Dear monks, artists and pilgrims,
Thank you for journeying with us through the Monk in the World reflections this year while we have been on our Jubilee sabbatical. Today I offer reflection questions and a closing blessing for principle 8.
Principle 8. I commit to being a dancing monk, cultivating creative joy and letting my body and “heart overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.”* (*quote from The Rule of St. Benedict.)
Questions for Reflection
How might a daily practice of gratitude help you to notice the grace of the ordinary in your life?
Are there creative pursuits which call to your heart but you resist for fear of wasting time or looking silly or (insert your favorite judgment here)? What might happen if you embraced this as a gift to yourself in partnership with the Great Artist at work?
Closing Blessing from Christine
Blessed Source of Joy
Carve out room in me for the
inexpressible delights of love.
I pause each day to whisper “thank you”
for the most ordinary grace and gift.
I open myself to the possibility of contentment
and zeal over life just as it is.
If you want to have access to all of the materials from the 8 principles in one place, you can register here for free>>
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE
P.S Carl McColman has a lovely article on three Celtic poets he recommends and includes my first poetry collection Dreaming of Stones in his list. “Paintner refuses to compromise her poetic diction for the sake of religious sensibility, and so her spirituality is shaped as much by landscape as by liturgy. As the book’s title suggests, this is a collection of dream images, but also thresholds, boundaries, and silences.”
Photo © Christine Valters Paintner
