is time outside of time, where you will encounter both challenges and grace along the way.  In threshold space you are in between, you are invited to rest into unknowing – about what the journey will bring, about even where you are going exactly.

Notice what you are carrying with you and see if there is anything you can set aside before you begin this journey.  What you are carrying might be objects and possessions, but they might also be beliefs or attitudes about yourself or life or about God.   What could you set down on the ground and leave for this time?  And what are the essentials that you want to have with you?  What feels important to carry?

When you feel ready open the door and step across the threshold.  Pause there on the other side.  What do you see?  Taste? Smell? Feel? Hear?  Allow yourself some time to just be with whatever felt experience arises.

Stand here for a while, taking in the full spectrum of what you are feeling.  Welcome in joy, excitement, fear, trepidation, anxiety, and whatever else is arising with an open heart.  Call on that compassion once again.

Offer a prayer here, at the threshold, for whatever your heart’s desire is for this time ahead.  Speak from your heart about whatever it is you long for most.  Make a commitment to continue showing up to the practice and to return ever so gently when you fall away.

Remember this place, knowing that you will be journeying forward from here into unknown territory, knowing that you have everything you need to navigate this time ahead and a community of fellow pilgrims as guides and companions.

When you feel ready gently deepen your breathing once again and bring your awareness from this inner space to the world around you once again.  Allow some time for journaling and reflection on your experience. Name the images that arose for you.

What did you discover on this inner journey?

With great and growing love,

 Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

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Leave a Comment May 7, 2017

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

  • 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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