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
    • 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
      • God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila (Book Club – February 2021)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
      • Novena for Times of Unraveling
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • Sky, Sun, Sea, & Stone:
        Celtic Spirituality and Creative Writing
      • The Two HT’s-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
    • 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, Earth as Original Monastery, Prayer Cycle

Prayer Cycle Podcast + Living Fountain ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Earth as Original Monastery: Day 4 Evening Prayer from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo.

Click here to listen to the Audio Podcast

Day 4 Evening Prayer: Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle

God will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

—Isaiah 58:11

Dearest monks and artists,

There are many places on this beautiful Earth where springs bubble up from beneath the surface and are considered to be sacred sites of healing.  One such place out in the desert of New Mexico is called Ojo Caliente. Ojo means eye and caliente means hot. Like the eye of the storm, it can be considered to be the eye of healing. It is a place that has been considered sacred for hundreds of years, likely even longer. There in a dry and parched landscape emerges healing waters and people travel long distances to gather there.  They have multiple pools, each with a different mineral content and temperature, recommended to treat various health issues.  I was once traveling through New Mexico and spent the day there with women friends, soaking for hours, feeling my body release and surrender to this gift of water.  It was like being held in a warm and loving embrace, coaxing me out of my places of tension and holding back.

Have you been to one of those places by the sea where there is a hole under the rock along the shore and as a wave comes in, water spouts upward all of a sudden?  Or have you been to see a geyser and reveled in the experience of the living water surging into the air?  I often experience my creative life as a spring or fountain within.  Often it comes like the surprising gift of water in the desert or out through the hard, stony edges of my heart.  In the past, when I would go through these waves of creative energy, I would enter into them but always with a bit of hesitancy.  There was a part of myself that feared it would be over too soon or wondered if I might never be able to rise with that spring again.  This response comes from a place of scarcity, a sense that there might not be enough.  I used to wrestle with what is enough for me. Yet somehow, because I have discovered this spring bursting forth again and again, I no longer live in fear of when this time of abundance will wane.  Perhaps it comes from having lived through enough ebbing and flowing to realize often enough to know that when the creative energy dissipates it means I am being called back inward to rest and renew. I need to go drink my fill again or rest into the healing waters.  And when the surge is rising, I dance in its splendor and joy. I celebrate the fountain that exists at the heart of everything.

Across the landscape of Ireland are nearly three thousand holy wells venerated in Celtic tradition as sacred places where water surges forth.  Living here I am blessed to be able to visit some of them regularly. They continue to be places of pilgrimage where healing liturgies are often held.  Pilgrims leave their offerings, rosaries, and votives in these sacred places.

We find fonts of holy water at the entrance to our churches to bless ourselves and baptismal fonts flowing with holy water to initiate members into the Christian community and invite them, and ourselves, into a spiritual re-birth.  Jesus was baptized to initiate his own mission and he ended his earthly mission by washing the feet of his disciples the night before he was crucified.

Consider placing a bowl of water on your altar to remind yourself of blessing and being blessed. In this season of pandemic, how can you make space for the fountain within you to offer its life-giving water?

With great and growing love,

Christine

(This reflection is adapted from my book Water, Wind, Earth, & Fire. We will be exploring the four elements during Advent through creative practices of writing, nature journaling, and movement. All the content for the Advent retreat will be brand new and the book is recommended as a companion but not required. More details below.)

PS – I have a new article on the U.S. Catholic website titled Nourish your inner monk through contemplative creativity

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Leave a Comment November 22, 2020

Upcoming Programs

Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
March 13, 2021
with Drs. Jamie Marich, Kellie Kirksey, and Christine Valters Paintner

Novena for Times of Unraveling
Becoming a Monk in the World

March 17-25, 2021
with Christine & John Valters Paintner, and Simon de Voil

Recent Reflections

  • Hildy Tales 7: An Nead by John Valters Paintner
  • Sacred Time and Slowing Down ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 6: Céim uile an domhain ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Join us on a Desert Journey for Lent ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 5: Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin ~ by John Valters Paintner

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