Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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      • Day 1 Morning & Evening Prayer:
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      • Day 2 Morning & Evening Prayer:
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  • Books
    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
    • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
    • Earth, Our Original Monastery:
      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
    • The Wisdom of the Body:
      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
    • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
    • Eyes of the Heart:
      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
    • The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
    • Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained
    • Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
    • Awakening the Creative Spirit:
      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
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      • The Way of the Hermit:
        A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times
        with Kayleen Asbo, PhD
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
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        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
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Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained

by Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE, OblSB

Skylight Paths Publishing 2012

Join us for Lent 2021 as we journey through this book on retreat

Description

Wisdom from the very beginnings of Christian monasticism can become a companion on your own spiritual journey.

The desert fathers and mothers were ordinary Christians living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria who chose to renounce the world in order to deliberately and individually follow God’s call. They embraced lives of celibacy, labor, fasting, prayer, and poverty, believing that denouncing material goods and practicing stoic self-discipline would lead to unity with the Divine. Their spiritual practice formed the basis of Western monasticism and greatly influenced both Western and Eastern Christianity.

Their writings, first recorded in the fourth century, consist of spiritual advice, parables and anecdotes emphasizing the primacy of love and the purity of heart as essential to spiritual life and authentic communion with God. Focusing on key themes of charity, fortitude, lust, patience, prayer, self-control and visions, the Sayings influenced the rule of St. Benedict and have inspired centuries of opera, poetry and art.

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, opens up wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers for readers with no previous knowledge of Western monasticism and early Christianity. She provides insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that describes historical background, explains the practice of asceticism and clarifies the ancient desert wisdom that will speak to your life today and energize your spiritual quest.

Spirituality and Practice has named Desert Fathers and Mothers one of the best spiritual books of 2012! 

Desert Mothers and Fathers

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When you purchase books through the links to Bookshop.org or Amazon.com, Abbey of the Arts is provided with a very small percentage of your purchase price at no extra cost to you. We apply these funds toward scholarships for our online programs. Thank you for your support!

Supplemental Materials

Discover the sacredness of life with the desert mothers and fathers (article at U.S. Catholic)

Praise for the Book

As beckoning as the wide expanse of the desert and as clear as the night sky strewn with stars, Christine Valters Paintner's work offers the reader a good drink from the clear stream of desert wisdom.  She honors the tradition while making it entirely relevant to our times." -Mary C. Earle, writer and Episcopal priest, whose work includes The Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the Wilderness and Celtic Christian Spirituality: Essential Writings--Annotated and Explained.

In Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings—Annotated & Explained, Christine Valters Paintner offers insight into the austere and wondrous spirituality of the desert, the colorful and perceptive women and men who dwelt there in ancient times, and why their pithy teachings remain so essential for the study and practice of Christian spirituality today. Her commentary makes the wisdom of the desert come alive. This book is a splendid introduction to one of the most essential periods of the western contemplative tradition." -Carl McColman, author of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Answering the Contemplative Call

Desert Mother and Fathers provides not only a wonderful  introduction to a fascinating world (the opening chapter alone is worth the price of the book), but an invitation to seek our own “word” from the abbas and ammas of Christian antiquity.  A scholar who practices what she teaches, Christine Valters-Paintner offers one of the best guidebooks I’ve seen for those who’ve been called to the contemplative life." -Paula Huston, author of The Holy Way and Simplifying the Soul

I appreciate Christine's careful reading, particularly in light of contemporary spiritual concerns, of these important early Christian texts. These desert elders are speaking to us. Are we listening?" -Laura Swan, author of The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Lives, Sayings and Stories of Early Christian Women

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Upcoming Programs

The Way of the Hermit:
A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times

January 22-24, 2021
with Kayleen Asbo, PhD

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Recent Reflections

  • Humility + Join us today for live prayer! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 2: Tús maith leath na hoibre – by John Valters Paintner
  • New Book Club for 2021: Lift Every Voice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales One: Dia dhuit, is mise Hildy! by John Valters Paintner, Your Online Prior
  • Celebrate the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle podcast with us!

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