Join us for a Summer Online Retreat! + Newsletter Sabbatical ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dancing Monks at Abbey of the Arts from Christine Valters Paintner on Vimeo. Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, We are so grateful to the 35 dancing monks who sent us videos telling us what they loved about Abbey of the Arts. We are even more thrilled to have representatives from the United States, Canada, Ireland, […]
Pentecost and Holy Surprise ~ A Love Note from your Online Abbess
Dearest monks and artists, Today’s Pentecost reflection comes from the Abbey Archives. “What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as ‘play’ is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden […]
Finding Nourishment in a Time of Pandemic ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, I wrote this reflection last Sunday morning, Mother’s Day in the U.S.: Each day John and I walk with Sourney up the canal and down the river that slice through Galway. Yesterday the swan we’ve seen nesting across the smooth water for several weeks was out with her new babies, […]
Practicing Resurrection with All of Creation ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, Christine has written an article for Godspace Blog. An excerpt is below with a link to read the full article. Lent is a powerful season of transformation. Forty days in the desert, stripped of our comforts, and buoyed by our commitment to daily practice so that we might arrive at […]
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Seven – Embrace Mystery
Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a […]
Love Note, Gratitude, and the Soul of a Pilgrim ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims, It is safe to say John and I never imagined the final quarter of our sabbatical year would be spent in quarantine and compassionate retreating during a pandemic. Of course, what makes this so unsettling for many of us is how quickly it has spread and all of a sudden […]
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Five – Embrace Attention
Dear monks, artists and pilgrims, * This is the fifth part of a seven-part series we will publish weekly during this Lenten season. It can be so tempting to think, that in our busy lives multitasking will somehow make us more efficient and productive. We bemoan not having more hours in the day, but the […]