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Category: Books

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The Love of Thousands Book Released Today!

I am delighted that my latest book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness officially released today, August 18th! This book has been gestating for close to twenty years and I am thrilled with how it has formed. I pray it becomes a rich resource of support for many.  Here’s an excerpt from the book’s description: Christine Valters Paintner, popular spiritual writer and abbess of the online Abbey of the Arts, says these sacred beings are paving the way for our journey toward God’s love, even as we pass through a world rife with struggle,

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Christine’s Article on Ancestors as Creative Allies in U.S. Catholic

Christine’s article Our Ancestors are Allies on Our Creative Journey was published in the May 2023 issue of U.S. Catholic. It is adapted from her forthcoming book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness (releases from Ave Maria Press August 18, 2023). Here is an excerpt: We are alive because of our ancestors, that “great cloud of witnesses” mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews (12:1). Our grandmothers and grandfathers struggled, grieved, celebrated, and endured, and we can live our lives in ways that honor their memories. We can imagine that our ancestors

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Watch the Love Holds You Poetry Book Launch Recording

We had a wonderful gathering of dancing monks to help launch my third poetry collection Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty which releases tomorrow, May 9th. I enjoyed spending this hour of music, storytelling, and poetry with our community. A deep bow of gratitude to Simon de Voil for sharing his gift of song with us. You can order your copy of Love Holds You here. I am most grateful for your support! With great and growing love, Christine Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

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Julian of Norwich in Her Sick Bed ~ A Love Note and Poem Video from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to share I have a third poetry collection being published on May 9th from Paraclete Press titled Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty.  I have long loved the wisdom of Julian but like many, when the pandemic arrived, she became my patron saint of lockdown and compassionate retreat. She herself lived during times of plague, so knew the fears of times like that. Her gift to me was as a companion during the long quiet days full of the ordinary graces of life.  Since then I have had my own

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Visionary, Healer, Warrior, Sage ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, One of my favorite ways to do inner work is through the archetypes which are patterns or energies we find inside ourselves and appear across the globe in different traditions. They come to us as dreams, longings, synchronicities. I’ve written about them more extensively in Illuminating the Way where I connect archetypes like Mother, Prophet, Healer, Sovereign to the monks and mystics of the Christian and Jewish traditions. I also explored them in my book Birthing the Holy where I explored 31 names of Mary, each representing a different archetype like Virgin, Mother of Sorrows, Our Lady of the

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When All Feels Lost Poem Video ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I am delighted to share I have a third poetry collection being published on May 9th from Paraclete Press titled Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty.  This poem emerged early on in the pandemic. It was such a disorienting time for everyone. I sensed that in the middle of feeling lost was also a gift that could help me release my need for certainties and be present to what newness was unfolding in the midst of this time of forced rest. Read the poem slowly and see what is sparked. Then watch the

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Christine Interviewed on the Faith Conversations Podcast

Christine was interviewed about her forthcoming collection Love Holds You: Poems and Devotions for Times of Uncertainty on the Faith Conversations podcast. The format of this new book takes the reader on a journey. We get to experience it on the podcast as Christine reads a number of poems and helps us spend time reflecting on the content. These words from the back cover of the book are appropriate, “When it seems you walk alone, let these words help reveal love as the ground beneath you.” Listen to the podcast and poems here. Learn more and pre-order Love Holds You. (Available

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