Wisdom of Wild Grace: An Online Writing Retreat for the Wild Soul
with Christine Valters Paintner and Melissa Layer
Forum facilitators Aisling Richmond and Melissa Layer
June 1 – 28, 2026
Live opening gathering on Zoom on June 1st
3-4:30pm Ireland
10-11:30am Eastern
7-8:30am Pacific
You can still glimpse it
on sun-sparkled days when bluebells
sway and oak leaves rustle
from squirrel-scurry-scamper
and you take the soft hare
of your life in your arms,
whisper into those long ears
blessings all down her trembling
length and remind her that
she too no longer needs to run.
~ Christine Valters Paintner, excerpted from St. Melangell and the Hare
Program Description
In the desert and Celtic traditions (and beyond) we find many stories of the kinship between saints and animals. Kevin and the otter who brought him fish to eat, Brigid whose life was saved by the oystercatchers, Francis who befriended a wolf who was tormenting a town, Paul who died and lions came to bury his body, and many more.
These mystics stood at the threshold between this world and the one beyond the veil. Animals were considered to be intermediaries, so in their communion with animals they were consciously touching the divine. They call us to receive the wisdom of the world beyond, behind, beneath this world of surface appearances.
These stories immerse us in a worldview that sees a connection to animals as a sign of holiness. They help to kindle our wonder and nourish an earth-cherishing consciousness in us.
This 4-week program is a writing retreat focused on cultivating our kinship to creation through some of these saint and animal stories.
The retreat begins with a 90-minute live session led by Christine Valters Paintner who will share about the wisdom of this tradition, lead you in meditation, and guide you through different exercises to help you yield to the process of writing as a journey of discovery, rather than holding too tightly to the end product. You will be encouraged to engage writing as a way to explore new landscapes within you and around you.
This is a generative program, you are not here to edit your work, but to show up for the Creative Source when you slow down and listen to what is erupting in the stillness.
Following the opening live session there will be 27 days of writing prompts designed to take about 20 minutes a day to cultivate a writing practice. These recordings will bring together breath prayer, lectio divina, poems, and writing prompts.
During each of the 27 days, you will receive a link to a video where Christine introduces a poem she has written about one of the saint and animal stories, giving context for the saint and the larger invitation of the story. Then she will invite you into a lectio divina practice with the poem through listening to her reading. Repetition means you have a chance to let the images work on you. This is followed by a writing prompt and 5 minutes of quiet music to help hold the space for you.
In addition to the daily recordings from Christine, Melissa Layer will provide an additional writing prompt each day if you have some extra time to explore.
You are welcome regardless of level of experience or genre.
Weekly Themes
Week 1:
Wild Abundance
Many of the saint and animals stories tell of creatures bringing monks food to eat, a celebration of divine abundance available to those of us open to this kind of deep kinship. Through writing, we will explore this kind of lavish nourishment in our lives.
Week 2:
Wild Healing
The healing relationship between humans and animals works both ways – sometimes it is humans who offer healing grace to a creature and sometimes the other way around. Through writing, we will respond to the invitation to wholeness through listening to wild grace.
Week 3:
Wise and Wild Guidance
Many of the monks find wisdom and guidance along their path through a kinship with animals. Sometimes the animals call them in a holy direction. Through writing, we will explore our own attunement to how the wild can guide us.
Week 4:
Our Original Nature
The kinship between animals and saints remind us of our original nature, as holy and wild beings, and of the delights of pleasure and play. Through writing, we will let these stories call us into deeper alignment with our sacred and wild selves.
Monday: Live Zoom session with Christine Valters Paintner includes overview of the week, meditation and reflection time together, and an invitation into an herbal ritual + Scripture Reflection with John Valters Paintner
Tuesday: Spirituality of Trees with Polly Paton-Brown
Wednesday: Song reflection from Dena Jennings
Thursday: Audio Guidance with Christine for the Visual Art Exploration + Poetry Writing
Friday: Song and Movement Invitation with Betsey Beckman (a song has been chosen to deepen into each week’s theme)
Saturday: Closing Blessing Video
Sunday: Sabbath rest and integration
The saint has a vision
a crane battered by wind and rain
would tumble onto Iona’s shores
in three turns of sun and moon,
the third hour before evening
~Christine Valters Paintner, excerpted from St. Columba and the Crane
What's Included
- One live 90-minute webinar led by Christine Valters Paintner. The gathering will be recorded and made available within 24 hours.
- 27 days of pre-recorded writing prompts from Christine designed to take 20 minutes each + 1 additional writing prompt from Melissa Layer included each day
- Closed captions and downloadable transcripts
- A lovingly facilitated forum. Feel free to share what you are discovering with a community of kindred souls.
- Ongoing access to the materials in our private and easy-to-navigate retreat platform on Ruzuku.
Your Guides for the Journey
Christine Valters Paintner
Christine Valters Paintner 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.
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. MelissaLayer.com
Forum Facilitators
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>>
Melissa Layer
See Melissa’s bio above.
We need to claim the great wisdom and teachings the scriptures and mystics have to offer to us about remembering the sacredness of all things. We need to live an incarnational theology that takes God’s presence seriously in all of creation. Only from this place of love will our hearts be transformed and a new way of being arise.
Registration
Please be careful to enter your correct email address when you register.
$150
Standard fee
- The standard fee for the program
- Keeps our programs sustainable
or
2 monthly payments of $75
$180
sponsorship fee
- Includes added donation to support scholarships
- THANK YOU for supporting our scholarship program!
$120
reduced fee
- Includes partial scholarship
- Select this only if you require financial assistance
If you are in need of additional financial assistance please fill out our Scholarship Request form.
Terms and Conditions
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