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

Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Janelle Harvey

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Janelle Harvey's reflection, The Language of Feathers.

On a cold winter day, after discovering the truth and severity of your daughter’s drug addiction, you might find yourself running into the woods seeking the comfort and presence and help of God in that place of solitude and solace. Desperate tears will freeze on your cheeks as you sob a prayer to God: Help! Please! Protection! The words won’t matter; you will have turned all your attention to God. Sorrow, hope, and fear will pour out of you in groanings too deep for words. There will be no proper prayers, no lighting of candles, no folding of hands, no phone calls to begin a prayer chain . . . it will be just you with your heart broken wide open with the deep love of a mother for her child. Possibly years of accumulated shame will be your companion as well. Questions will plague you about what you might have done wrong, how you didn’t protect her well, pray enough, see the signs, deal with your own issues in time, etc etc. You might cry for a long time. You might have fallen to your knees by now, with your forehead touching the frozen dirt and dead leaves of the forest floor.

If you find yourself here, feeling more alone than you ever have before, you are in the right place. Eventually your sobbing will subside. Feeling utterly spent, you will begin to hear the quiet woods as the home of God where you are welcome, instead of as a hiding place. Suddenly, you will feel a Presence. Warm, safe, comforting. You will hear your breathing return to its natural rhythm. As you come to the remembrance that any real control you’ve ever had over the safety of your loved ones has only been imagined, and that God is and always has been our Protector and Healer, you might very well hear yourself uttering one last request: God . . . please let me know You’re with me. As you raise your swollen eyes from the ground, you might see a bright red cardinal feather flutter gently to the ground in front of your face, landing on the tiny patch of earth your forehead just vacated. If you see this feather, you will feel something ignite in your spirit–a connection to the Divine. Pain will be overshadowed by wonder, as, in one instant, you will know with such clarity and conviction that God, who made and inhabits All That Is, is speaking to you. You will just know. Beloved, I am with you. I love you. I will never leave you. Everything will be ok. Trust Me.

My friend, if you see that feather and hear that voice, I’m warning you . . . in a matter of seconds or minutes, you might feel tempted to doubt it is Real. Or divine. Or for you. As you pick up the perfect red feather, your mind might flirt with the word “coincidence” or even the word “crazy.” The old raspy voice of shame inside your head might challenge, “Why would God talk to you? Who do you think you are?” You might be tempted to leave the feather in the woods where it gracefully landed. Don’t. Pick it up. Carry it home. Tape it to your mirror. And when you look at your reflection and see the feather, don’t be scared to answer the question you were asked that day in the woods . . . "Who do you think you are?” Look boldly into the feathered mirror, and answer, “I am the Beloved of God” or “I am the one God sees and knows intimately” or “I hear God’s voice.” Jesus tells us, “My sheep hear my voice.” Yes, they do. Sometimes we hear a voice, and other times God speaks through a feather. Or a hawk. Or a deer. Or a burning bush. Or the word of a stranger. God’s creative communication has no limits, no boundaries; we are only bound by our lack of openness.

A few years later, you might have learned a thing or two about God’s faithfulness. You might trust your own sense of “hearing” a little more, as your feather collection has increased. Soon your bathroom mirror might be beautifully framed in feathers of every kind and color. You might find yourself in the chair of a tattoo parlor, holding out your wrist, hearing the question of the tattoo artist. “Why do you want a feather on your wrist?” You might want to shrug or say it’s a long story. You might be tempted to quickly slip your hand back in your pocket and run out the door. Don’t. Instead, remind yourself of the day in the woods when God introduced you to this new language of feathers. Remember God’s intimate love for you and creative ways of speaking just to you. Think of your daughter who was protected and grew in strength, courage, and kindness. Once you are full of these remembrances, look at the tattoo artist, and if you’d like, without explanation or apology, answer her question. “God speaks to me in feathers.”


Janelle Harvey is a writer, nature-enthusiast, spiritual director, and mother of four. She currently serves as a facilitator in the Tending the Holy spiritual direction program for Christos Chicago. She strives to live authentically as a contemplative in the world and to help others do the same. Many days she can be found walking in the woods, where she finds it easiest to connect with God.

 

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
«
»

Leave a Comment November 29, 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

  • 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!

Connect with the Abbey

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
JOIN THE HOLY DISORDER OF DANCING MONKS
SIGN UP FOR UPDATES
DONATE TO SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY

Copyright © 2021 BY ABBEY OF THE ARTS · WEBSITE PRIVACY NOTICE

Copyright © 2021 · Flourish Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in