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Reflections

Category: Pilgrimage

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Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening Power of God (new pilgrimage added) – a love note

Betsey Beckman and I are delighted to announce the addition of a new pilgrimage following in the footsteps of Hildegard of Bingen, the amazing 12th century Benedictine Abbess, mystic, and visionary. This is a reflection from our Abbey Archives to invite you into her spirit and gifts: St. Hildegard Strolls through the Garden Luminous morning, Hildegard gazes at the array of blooms, holding in her heart the young boy with a mysterious rash, the woman reaching menopause, the newly minted widower, and the black Abbey cat with digestive issues who wandered in one night and stayed.  New complaints arrive each

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Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening Power of God: A Pilgrimage in Germany

May 29-June 6, 2016 with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD and Betsey Beckman, MM Join a community of pilgrims in Germany as we experience the landscapes and rhythms that nourished Hildegard of Bingen, mystic, composer, artist, poet, healer, preacher, ecological visionary, and spiritual director.  Let Hildegard become a soul guide as you immerse yourself in viriditas, the greening power of God, and embrace the legacy of her creative outpourings as gifts for our time. Through presentations, contemplative practices in sacred spaces, community, and creative forms (including movement, music, writing, and visual art) Christine and Betsey will guide you in exploring how the

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The Soul of a Pilgrim Featured in the Patheos Book Club

The Soul of a Pilgrim is featured in the Patheos book club for the first half of June and to kick things off the lovely Deborah Arca interviewed me. I am very touched by her beautiful introduction: “One of my very favorite writers on the spiritual life is Christine Valters Paintner, an author, Benedictine Oblate, and Abbess of the online retreat center Abbey of the Arts. When one of her emails graces my inbox, I notice my pulse slowing, and I take a deep inhale and exhale. For I know reading one of her essays inviting me to once again slow down, pay

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Ancestral Pilgrimage

My newest Seasons of the Soul column is up at Patheos: As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and those we have loved. Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives. They can become part of our spiritual communities and gently help us as we make decisions on our journeys. Parents, spouses, children, and friends can become true spiritual companions after they have died. Sometimes they can become even more intimate to us after

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Thresholds: “It is not too late”

You see, I want a lot. Perhaps I want everything: the darkness that comes with every infinite fall and the shivering blaze of every step up. . . You have not grown old, and it is not too late to dive into your increasing depths where life calmly gives out its own secret. —Rainer Maria Rilke, from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Robert Bly I wanted to repeat that last stunning stanza of Rilke’s poem to you. Just to be certain you didn’t skim over those words: “You have not grown old, and it is not too

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Thresholds: “Infinitely Enlarge Your Life”

And you wait, you wait for that one thing that will infinitely enlarge your life; the gigantic, the stupendous, the awakening of stones, depths turned round toward you. The volumes bound in rust and gold flicker dimly on the shelves; and you think of lands traveled across, of paintings, of the clothes of women found and lost. And then suddenly you know: it was then. You rise, and before you stands the fear and prayer and shape of a vanished year. —Rainer Maria Rilke, “Memory” translated by Edward Snow Dear soul friends and kindred spirits, I am grateful to one of

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Thresholds: “Listen more carefully / To what is inside of you right now”

O listen – Listen more carefully To what is inside of you right now. In my world All that remains is the wondrous call to Dance and prayer Rising up like a thousand suns Out of the mouth of a Single bird. —Hafiz Dearest fellow monks and friends, Where do I even begin? As many of you know, five months ago my husband and I made a life-changing decision. We sold our home, our car, most of our belongings, paid off all debts, my husband resigned from his job, we said goodbye to dear friends, we even found a new

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