Seven Gates of Mystical Wisdom: A Pilgrimage to the Heart’s Deep Core Lent Retreat
with Christine Valters Paintner, Betsey Beckman, Polly Paton-Brown, Richard Bruxvoort Collingan, and guest teachers
Forum Facilitators Aisling Richmond and Amber Andreasen
March 5 – April 26, 2025
Live opening Zoom session Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025 (Polly and Richard will join Christine for this live session.)
4-6pm Ireland/UK
11am-1pm Eastern
8-10am Pacific
** Optional small group experience with Melissa Layer or Amber Andreasen**
Program Description
- What initiation did they experience?
- What kinds of prayer did they steep themselves in?
- How did they resource themselves in the divine?
- What did their illness and/or loss catalyse?
A lovingly facilitated forum is also included in this live version of the retreat. Feel free to share what you are discovering with a community of kindred souls.
We will turn on closed captioning during the live Zoom session (which you are able to turn off in your settings if you find distracting) as well as provide a video recording with closed captioning available and a text transcript of the session.
The Zoom session will be recorded for those who pre-register but are unable to attend at the scheduled time or who want to view again. You will be sent a notification when this is ready to view.
You have lifetime access to all online programs.
Weekly Themes
Ash
Wednesday
Opening Retreat
Week 1
Margery Kempe:
The Great Pilgrimage of Life
Week 2
Teresa of Avila:
The Seven Doors Within
Week 3
Julian of Norwich:
The Anchorhold as Alchemical Vessel
Week 4
Mechtild of Magdeburg:
Encountering God as Lover
Week 5
Clare of Assisi:
Soul Mirror of Eternity
Week 6
Angela of Foligno:
The World is Pregnant with God
Week 7
Hildegard of Bingen:
Cultivating the Greening Flow
Weekly Rhythm of Content
Sunday: An audio reflection from Christine on the mystic for that week
Monday: An audio guided meditation from Christine on the mystic for the week
Tuesday: Guest teacher conversations with Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Carl McColman, Laura Swan, OSB, Lisa D. Powell, Mary Sharratt, Tessa Bielecki, and Wendy Murray
Wednesday: A creative exploration video with Polly Paton-Brown
Thursday: A dance prayer video with Betsey Beckman
Your Guides for the Journey
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE is the online Abbess and director of AbbeyoftheArts.com, a virtual monastery exploring contemplative practice, creative expression, and ways to nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness. She is a spiritual director, teacher, pilgrimage guide, Benedictine oblate, and author of numerous books on spirituality and the arts. Her deepest belief is that the earth is the original monastery–a wisdom guide and mentor in living a soulful and vibrant life. Visit the “About Christine” page for more information.
Betsey Beckman, MM
Betsey Beckman, MM is nationally acclaimed as a spirited dancer, storyteller, teacher of SpiritPlay and dancing Spiritual Director. With her extensive repertory of sacred storydances, she is regularly featured as artist/presenter at national conventions as well as local churches. She earned her Masters in Ministry degree from Seattle University, her certificate in Movement Therapy from the Institute for Transformational Movement, and is a certified InterPlay leader. As dancer, choreographer, author, mother, wife, teacher and spiritual director, she is passionate about living life fully and fostering creativity in all those with whom she shares life and ministry. Betsey’s publications include books (she is co-author ofAwakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Expressive Arts to Spiritual Direction), recordings – including producing the Abbey of the Arts CD collections, and The Dancing Word series of DVDs on embodied prayer, many of which companion the Abbey CDs. She offers the gift of playful improvisation whenever possible.
Polly Paton Brown
Polly Paton-Brown MA UKCP worked for many years as a psychotherapist and trainer in the field of trauma. More recently, Polly’s focus has been on helping people explore their spirituality and prayer, using creativity and connection with nature. Polly has a particular passion for creating healing dolls as a portal to transformation. Always a lover of nature, horses and creativity Polly now integrates all of these into her practice. She has trained in Nature Based Practice and Eco-pychology, Environmental Arts, Expressive Arts and Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy. She is a licenced facilitator of Chakradance, The Art of Allowing , Creative Awakenings and the Wild Soul Woman Programme.
A member of the Iona Community, Polly was coordinator of their healing ministry for 11 years and when in that role ran regular retreats on the Isle of Iona. She is also a Sister of Belle Coeur. With roots in the contemplative and monastic traditions, Polly also draws wisdom from other spiritual paths such as Druidry and Sufism. She is passionate to help those wounded by the institutional church restore their image of God and themselves. Visit Polly’s website here>>
Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, MA is a Psalmist, spiritual director and freelance musician. He enjoys all manner of projects in theology and the arts. Through his company, Worldmaking.net, he is publishing imaginative and adventurous songs for the ever-evolving church. Raised in the Midwestern United States, he is a husband to Trish and a dad to Sam. Faves: discovery, music, Star Wars, bosc pears, blue, laughter, naps.
