Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Reflections

Category: Pilgrimage of Resurrection through Creative Practice

Filter

The Journey Home – Pilgrimage of Resurrection through Creative Practice (a love note)

This is the seventh in a series of eight reflections over the season of Easter on making a pilgrimage of resurrection.  Word for Today: Blessing The gospel reading for the seventh week of Easter shows us Jesus’ ascension, which is ultimately a journey home again. Our own pilgrimage of resurrection calls us home, but we may wonder how we know if we have reached the destination. In our endless seeking and searching, sometimes we miss the reality: home has always been with us. The pilgrimage was to learn how to see this in our daily lives. I sometimes describe the artist as

Read More

May 16: Communion of Saints – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for Today: Communion of Saints There might be wild beasts to encounter: the fierce ones in your own heart. But there are also powers there to help support and guide you. Remember that the threshold is full of shimmering presence. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: Is there an ancestor, or spiritual saint or guide, you could call upon for assistance in times of trouble? Who do you sense from the great “cloud of witnesses” and “communion of saints” traveling alongside you, offering their wisdom through the veil? Next

Read More

May 15: Wholeness – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for Today: Wholeness Our life impulse calls us into community with ourselves, with others, and with the divine…. We are grounded in our wholeness and make choices from this place. —Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: In what way does your life impulse call you to continue the difficult yet soulful journey you have begun?     Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing on social media. Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group to share

Read More

May 14: Life – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for Today: Life We have a life impulse and a death impulse. Each choice allows us to move toward the things which bring us life. If we don’t choose the path of growth, we can move toward that which drains us of life. — Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What brings you to life? What drains you of life?     Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing on social media. Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing

Read More

May 13: New Roads – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for Today: New Roads Pilgrimage often draws us to unfamiliar places. When we go on the inner journey we might be especially attentive to seeking out new roads and pathways, unfamiliar routes rather than the usual way we travel. — Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: What different route might you take on your inward pilgrimage to help challenge some of the routines, beliefs and stories which keep you stuck? Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily words here.) Use the hashtag  #soulofapilgrim when sharing

Read More

May 12: Beginnings – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season

Word for Today: Beginnings Pilgrimage is a place of new beginnings. No matter how far I stray from my practice, there is always an invitation to begin again. Not just each day, but each moment offers us the chance to lay a new foundation. — Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: Can you simply notice when acedia starts talking, telling you that you are too busy, that stillness isn’t possible for you, and then start again? Next steps: Let the word, quote, and question inspire your creative practice (Download the list of daily

Read More

May 11: Anchor – Pilgrimage of Resurrection
(A Creative Journey through the Easter Season)

Word for Today: Anchor While on pilgrimage, time for silence is essential. I need this anchor, this connection to Source, to remember everything that I am and to not add up the sum of my parts. In the silence, I remember that my life is not wholly good or bad here. The discomfort and the exhilaration are both essential to my experience. — Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within Reflective Question: Can you allow yourself the time to learn how to deal with the ambiguities and the contradictions in your experience, knowing that on

Read More