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)
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
    • Community Online Retreats
      • 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

Uncategorized

Monk in the World Guest Post: Simon Ruth de Voil

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 Simon Ruth de Voil who wrote "Be Still" for the Abbey. Read his whole reflection below and to hear a clip of the song go to the album page at CDBaby here>>

One of my earliest memories took place in a monastery. I remember eating muesli from a wooden bowl in a very, very quiet place. I was 5, visiting Boston with my Scottish family; I turned out to be extremely allergic to our host's cat, so it was somehow organized for my mother and I to stay with the monks of St John of the Cross. I didn't go to church as a child, and our household of four children was rarely quiet, so this encounter with the monks and their silence left a strong impression.

Half a lifetime later, at the age of 30, one thing led to another and I came to live in the abbey on the island of Iona, in the inner Hebrides. Iona's is a modern-day abbey, staffed by a lay community that changes from year to year. I lived there for two and a half years, and found myself deeply accustomed to, deeply fed by, the life of routine: the bells calling to twice-daily worship, the daily liturgy, the year intricately woven around the holy days of the calendar and the holy seasons of the earth.

Each morning in the abbey we chanted, “If Christ's disciples kept silent, these stones would shout aloud.” On Iona the stones did indeed shout – especially when it was windy! I learned there that the stones are speaking, and the earth, sky and sea, that the teachings of Christ-consciousness are written in the bones of the land, not only in human words and voices.

People refer to Iona as a thin place, a place where the distance between heaven and earth is tissue-thin; I would add that Iona is also a place where history comes alive, where the distance closes between what has been and what is, and perhaps even what will be. Iona has not hosted a monastic order since the late 19th century, but their legacy and memory are still very much alive – you sense it as you walk the island, sit in the cloisters, or touch the magnificent weathered ruins of the old nunnery. There is a still-living history all around.

For me, Iona is a place where my soul woke up and spoke to me very directly, taught me to pay attention, to listen, to talk with nature, to think with my imagination and to sing to God with a full heart. Years later I remain so grateful that this intense, vibrant, open-minded & creative community was my real introduction to Christianity. I woke up hungry, very hungry, and began searching for what Christianity should have become.

After leaving the abbey, I traveled to the USA and trained first as a carpenter and then an interfaith minister – always with the intention of joining the two. With time and distance my faith morphed and grew, my spiritual practice became less structured and more personal. I noticed that my lips no longer wanted to shape the words of the morning service or the litany of memorized prayers – but the abbey's familiar songs had burrowed their way into the center of my soul. To this day, the songs live inside me and sing through me, most especially the psalms.

Recently I've started giving my own musical expression to the psalms and sharing this aspect of my personal spiritual practice with others. Religious scholar Philip Novak describes the psalms as “expressions of religious emotion.” The psalms are a spiritual road map as well as a portal into the collective human pysche; the trick is finding the psalms set in a musical landscape and language that speaks directly to you, so that you can feel in them your own stories, longings, thanksgivings and lamentations. From that place, they've helped me to be human, one naked humble piece of Adam standing before the expanse of creation and creator. It is my deep joy to share this piece of my spiritual practice with you.


Rev. Simon Ruth de Voil is a singer-songwriter, inter Spiritual minister, sacred musician, youth worker, and carpenter. He lives on a small island in Washington state USA. For more information on Simon's work and music, visit his website www.simondevoil.com or follow his online monthly ministry at www.patreon.com/simondevoil.

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Leave a Comment March 7, 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

  • Celtic Spirituality and the Spiral Way ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • 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

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