Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

  • Welcome
    • Prayer Cycle
    • About the Abbey
    • About Christine Valters Paintner
    • About John Valters Paintner
    • About the Wisdom Council
    • Monk Manifesto
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    • Subscribe to Our Love Notes
    • Website privacy notice
  • 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
    • 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
    • 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)
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Abbess love notes

Harvesting the Gifts ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

It is a very full season of life for me right now, having facilitated our Writing on the Wild Edges retreat at the end of August with John here in Ireland, then traveled to Germany to lead our pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Hildegard of Bingen with Betsey Beckman (we are looking at fall 2021 for the next offering of that program).  In a couple of days John and I have a new group arrive to Galway where we will journey to local sacred ruins and explore the gift that Celtic monasticism has for our lives. Then in November we travel together to Vienna, Austria, a city so close to my heart, to lead another monastic pilgrimage to the beautiful sites and monasteries there. My heart is so full with wonder at the work I am blessed to do.

Having led retreats for close to 25 years now and offering pilgrimages for the last five years, there is an ease and a joy that rises while also having the privilege of getting to know so many amazing dancing monks. Truly, the people who show up for our programs give me tremendous hope for our fractured world. People of great kindness, presence, commitment, and creative vision. I cherish my role in being present for one small part of the journey, and I know how much travel and pilgrimage has the potential to transform hearts and lives as it has done for my own.

I am so delighted with the wonderful reception my newest book The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred  has been receiving (special thank you to everyone who has written an Amazon review!) This book feels very much like a harvest of my time living here in Ireland for the past six years, a book I could not have written without my lived experience of the land and her people. I am also working with Paraclete Press currently on my collection of poems, Dreaming of Stones, which will be out next February/March 2019. This also feels like a rich harvest of my life here where I have found such a thriving and supportive community of poets. Even with all of the nonfiction books I have written, a poetry collection feels like an extra special thing.

Next spring our Ireland pilgrimages are almost full – two pilgrimages and two writing retreats, one of which is a brand new program I am thrilled to be offering in collaboration with two beautiful souls who live here in Ireland as well. Get in touch if you would like to register for the remaining spaces. I will also be traveling back to Seattle to lead a writing retreat (also full) and present at the Spiritual Directors International conference, which I am sure will feel like a coming home on many levels, even though the Pacific Northwest is no longer where I live, it lives in me in many ways. Then the spring will be capped off by leading a poetry retreat in Chartres, France where we will have the opportunity to walk the labyrinth in the cathedral, something I have always dreamed of doing. Please consider joining me there!

Then begins our year of sabbatical, a Jubilee year because it will be our fiftieth year of life for both of us (John and I are born a day apart). More details to come about how that looks for the Abbey (not to worry, email newsletters will continue). In talking with someone last spring about how to plan for the Jubilee year, especially in financial terms, she shared that she hoped my year of planning would be woven through with the spirit of Jubilee itself. And that has definitely been the case as I anticipate what that year of rest and time for focused writing might bring to me. It brings me that much more gratitude for the gift of work to sustain us now.

We are approaching the time of the ancestors. Honoring my own ancestral line continues to be a significant part of my own spiritual practice. Every year we offer a short online retreat to practice this together in community (details here and the early registration discount ends tomorrow). It is rich work, a path of deep healing and opening up to the immense love and support we have behind each of us. I have been calling on my grandmothers and grandfathers to guide me through the fullness of this time and to help me prepare for our sabbatical with wisdom and grace.

October is my favorite month because of the quality of evening light which shimmers golden and radiant as each day comes to a close. I love the autumn for its call to release what does not serve but also to celebrate the harvest of my life. Recently the word “surplus” has been calling to me to sit with it again. Surplus for me means not just keeping my life sustainable in terms of energetic demands, but to seek ways to welcome in an overflowing of energy and capacity to meet the demands of the world.

What are you harvesting right now dear monks? What gifts are being offered back to you after years of experience and dedication? Where are you finding glimpses of the surplus of your life?

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

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Leave a Comment October 14, 2018

Upcoming Programs

  • Writing Into Bloom with Christine Valters Paintner
    • May 1, 2021
  • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
    • May 13, 2021
  • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: A Weekend Retreat Online
    • May 15, 2021 - May 16, 2021
  • View All Upcoming Programs

Recent Reflections

  • St. Kevin Holds Open His Hand and Radical Hospitality ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • 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

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