Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist
A self-study online retreat
with Christine and John Valters Paintner, Betsey Beckman, Claudia Love Mair, Jamie Marich, Jo-ed Tome, Lisha Epperson, Melinda Thomas, Melissa Layer, Simon de Voil, Te Martin, and guest teachers
- Companion retreat to the book
- Online retreat
- Self-study, start anytime
- Move at your own pace, in your own place
- Lifetime access
Registration Fee: $200 USD
Are you an artist or writer seeking more grounding for your creativity in ancient spiritual traditions?
Do you find yourself drawn to contemplative ways of being including silence, solitude, wonder, and presence?
Do you have a hunger to discover what emerges from being a contemplative artist and a creative monk?
Program Description
We each contain within us a multiplicity of energies or “selves” which are archetypal in nature, meaning they are found across cultures and time periods. Two of these powerful archetypes are the monk and artist. Our “inner monk” is the part of ourselves that seeks the ground of all being and a mystical connection to the divine source, longing for what is most essential in life and cultivates this through a commitment to spiritual practice. The “inner artist” is the part of ourselves that engages the world through our senses, and is passionate about beauty, seeking to give it outward form and expression through a variety of media (including visual art, poetry, movement, song, gardening, cooking, relationships, etc.). Both the monk and artist are edge-dwellers, ones who commit to living in fertile border-spaces and who call the wider community beyond the status quo to alternative ways of being. Our retreat will explore where these two paths meet. Drawing on monastic spirituality from the wisdom of desert, Celtic, and Benedictine traditions, we will explore together contemplative practices that support and encourage the flowering of our creative visions.
This 12-week online program is for anyone seeking to make more explicit connections between their spiritual practice and their creative expression. You might consider yourself an artist, a poet, or simply someone who experiences joy in the process of creating. You might consider yourself a contemplative or have experienced a longing for more presence to each moment.
Our primary text for this program is Christine’s book The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom. You will need to purchase a copy of the book in addition to your registration. It is not included in the program fee.
You have lifetime access to all online programs.
Note: This retreat was first offered as a live program. Please disregard any reference to sharing as a discussion forum is not included in this self-study version.
Where have you been forced by circumstance of family or culture into a life that no longer feels like your own?
What has been sacrificed that you thought was lost?
How might you reclaim this in your life? Who are the wise ones to help you guide the way?
What's Included
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.
- 12 webinar recordings in audio and video format with Christine Valters Paintner including bonus meditations not in the book
- 12 scripture reflections from John Valters Paintner
- 12 guided lectio divina practices from Christine Valters Paintner
- 12 guided visual art explorations with Christine and guest teachers (includes 3 bonus visual explorations not in the book)
- 12 guided writing explorations with Christine (includes 2 bonus explorations not in the book)
- 12 movement practices from guest teachers (including 9 bonus practices not in the book
- 12 closing reflection and integration prompts
- 6 guest teacher conversations
- Closed captioning and transcripts
- Lifetime access to all material in our private and easy-to-navigate retreat platform
Creativity and contemplative spirituality nurture and support each other in their commitments to the slow way, to a close attention to the inner life, and to the sacred being revealed in each moment.
Weekly Themes
Week 1: Establishing a Creative, Contemplative Practice
Week 2:
Exploring Your Inner Monk and Inner Artist
We begin to delve into what it means to be a “new monk” and “new artist” and where those callings intersect. In addition to cultivating the contemplative practices that were introduced in the first week, the monk and the artist are both called to welcome holy curiosity, live in the transformative border spaces of thresholds, and commit to embracing the unknown and serving the great mysteries of life.
Week 3:
Sacred Tools and Sacred Space
Week 4:
Sacred Rhythms for Creative Renewal
The rhythms of nature shown to us in the seasons and the hours of the day mirror the rhythms of our own souls. When we listen for the balance between the artist’s outward expression and the monk’s inward contemplation, we honor these cycles and can embrace the wisdom of both fruitfulness and fallowness.
Week 5:
Obedience, Stability, and Conversion: Commitment to the Creative Life
For the monk and the artist, committing to obedience, stability, and conversion are respectively committing to listen and respond for the call in our lives, committing to remain present amidst struggle, and committing to continual growth and expansion of heart. These principles invite us as artists and monks to deepen our relationship with the world, ourselves, our creative and contemplative practices, and God.
