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Reflections

Category: Monastic Spirituality

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A Blessing for Creativity ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Creativity*Spirit of Holy Imagination,we ask you to bless our visionwith the wisdom to see what is possible.Help us trust our desire to createthrough color, word, shape, gesture, and song.When our fingers trembleat picking up a pen or marker,connect us to the joy of playingon the white page,drawing, doodling, dabbling, dreaming,letting our livesbe a canvas for expression.When judgments ariseand the inner critic yells,guide us to hear our intuitionswhispering the way aheadwith quiet confidence.When our feet feel restless,inspire us to play musicand dance freelyuntil peace descends again.Connect us to the freedomof making somethingfor the love of it.Speak to us

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January 4, 2026

Conversion, Wonder, and Being Surprised by God ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, Tomorrow, April 7th, Simon and I will be joined by guest musician Richard Bruxvoort Colligan for our monthly Contemplative Prayer Service. Our theme this month is the 7th principle of the Monk Manifesto, Conversion. Here is an excerpt from our Monk in the World self-study retreat. Principle 7: I commit to a lifetime of ongoing conversion and transformation, recognizing that I am always on a journey with both gifts and limitations. Conversion is one of the central commitments which Benedictine monks make. The other two are obedience and stability which have to do with listening deeply for God’s voice in the world and committing

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April 6, 2025

The Path of Devotion ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, February 14th, our Program Coordinator Melinda Thomas is leading a mini-retreat on Bhakti Yoga and the Inexpressible Delights of Love. Read on for her reflection on bhakti yoga and the path of devotion. There were times in my early yoga days when I heard people talk of their singular focus on the Divine Beloved. I could not relate. When I read of the Christian mystics who had their own singular gaze on the Beloved, I could not relate. Instead I felt rather inadequate. So why then, do I want to offer a retreat

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February 9, 2025

Sabbath as Contemplative Practice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, One of the things that makes contemplative life so counter-cultural is the active resistance against living a life of busyness and exhaustion, of not making that a badge of pride, of making time to ponder, to be more present, and to live life more slowly and attentively.  We are surrounded by messages of scarcity and so our anxiety gets fuelled. One of the most profound practices to resist this kind of anxiety, to fast from its hold on me, is the practice of Sabbath. Walter Brueggemann, in his wonderful book Sabbath as Resistance, writes that the

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August 25, 2024

Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Dearest monks and artists, Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order.  The spirituality of Ignatius has played a huge role in my own unfolding. When I started undergraduate studies at Fordham University in philosophy I was at best agnostic (and the daughter of two agnostics raised in a completely non-religious household). My required course in Liberation Theology amazed me that I had not heard of this deep commitment to justice in the Catholic Church before. My service work in the South Bronx with at-risk youth and also in environmental restoration led me

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July 31, 2024

Listening to the Call of the Monk in the World + Prayer Cycle Day 6

Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims,  Today we release the audio podcasts for Day 6 of our Love of Thousands prayer cycle with morning and evening prayer. The themes for the morning are cosmology, myth, and song inspired by the stories and music that has inspired our ancestors and still runs through our blood and bone. The evening theme is on becoming a wise and well ancestor ourselves, which means bringing our gifts fully into the world so those generations that come later will benefit (even if we don’t have children ourselves).  Each day when I awaken I listen to morning prayer of

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November 19, 2023

Christine Interviewed by Leadership Conference of Women Religious

I was recently interviewed on Leadership Conference of Women Religious on “Entering a Relationship with Radiance” for their summer journal. Read the interview below or download the PDF to see the printed version. Christine Valters Paintner heads Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery and global community offering programs and resources for contemplative practice and creative expression. She is the author of 20 books on prayer and creativity including three collections of poetry. Christine lives out her commitment as a Benedictine oblate and monk in the world in the west of Ireland. You have studied and written extensively about the mystics

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June 8, 2023