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
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Monk in the World (Ireland)
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Vienna Monk in the World (Austria)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • 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)
      • Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
      • Novena for Times of Unraveling
      • The Two HT’s-Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World:
        An Online Writing Retreat
    • 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: Margo Hennebach

We are thrilled and delighted to be releasing a brand new compilation of songs, curated from some wonderful musicians we know and love. These are songs for Celtic seekers as they are inspired by the tradition of pilgrimage in Ireland and accompany Christine’s newest book which will be released in September 2018 from Ave Maria Press – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred. For six weeks we will be featuring the musicians from this album who so generously agreed to share their beautiful music with our community for this project.

Next up is Margo Hennebach who wrote "Holy Well" for the Abbey. Read her whole reflection below and to hear a clip of the song go to the album page at CDBaby here>>

We’re climbing the hill to Maumeen Pass in Connemara to visit the last holy well of The Soul’s Slow Ripening pilgrimage with Christine and John.  I’m aware of my fellow pilgrims.  Some are in front, some behind, and I realize that I’m trying to hold my place and keep up.  This suddenly seems crazy, so I pause.  I take a breath, hear the wind and sense the uneven ground through the soles of my shoes.

I leave the trail and sit on a rock and feel a song coming.  I love this moment.  In my imagination, the light changes slightly, there’s electricity in the air, and my ears grow big.  I begin to listen for something that I can only barely hear.  When I’m lucky, it knocks me over the head.

Today I’m lucky.

Even though I prefer pen and paper, I have none.  Instead I grab my phone to record a voice memo and sing softly, but it feels too early for me to sing aloud.  I’d rather let the song come slowly as it begins to trust me.

I decide to walk again and discover that the tempo of the song matches my pace.  Ah, this feels right, so I sing quietly to myself:

I am just a pilgrim who is on her way
Thankful for the path that I can walk today

By this time, I’ve lost sight of the other pilgrims, and suddenly wonder if I won’t make it up the hill in time.  I recognize the worry as a ploy to divert my attention, so I stay with the song:

This is not a race to see who comes in first
When I think like that I’ll never quench my thirst

This trip is my first exposure to holy wells.  The ones we’ve visited so far have been in low, miry ground, and we’ve had to step down and crouch towards the water to touch them.

Today we’re climbing upwards to the well. I follow my feet through streams, wet grass and onto limestone, pausing long enough to marvel.  I hear the bridge of the song:

Wells can spring up anywhere
Underground or in the air
Listen to your feet
They will take you there

Eventually I arrive to the top and it’s a circus!  There are statues, piles of new and discarded offerings, and people from all over the world talking, singing and taking selfies.  I notice my surprise, disappointment—and entitlement.  I’m not sure why I expected that we’d be the only ones here.  Up to now, it’s felt like we were the only pilgrims in Ireland.  Now I feel part of a much larger community of pilgrims who’ve been traveling here for centuries.  I am humbled and feel grateful.

There’s enough for all at the holy well

I’m so happy to see John who is standing by the well.   He welcomes everyone and offers a ladle in case someone can’t reach the water with their hand.  I begin my clockwise walk around the well and stumble onto the final double chorus:

Holy well, oh holy well
Walking slowly three times 'round the holy well
Holy well has this to tell:
"Every hill you meet can surely serve you well."

Holy well, oh holy well
Dancing seven times around the holy well
Holy well has this to tell:
"Whatever path you're on I surely wish you well."

That night when we gather with everyone in our group, I want to sing the song, but it’s not ready yet.  It’s still a photo that hasn’t fully developed, so I wait.  Over the next couple of weeks in Ireland, Mark Saunders, my husband and musical comrade, and I will work through the song, honing lines and bringing to life the harmonic structure that feels ancient and modern at the same time.  Soon it will be time to go home, but I’m grateful to have found a song  from this beautiful, sacred place.


Margo Hennebach is Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, Music Therapist, workshop leader, vocal improvisor, recording and performing artist.  She’s recorded several CDs as a soloist and with her trio, Mad Agnes, and several of her original songs are part of the Smithsonian Folkways collection.  Find her at www.margohennebach.com, on iTunes (as Margo Hennebach and Mad Agnes), and singing from the moment she first wakes up.

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Leave a Comment February 28, 2018

Upcoming Programs

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

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

Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers
Retreat for Lent 2021

February 17-April 1, 2021
with Christine & John Valters Paintner and Betsey Beckman

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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