Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Monk in the World: Conversion 5 ~ Suggestions for Practice – A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims,

During this Jubilee year of sabbatical we are revisiting our Monk Manifesto by moving slowly through the Monk in the World retreat materials together every Sunday. Each week will offer new reflections on the theme and every six weeks will introduce a new principle.

Principle 7. I commit to a lifetime of ongoing conversion and transformation, recognizing that I am always on a journey with both gifts and limitations.

Consider writing the words “always we begin again” somewhere you can see them regularly as a reminder to be gentle with yourself on the spiritual path.  This is an invitation to respond to the call of being a monk in the world.  It is not something we simply become and arrive fully.  It means daily practice of contemplative ways of being.  It means being committed to the process of discovery and transformation for a lifetime.

How do you practice conversion?

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

You might also enjoy

Monk in the World Guest Post: Christine Davis

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Christine Davis’s reflection and poem Life to Life. In recent years, after deaths and losses, changes and griefs, I’ve moved farther and

Read More »

On Pentecost ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Click CC to turn closed captions on or off. On Pentecost*Spirit of courage,we stand huddled too,like the disciples in the upper room,wondering what is real and true anymore.Reveal to us the pulse of your firein each of our heartsand send us with bread and rosesout

Read More »

Monk in the World Guest Post: Elaine Breckenridge

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Elaine Breckenridge’s reflection An Expanding Pentecost. “Suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…and divided tongues,

Read More »