Dancing Monks at Abbey of the Arts from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo.
Dear monks, artists and pilgrims,
We are so grateful to the 35 dancing monks who sent us videos telling us what they loved about Abbey of the Arts. We are even more thrilled to have representatives from the United States, Canada, Ireland, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the Philippines included! What an amazing global community we are. We have compiled excerpts from these videos into the one we share above to give a window into what nourishes and sustains us. Please pour a cup of tea and enjoy this window into our dancing monk community around the world.
We celebrated our 50th birthdays last week and while our sabbatical is now officially ended, the fruits and gifts continue to nourish us. More on that in the coming weeks. Our deepest hope is to extend the spirit of Jubilee into our lives going forward.
We are taking a break from our email newsletters for a month (until August 9th) but we do still have some wonderful programs happening online this summer.
Please join us for Earth, Our Original Monastery – the 8-week companion retreat to my newest book – which begins tomorrow! We are in the midst of so much upheaval in the world, this retreat invites you to fall more deeply in love with nature and welcome her wisdom and guidance into your life.
We also have two mini-retreats coming up:
Feast of Mary Magdalene: Anointed and Anointer – July 22nd
Feast of the Assumption: Mary, Queen of Heaven – August 15th
These mini-retreats are wonderful if you'd like just a small creative dose this summer. I am leading them with Betsey Beckman and there will be reflection, meditation, creative writing practice, and gentle movement. Please click the links for more details.
(The Writing as a Spiritual Practice mini-retreat on July 11th is now full. Please contact St. Placid Priory to be added to their waiting list or receive notification if this retreat is offered again.)
We are so grateful for your support in so many ways – through encouraging notes and comments, your participation in our retreats, and the ways you share your love of Abbey of the Arts with others.
We are excited to return to the newsletters in August with some new gifts including 6 new poetry videos to celebrate my newest poetry collection coming in October – The Wisdom of Wild Grace, as well as a Prayer Cycle of morning and evening prayers for a week Abbey-style!
Sending you warmest blessings for a fruitful summer (or winter for our cherished southern hemisphere monks)!
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE
Video © Christine Valters Paintner (editing by Luke Morgan)