Forum Facilitators & Small Group Leaders
Aisling Richmond
Aisling Richmond is a Somatic Therapist and transformative guide who is deeply inspired by nature and the wisdom of the soul. Aisling is currently undertaking a PhD in Psychology and Transformative Leadership to work with cultural change. She shares a home with her partner in the rugged wildness of Donegal, North West Ireland. Aisling works as a therapist, supporting people to resolve trauma and life challenges through body-psyche-soul wisdom. She also mentors people in finding their deep soul purpose, and teaches a rich range of transformative programs online. Aisling is passionate about soul centred living, where nature and the feminine are deeply valued. Having worked collaboratively with many organisations including Amnesty International, Aisling has also been a guest lecturer with both Galway and Limerick Universities. Visit Aisling’s website here>>
Amber Andreasen
Amber Andreasen is a contemplative, ever desiring to deepen into and dance the rhythms of monk and artist. She has trained as a spiritual director, receiving her M.A. in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from The Institute of Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology. She has her B.S. and M.S. in Kinesiology and a Ph.D. in Holistic Nutrition. She has also done training in BioSpiritual Focusing as a holistic approach to spiritual growth. Wherever she finds herself, she desires to nurture a compassionate space where others can be listened, beheld and loved into fuller being by the Beloved. She is continually awed by the body as sacred storyholder and storyteller and by dance and movement as conduits of deep interior silence, stillness and joy. Her heart beats loudly for the weaving together of creativity and spirituality in the discovering of what it means to live an embodied, fully human life in all its mystery and wonder.
Melissa Layer
Melissa Layer, MA, LMHC honors the unfolding journeys of our wild and precious lives as compelling invitations for creative, integrative meaning-making in BodyMindSpirit. Her sacred calling and formal training as a psychospiritual therapist, hospice grief counselor, and spiritual director have taught her about the potency of thin places in thresholds and dark nights of the soul. Cultivating curiosity, Melissa offers expressive exploration of the Great Mystery through journaling, collaging, poem-making, dreamwork, visio and lectio divina, creation of rituals and altars, and engaged encounters with nature. Like the honeybee for which she is named, she claims her role as “a bee of the invisible…passionately plundering the honey of the visible in order to gather it in the great golden hive of the invisible” (Rilke). Melissa offers a compassionate, attuned presence and deep listening with the ear of her heart from the Pacific Northwest in Washington, where the Salish sea meets the evergreen forest. Visit Melissa’s website here>>
Guest Teachers
Carmen Acevedo Butcher is an award winning author and translator of The Cloud of Unknowing and Practice of the Presence. She is a member of the Abbey of the Arts Wisdom Council.
Carl McColman is a spiritual director, retreat leader, and internationally known speaker and teacher on mystical spirituality and contemplative living. He is the author of numerous books including The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism.
Mary Sharratt is on a mission to write women back into history. She is the author of numerous books including Revelations which is drawn from the colorful life of Margery Kempe.
Sister Laura Swan, OSB is a member of St. Placid Priory, located in the Pacific Northwest. She is a professor, retreat leader, spiritual companion, archivist, and the author of numerous books including The Wisdom of the Beguines.
Tessa Bielecki is a seasoned retreat facilitator, a forty-year veteran of inter-religious dialogue, and the author of several major works on St. Teresa of Avila, desert spirituality, prayer, contemplative life, and Christmas.
Wendy Murray is a writer, flower farmer and the author of numerous books including Clare of Assisi, Gentle Warrior.
Registration
$140
reduced fee
- Includes partial scholarship
- Select this only if you require financial assistance
If you are in need of additional financial assistance or a payment plan please fill out our Scholarship Request form.
Small Group Option
For this retreat we are offering the option to participate in one of two small groups. The registration fee below covers the cost of the retreat + the small group experience. Groups are limited to 8 participants each.
Melissa Layer’s group will meet weekly on Thursdays from 8-9am Pacific time, March 6 – April 24.
Amber Andreasen’s group will meet weekly on Thursday from 4-5pm Pacific time, March 6 – April 24.
Please choose your group carefully. Groups are limited to 8 participants each. Your registration is a commitment to regular attendance, engagement, and support for your fellow retreatants.
$340
Small Group with Melissa Layer
Thursdays 8-9am Pacific
- Includes the standard fee for the program + the small group experience
- Meets weekly on Thursdays from 8-9am Pacific time from March 6 - April 24
$340
small group with amber andreasen
thursdays 4-5pm Pacific
- Includes the standard fee for the program + the small group experience
- Meets weekly on Thursdays from 4-5pm Pacific time from March 6 - April 24
Terms and Conditions
Please consider your purchase carefully and review the many free materials we have on our website to make sure the program will be a good fit or get in touch with any questions.
We ask that you honor our work by not sharing the program materials with others who are not enrolled.
Please contact us for permission to quote in settings beyond the program
These videos are made available to registered participants and may also be included in future versions of the program including self-study. If you choose to speak during a recorded gathering, you are giving us your consent to record that contribution. If you prefer not to be seen or heard, you can of course switch off or mute your camera or microphone at any time. Chat sessions are recorded and posted as well. Participation in the chat function is also giving consent to their recording. Breakout groups are never recorded.
Your registration implies consent to be added to our weekly email newsletter. You are free to unsubscribe or change frequency at any time. We never sell your personal information.
If you choose a payment plan and stop payment before fulfilling the commitment without contacting us to make other arrangements, your access to the program will be removed.
