Update on Writing Projects ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, I thought I would share with you some of the writing projects I am involved in at the moment. This has been a very fruitful time for books with my poetry collection Love Holds You coming out last spring from Paraclete Press, then The Love of Thousands on honoring angels, saints, and ancestors being […]
Yoga and the Creative Spirit ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, This coming Friday, September 15th Abbey Program Coordinator Melinda Thomas will be leading a mini-retreat on Yoga and the Creative Spirit. Melinda has been with the Abbey for almost ten years and has taught monthly classes (now available as a self-study) and workshops, contributed to our retreats, and moderates the Sustainers Circle forum. Read on […]
Join Our Sustainers Circle ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, One of my heart’s great joys is the global nature of this community. To know that there are monks and artists spread all over the world who commit to this way of life brings me tremendous comfort and encouragement. I feel grateful daily for this vibrant and meaningful work and […]
The Cloud of Unknowing and the Greening Power of Contemplation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims, Last spring I received an email from my editor at Broadleaf Books to connect me with Carmen Acevedo Butcher who had a new translation of Brother Lawrence’s writings out. That connection was such a gift as I have been a fan of Carmen’s work for years, having especially loved her […]
Love Holds You Poetry and WritingMini-Retreat ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Whatever I Find hidden among the stones piled by lake’s edge — a beetle, a coin, a candy wrapper — let it be a portent, a cypher. Let me seek a new direction among what is hidden, lost, discarded, rather than always grasping at some bright, invisible future. —Christine Valters Paintner, Love Holds You: Poems […]
Transfiguration and Program Updates
A Blessing for Transfiguration Radiant God, open our eyes to all the ways the sacred shimmers before us, how gold pours forth from the robin’s throat, how sunlight returns each morning, how the moon glitters across still water, how laughter around the table kindles joy, how kindness can change lives. Free us from our need […]
A Different Kind of Fast: Lent Retreat 2024 ~ An Online Companion Retreat to the Book
Feb 14, 2024 – Feb 15, 2024 @ 4:00 pm GMT – 5:00 pm GMT –
with Christine & John Valters Paintner, Amanda Dillon, and Jamie Marich
These are fasts from certain ways of being in the world which can deplete us and increase our anxiety and suffering. We don’t just abstain from them, but also embrace their antidote which lead us to identify our true hungers. This Lent we will live more fully into a vibrant state of being so that we are resourced to bring our unique creative gifts into the world.