Earth, Our Original Monastery
A Self-Study Online Retreat
- Online retreat
- Self-study, start anytime
- Move at your own pace, in your own place
- Lifetime access
Registration Fee: $150 USD
Do you long to deepen your intimacy with nature?
Are you seeking a set of Earth-cherishing practices inspired by the mystics?
Have you experienced Earth as your primary place of connection to the divine?
Program Description
Earth is our original monastery. Our original cathedral. And our original scripture, saints, spiritual director, icon, sacrament, and liturgy.
Through the wisdom of monks and mystics, as well as scriptures, we discover a vital strand of the Christian tradition which deeply honors Earth as the place of sanctuary and revelation, of guidance, and witness to celebration.
Christine Valters Paintner’s book Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature invites you to enter into and immerse yourself in a set of practices that help to embody a renewed way of being in relation to the natural world. They are filled with reflections on how contemplative practice and creative expression can break open the divine presence in new ways and deepen our love for Earth.
This 7-week, self-study companion retreat to the book is asynchronous and includes a weekly pre-recorded inspiration, practices on the spirituality of trees, Earth Psalter explorations, a series of songs that accompany each theme with movement prayers, and audio guidance from Christine for visual art-making and poetry writing.
Our primary text for this retreat is Earth, Our Original Monastery. You will need to purchase a copy in addition to your registration.
Note: This program was originally offered as a live retreat during Lent but can be prayed through at any time. Please disregard any reference to sharing as a discussion forum is not included in this self-study version.
What's Included
- Six days a week you receive an email with a link to the day’s content. The materials are in written, video, and/or audio format which you can view and listen to at any time. The seventh day is a day for rest and integration.
- Guided meditations to open each week with Christine Valters Paintner
- Videos and practices on the Spirituality of Trees with Polly Paton Brown
- Videos and guidance on creating an Earth Psalter with Cassidhe Hart
- Videos and guidance for Creative Movement with Betsey Beckman
- Audio guidance for Visual Art Exploration with Christine Valters Paintner
- Audio guidance for Poetry Writing with Christine Valters Paintner
- Closed captioning and transcripts
- Lifetime access to all online programs.
Earth is our original monastery. Our original cathedral. And our original scripture, saints, spiritual director, icon, sacrament, and liturgy.
Weekly Themes
Week 1:Earth as the Original Cathedral
Earth has multiple terrains, as does the soul. Becoming familiar with the outer landscape reveals dimensions to us of our inner ones as well. Recognizing which territories enliven our souls and which ones challenge us brings us closer to discovering who we most deeply are and what we long for.
Week 2:Earth as the Original Scriptures
The words of scripture offer us one kind of insight into God’s Word, and the physical dimension offers another. God is in all things and is the true essence of all things. One of the philosopher Eriugena’s favorite words is theophany, which means “something that reveals the divine nature.” For him, the world and all of creation is a theophany.
Week 3:Earth as the Original Saints
The trees and flowers do not try to be other than they were created to be. They teach us how to live out our own sainthood by no longer refusing our true nature. To become a saint means to embrace our essential nature, which is the vessel through which we carry out our callings.
Week 4:Earth as the Original Spiritual Directors
We might be tempted to think that creation cannot speak to us in language and so it has nothing of importance to say. Rather than speak about nature, we might consider addressing our speech to elements and creatures, knowing that they will respond in their own form of communication.
Week 5:Earth as the Original Icon
Nature is a holy text for many of us, and an icon is a window to the Divine Presence at work in the world. Creation is therefore the original icon, the primordial place of our encounter with God, the Great Artist, who is continually at work in the world around us. When we gaze upon this holy image, we are also invited into the practice of lament for all that has been lost.
Week 6:Earth as the Original Sacrament
When viewed through this expansive lens, we discover that the more we cultivate intimacy with the natural world, the more we discover about God’s presence. All of our interactions with nature can be sacramental, and all the ways nature extends herself to us are sacramental as well.
Week 7:Earth as the Original Liturgy
Earth and her creatures teach us how to pray, how to worship and praise, but only if we listen and pay attention to their rhythms in this world. We are invited into their unending song of gratitude, to join them in their prayer of gratitude for all that is.
Weekly Rhythm of Content
Six days each week you receive an email with a link to the day’s content. The seventh day is a time for rest and integration. The materials are in written, video, and audio format which you can view and listen to at any time. You have lifetime access to the materials in the course.
Day 1: Introduction to the week with Christine Valters Paintner and audio guidance for the meditation
Day 2: Spirituality of Trees with Polly Paton-Brown
Day 3: Earth Psalter with Cassidhe Hart
Day 4: Song and Movement Invitation with Betsey Beckman
Day 5: Audio Guidance with Christine for a Visual Art Exploration
Day 6: Audio Guidance with Christine for Poetry Writing + Closing Blessing Video
Day 7: Sabbath rest and integration
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.
Betsey Beckman
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.
Cassidhe Hart
Cassidhe Hart, MDiv wrote her first poem as a toddler with her mother’s help, dictating words onto a scrap of construction paper. She’s been writing ever since. As a poet and liturgist, she writes at the intersection of faith, ecology, community, and ritual to explore the ways we tell stories about our inner and outer worlds. She comes from a long line of settler-colonists and is committed to listening to systematically oppressed voices and to growing an anti-racist, decolonizing ethic in all her work. She has been commissioned to write prayers, liturgies, and songs for various worship and retreat contexts. In all her writing and facilitating, she seeks to cultivate a tender and radical attention to God’s presence among us. Her list of favorite things includes sunlight through tree leaves, children’s novels, jasmine tea, and her nephew’s drawings of rainbow narwhals.
Cassidhe writes Spinning Nettles on Substack.
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.
Polly writes the Wild Soul Calling on Substack.
Through the wisdom of monks and mystics, as well as scriptures, we discover a vital strand of the Christian tradition which deeply honors Earth as the place of sanctuary and revelation, of guidance, and witness to celebration.
Praise for the Retreat
Registration
$150
Registration Fee
If you need a different payment plan or a scholarship to make this program accessible, please complete the scholarship request form.
Purchase the Companion Book
The book is not included in the registration fee.
When you purchase books through the links to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, or Blackwells.co.uk, 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. You can also purchase from your local bookseller. Thank you for your support!
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
Some self-study retreats include video or audio recordings of sessions that were recorded in a live community offering of the retreat and may make reference to forums or other modes of sharing. Please disregard these as self-study retreats do not have these available.
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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.