Week 6:
Humility~ Embracing Your Imperfections and Limitations
When we commit to both nurturing our unique gifts and honoring our limitations, we are practicing life-giving humility which roots and grounds us while at the same time liberates and frees us. The practice of humility leads us to a spirituality of radical newness and reversal by inviting us to view challenges as doorways into deeper understanding and to eliminate facades by embracing vulnerability.
Week 7:
Inner Hospitality and Welcoming the Stranger
Inner hospitality is the practice of staying fully present to the often challenging and painful dynamics that happen within us and the practice of inviting compassion and curiosity as a witness to observe with loving tenderness. We can engage with what we fear through meditation, art, and journaling and learn to make space within ourselves for the voices that disturb us, trusting that on the other side of that discomfort we will find a window to sacred presence and the gift of wisdom.
Week 8:
Creative Community
As contemplatives, we are called to extend our practice of inner hospitality to the practice of outer hospitality and acknowledge that we are dependent on the wisdom of others, including the community of creation and the communion of saints. Healthy community celebrates together, supports one another, welcomes dissonance, and speaks truth into each other’s lives.
Week 9:
Nature as Source of Revelation and Inspiration
This week we focus on nature as a source of revelation and as a community which supports us on our paths as monks and artists. Claiming our inner monk means remembering that we are children of the earth, and claiming our inner artist means remembering that nature is the primary expression of divine artistry and committing to create in kinship with the world around us.
Week 10:
Simplicity~ Creative Asceticism and Learning When to Let Go
Simplicity calls us to live more intentionally, opens us to the process of letting go that which drains energy from our hearts’ true desires, and allows us to be fully present to the graces of each moment. Healthy asceticism is the practice of creating more internal freedom by first discerning when to say “no” in order to be able to respond with a holy “yes” to our callings.
Week 11:
Creative Work as Vocation and Holy Service
In a monastic approach to work, we are called to extend sacred awareness to everything we do, including our labors, and in doing so, our daily work can become a place of transformation. When we acknowledge our vocation as not necessarily a particular path or task but an invitation to live into the fullness of our deepest identity, we are freed and compelled to co-create with the Divine Worker to usher in the unfolding of God’s reign among us.
Week 12:
Creating an Artist’s Rule of Life
This week is an act of integration of all that has been previously discussed and a way to name and claim the practices that grant us freedom through structure in our creative and contemplative journey. Since creating is one of the ways in which we reflect the Creator, a rule of life that nurtures our creativity will also help us grow spiritually and thus strengthen us to offer our gifts in service to the world.
Weekly Rhythm of Content
Day 1: Recorded webinar with Christine including teaching and meditation
Day 2: Scripture reflection from John (text) + Guided lectio divina practice with Christine (audio + text)
Day 3: Audio guidance from Christine and guest teachers for the visual exploration
Day 4: Audio guidance from Christine for writing explorations
Day 5: Video movement practices from guest teachers
Day 6: Closing reflection and integration of the week + guest teacher conversations every other week
Day 7: Sabbath time to rest and integrate
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.
John Valters Paintner
John Valters Paintner studied education and earned a teaching certificate in his home state of California. John later went on to earn a Masters in Theological Studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. After working in parish ministry for several years, John returned to the classroom, teaching high school religion for twelve years. He now works as Prior of the Abbey of the Arts alongside his wife of thirty years, Abbess Christine. Visit the “About John” 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. TheDancingWord.com
Claudia Love Mair
Claudia Love Mair, MFA is a writer, artist, and an Inspirationalista who, when she’s not creating something herself, helps other creatives tap into their deepest intuition and longings through writing and painting. Claudia Love is the author of God Alone is Enough, the critically acclaimed novel, Zora and Nicky, and her memoir, Don’t You Fall Now. She is a Certified Intuitive Painting and Expressive Arts Facilitator and the Coordinator for the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative. She lives in Frankfort, KY. Her newest book, Mourning Pages: A Soulful Guide to Writing Through Grief, is published by Broadleaf Books.
