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: Adam Webber

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World Guest Post series from the community. Read on for Adam Webber's reflection, "The Lady Loves Me."

Tuesday morning, I wake up grumpy. I don’t want to go to work. Lying in bed, I recite the Breastplate of Saint Patrick to myself: “I arise today through a mighty faith….” I don’t know whether I have a mighty faith this morning or not, but I arise anyway.

In my church office I go over the lectionary readings for next Sunday. I am the pastor of this church, and it is our custom for the pastor to follow the lectionary—to find a theme for the sermon and the service in one or more of these lectionary readings every week. Alas, I’m not finding any inspiration in the lectionary today. I read it, prayerfully, again. Still nothing. I read some commentaries. Nope. I answer emails and phone calls, update the web site, clean up my desk, and fix the paper towel dispenser. I make a visit to a nursing home. Then I think about those readings again. Nada.

In the afternoon I escape for half an hour to the sauna at the municipal gym, and there it hits me, a flash of inspiration. It’s not the inspiration I was looking for, of course; it’s nothing to do with the lectionary readings and, in fact, it’s not a sermon idea at all.

It’s a song.

Actually, it’s just a line or two of a song, just a hook. “The Lady loves me, loves me, loves me day and night,” I sing to myself—and when I sing it, the Lady of whom I sing is God, and the love of which I sing is a joy and a delight. I realize, then, what I’m being called to do. There will be no sermon on Sunday. There will be a song, a new song, and I will write it and share it with the congregation.

From long experience I know that it would be a waste of time to complain to God about this stupid inspiration. I complain to God about this stupid inspiration.

Wednesday morning, I wrestle with doubt. I look back at my sermons from three years ago; isn’t there something there I could recycle? But after dithering for an hour, I take the plunge. I give my church secretary notes for Sunday’s bulletin. In place of the sermon there will be a song, and it will be called “The Lady Loves Me.” Now I just have to write it.

By Wednesday afternoon I have a draft of the lyric. But, musically, I still have only that one line. I take a long walk and sing to myself. The feeling I’m going for is a kind of innocent exuberance—a feeling of being swept away by love. I dance a little as I walk—nobody will see me, skipping along this back road in the wintertime. My song is starting to feel like a pop love song, a seventies love song, and it gravitates to a nice, familiar structure: verse, refrain, verse, refrain, bridge, verse, refrain, refrain. It seems to call for an exuberant seventies-style instrumentation, like a Partridge Family hit.

There are tons of other things to be done this week, of course. A member needs a meal brought, and I bring it. The choir needs to rehearse, and I rehearse with them. The Christmas decorations in the church need to come down, and I help take them down. My family needs dinner, and I cook it. But in between all these duties, I slip away to work on my song.

Thursday night, I’ve started scoring it: at first, it’s just vocals, steel drum, and bass. By Friday I’ve got a full score: rhythm guitar, trumpet, trombone, flute, backup vocals. With a computer sequencer, I lay out all the instrumentation I’ve written and add a drum line. By Saturday morning, it’s ready to go. I record the instrumental parts and practice singing along with them.

At the last minute, I rewrite the ending of the song several times. A true Partridge Family ending would use a repeated refrain that fades out as the applause comes up. But there will probably only be thirty people in church on Sunday. God willing, they'll be enthusiastic, but I’d better not count on a thunderous wave of applause.

Sunday morning, I wake up happy. When I was a kid, I used to lie in bed on Sunday mornings, hoping that my father would forget to get me up for church. (I can’t remember that he ever did, though.) But these days, I’m usually excited about Sundays. It’s like I’ve been cooking up a meal all week, and now I finally get to put it on the table. I pray as I arise:

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me.
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me.
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today through a mighty faith ….

Thank you, Lady. I love you, too.  I’ll do my best.

You can hear “The Lady Loves Me” at here >>


Adam Brooks Webber is a husband, father, writer, teacher, computer scientist, singer-songwriter, and student of the martial arts. When he was a boy, he couldn’t wait to grow up so that he could A) move away from small-town Illinois, and B) stop going to church. Consequently, he is now a pastor in a small town in Illinois.

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Leave a Comment May 8, 2019

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!

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