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Entering Silence Through Breath Prayer ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Blessing for Silence and Solitude* Holy Source of Silence, beneath the clatter and din of the everyday you offer your mysteries to our hearts. You call us to pause, to slow down and listen to the true longing planted in each of us by you, a seed of holy desire. Support us in letting go of the inner and outer noise. Open wide in us a sacred cave for stillness where we can attune to your presence. Enliven us with the gift of your sweet music and allow us to encounter your holy presence flaming in each of our hearts.

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A Different Kind of Fast – new book for Lent!

It might be early to think about Lent, but Christine’s new book A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent will be published by Broadleaf Books on Tuesday and we are celebrating by hosting a virtual book launch on Friday. This is a free event that will include some reflections from Christine, a guided meditation, and we are delighted wisdom council member Richard Bruxvoort Colligan will be there to share music with us too. It will also be recorded if you can’t join us live. Please join us for a soulful time of sacred listening. This is an adapted excerpt

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Christine Interviewed on Things Not Seen Podcast

Christine was interviewed on the Things Not Seen Podcast. In her recent book, The Love of Thousands, our guest Christine Valters Paintner invites us to consider that angels, saints, and even our departed ancestors support and inspire us throughout our lives, and invite us toward holiness. Listen to the episode We are Not Alone on Apple Podcasts. Join the upcoming companion retreat The Love of Thousands: Honoring Angels, Saints, and Ancestors which begins January 15th.

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Christine Interviewed on Our Sunday Visitor

Christine was interviewed by Charles Camosy on Our Sunday Visitor about her book The Love of Thousands. Here is an excerpt: Charlie Camosy: I suppose I am not the first to suggest that one of the fundamental challenges that a book like “The Love of Thousands” faces is the fact that consumerist Western culture has been largely “disenchanted.” That is, many of us find it very difficult even to take seriously the ideas at the center of your book. Christine Valters Paintner: Indeed, one of the reasons such a book is needed at this time is precisely because the capitalist

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Christine Interviewed about The Love of Thousands in the National Catholic Reporter

Christine was recently interviewed by the National Catholic Reporter about her book The Love of Thousands and building bridges beyond the veil. Here is an excerpt: NCR: In your introduction you mention that this book began as an exploration of your relationship to your ancestors. How did that circle widen for you to include the angels and the saints? Paintner: I’ve had a long devotion and relationship to various saints — Hildegard of Bingen being the prime one, and also Benedict because I’m a Benedictine oblate. But when I was working with the ancestors, I suddenly realized that some of

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The Love of Thousands Reviewed by Spirituality & Practice

I’m honored to share this beautiful review by Jon M. Sweeney at Spirituality and Practice of my latest book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk With Us Toward Holiness. Here is an excerpt: Christine Valters Paintner is one of our favorite spiritual writers, winner of several of our “Spiritual Book Awards,” and a member of our Living Spiritual Teachers Project. Her latest book is wonderful. Particularly if you find yourself lonely or losing hope, her words of support and encouragement from angels, saints, mystics, and other friends along the spiritual path will buoy your spirits. This is

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Update on Writing Projects ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I thought I would share with you some of the writing projects I am involved in at the moment. This has been a very fruitful time for books with my poetry collection Love Holds You coming out last spring from Paraclete Press, then The Love of Thousands on honoring angels, saints, and ancestors being published in August from Ave Maria Press, and I have a book coming out in January 2024 with Broadleaf Books titled A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent which is now available for pre-order.  Right now, I am finalizing the edits to my

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