I have recently had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Br. Bernard, a Benedictine monk with the community in Rome at Sant’Anselmo. He has much interest in the phenomenon of new ways monasticism is being spread through things such as online communities like Abbey of the Arts and also hopes that we might collaborate in the future. Would you be willing to help him with a project? He has a survey he would greatly appreciate your filling out to contribute to the research he is doing. I will be very interested to see the results as well! :-) You can

Starts Monday, May 23rd with Francis of Assisi! Join us for a FREE 12-month journey through Christine Valters Paintner’s newest book Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics. Each month Christine will host a teleseminar where she will explore some of the themes of the monk and mystic featured, lead a meditation experience, and read one of her poems, as well as offer the opportunity to ask questions. The recording will be available if you can’t participate live on the call. This is a wonderful way to move slowly and intentionally through the material. You do need to purchase

I am delighted to come in second place in the Galway University Hospital Arts Trust Annual Poetry Competition (and I had two poems on the shortlist). Here is the poem I submitted: This is not a poem but a rain-soaked day keeping me inside with you and you loving me like a storm. This is a record of a hundred mornings when the sun lifted above the stone hills outside my window. This is not a poem but me standing perfectly still on the edge of the lake in autumn, watching a hundred starlings like prayer flags fluttering. This is my

The wonderful folks at the Spirituality and Practice website have named Christine Valters Paintner’s book The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within a best spiritual book of 2015! From the book: “Pilgrimage calls us to be attentive to the divine at work in our lives through deep listening, patience, opening ourselves to the gifts that arise in the midst of discomfort, and going out to our own inner wild edges to explore new frontiers.” Click here to see the list of all 50 best spiritual books>>

When I long to go on retreat, it is most often the sea or the forest which call to me. Everything in nature can become a catalyst for my deepened self-understanding. The forest asks me to embrace my truth once again. The hummingbird invites me to sip holy nectar, the egret to stretch out my wings, the sparrows to remember my flock. Each pine cone contains an epiphany; each smooth stone offers a revelation. I watch and witness as the sun slowly makes its long arc across the sky and discover my own rising and falling. The moon will sing

Thank you to everyone who participated in our annual Give Me a Word! We had over 1700 in the mini-retreat and over 650 leave their words at our blog post here. Above is a word cloud composed of our community words. If you don’t see your word visible, please trust that it dwells in the spaces as an essential element to the whole. We are delighted to announce the random drawing winners: One signed copy of either Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, The Artist’s Rule, and Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire (winner’s choice!): Judy (Hope), Alison (Spaciousness), Kristen Vincent (Trust), Kate (Trust) One space

Last week we added one last set of dates for pilgrimage in Ireland this coming year: August 30-September 7, 2016.  We filled several of those spaces and had a bit of shifting around from other dates, so right now we have the following availability: (click links to go to pages with descriptions) Writing on the Wild Edges in Ireland – May 3-11, 2016 (ONE SPACE) Monk in the World: Pilgrimage to the Sacred Edge of Ireland – August 30-September 7, 2016 (THREE SPACES) The Soul’s Slow Ripening: Monastic Wisdom for Discernment – Pilgrimage in Ireland – September 20-28, 2016 (TWO SPACES