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

Reflections

Category: Uncategorized

Filter

Winner of free book drawing

On Monday I shared Ken Peterson’s monk in the world guest post and there was a drawing included for a free copy of his new book Prayer as Night Falls: Experiencing Compline.  The lucky winner is Pacia Dixon!  Pacia, send me your snail mail and we will arrange for your copy to be sent out.

Read More

New Art for 8th Principle of the Monk Manifesto! (plus revised video meditation)

NEW 8th principle of the Monk Manifesto: *I commit to being a dancing monk, cultivating creative joy and letting my body and “heart overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.”* And here is the revised version of the Monk Manifesto video with the 8th principle included: Monk Manifesto Meditation (8 Principles for being a Monk in the World) from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo.

Read More

An opportunity to pause and savor

At the Abbey this fall we have weekly invitations to lectio divina, photography, poetry, and dance on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sundays respectively.  With a 5th Sunday this month, I am inviting you to allow this week to be a chance to revisit some of the previous invitations and savor what has been shared there, as well as your own unfolding response to the “Call to Newness” we have been exploring. Consider stopping by these posts and see what newness is stirred: Community Lectio Divina Isaiah 42:6-10 Invitation to Photography: Call to Newness Invitation to Poetry: Call to Newness

Read More

Invite Wonder (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) Invite Wonder What if you bowed before every dandelion you met and wrote love letters to squirrels and pigeons who crossed your path? What if scrubbing the dishes became an act of single reverence for the gift of being washed clean, and what if the rhythmic percussion of chopping carrots became the drumbeat of your dance? What if you stepped into the shower each morning only to be baptized anew and sent forth to serve the grocery bagger, the bank teller, and the bus

Read More

“Lovingly Fitted” (a love note from your online Abbess)

To receive this love note straight to your in-box, subscribe here (and also receive a free gift!) King Solomon made himself an enclosed litter of wood from Lebanon. He made its columns of silver, its roof of gold, Its seat of purple cloth, its interior lovingly fitted. —Song of Songs 3:9-10 Dearest monks and artists, I have mentioned before that my husband and I practice lectio divina together and we have slowly been working our way through the Song of Songs together, praying with just a couple of verses at a time in a practice of lectio continua. Several weeks

Read More

Join us for Community Lectio Divina!

There are a couple more days left for our Community Lectio Divina practice this month with Isaiah 42:6-10.  Reading your responses has been very powerful for me, to listen to the Spirit at work weaving through our shared prayers.  Sunday we will post this month’s Photo Party which will continue breaking open the themes explored in the passage.

Read More

Come to Ireland next spring. . . (new dates added!)

We have added a fourth and final set of dates for the Monk in the World: Pilgrimage to the Sacred Edge of Ireland in 2014. We love the poetry of now having one pilgrimage in each of the four Celtic seasons. There are only a couple of spaces left for March 18-26, 2014, so please contact me to register (or to be added to the waiting list for the other dates or advance notice of 2015 dates). Join your fellow pilgrims and monks in the world for an intimate and transformative journey to a sacred landscape. If Ireland calls to

Read More