Jamie Marich
Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, REAT, RYT-500, RMT travels internationally speaking on topics related to EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts, LGBTQ issues, spirituality and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice in her home base of Northeast Ohio. Jamie is also the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness expressive arts practice. Jamie is the author of several books including Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation (2015, with foreword by Christine Valters Paintner) and Process Not Perfection: Expressive Arts Solutions for Trauma Recovery released in 2019, heavily influenced by the growth she has experienced through her study with Abbey of the Arts! Now primarily a North Atlantic Book author, she has recently released Trauma and the 12 Steps: An Inclusive Guide to Recovery (2020), Transforming Trauma with Jiu-Jitsu (2022), and Dissociation Made Simple: A Stigma-Free Guide to Embracing Your Dissociative Mind and Navigating Life (2023). Their newest book is You Lied to Me About God: A Memoir (2024). DrJamieMarich.com
Jo-ed Tome
Lisha Epperson
Lisha Epperson is a minister, movement specialist, writer, speaker, and Christian meditation practitioner. She teaches embodied practices (contemplative yoga/movement and faith-based meditation) to Christian communities. These therapeutic practices support overall wellness and help balance the demands of modern life. Lisha offers movement workshops and quiet day retreats designed around these themes and shares resources and tools to encourage a life long practice of self-care and spiritual formation. She is the founder of the Creative Arts Project, a summer arts immersion camp for children aged 6-12, and an ordained Episcopal priest. LishaEpperson.com
Melinda Thomas
Melinda Thomas, E-RYT 500 is the Program Coordinator for Abbey of the Arts providing program and logistical support, forum facilitation, and yoga. She also offer prayers and other content contributions to the Prayer Cycles and retreats. Melinda is an experienced yoga teacher and has been studying and practicing yoga for more than twenty-five years. In each of her classes and workshops Melinda weaves spiritual and contemplative themes into accessible, alignment based movement practice. Her aim is to honor the spiritual foundation of yoga in conversation with monastic and contemplative wisdom that offers participants a safe, inclusive, and integrated experience. Melinda is a writer and the author of Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse and Sacred Balance: Aligning Body and Spirit Through Yoga and the Benedictine Way. She lives in North Carolina with her son and their cat. She writes The Journal of Elements and Seasons on Substack. MelindaEmilyThomas.com
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.
Simon de Voil
Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is an ordained interfaith-interspiritual minister, sacred musician, spiritual counsellor, and chaplain. His sacred work—both musical and interpersonal—explores themes of the inner landscape of the soul, the enchantment of the natural world, and the healing power of spiritual practice. As a chaplain and counsellor, Simon helps individuals and groups connect sacred presence with everyday life. He lives in Scotland and is delighted to be called a stay at home monk and a “trans grandpa” to queer and trans youth. SimondeVoil.com
Te Martin
Theresa “Te” Martin (they/them), has been studying and leading community singing since 2017. They were born on Ramaytush Ohlone land in san francisco and have been shaped by Ocean, Redwoods, circus arts, and theater games. Lately, some of the questions they have been asking are: “How can I offer song + ritual arts that are in service to healing?” and, “What are the sounds and stories of my Celtic ancestors?” Te holds a B.A. in Theology from St. Louis University and lives at the cross-section of spiritual practice, earth-connection, social justice, and artistic expression. Check out their EP, “Water & Bones”, and music video. Visit Te’s Patreon Page.
Guest Teachers
Ally Markotich is an artist, poet and Creative Formation Practitioner. Ally is the creator of Soul Kindling LLC, an online creative respite where she guides her clients to express their truest colors and gently encourages their creative growth.
Benjamin Mertz is a musician, composer, activist, and director of Diversity & Inclusion at the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute
Cynthia Winton-Henry is the co-founder of InterPlay, an improvisational, art-based community-building practice that lifts up the physicality of grace and strengthens each body’s wisdom.
Diana Turner-Forte is a Sacred Dancer, Holistic Health Practitioner, Reiki Master Practitioner, and spiritual Writer. Her writing explores the intersections between the human form, spirit, and soul; and the possibility of transformation by holding the tension between lived reality, embodied movement practices, and imagination.
Dr. Kirk Byron Jones is the author of many books for clergy, and all persons seeking spiritual growth in a changing and challenging world including Soul Talk: How to Have the Most Important Conversation of All.
Joel McKerrow is an award-winning writer, keynote speaker, performer, Master of Ceremonies, educator and one of Australia’s most successful performance poets. He is currently the Director of The School for Creative Development.
The primary creative act is the living of our daily lives, making of it a work of art. This happens through daily attention to practice.
Praise for the Retreat
Registration
$200
Registration Fee
If you need a different payment plan or a scholarship to make this program accessible, please get in touch with us.
Purchase the Companion Book
The book is not included in the registration fee. When you purchase books through the links to Bookshop.org, Blackwells.co.uk, 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. You may also purchase the book at your local book seller. 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.
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.