Christine Valters Paintner's Blog

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sharon Dawn Johnson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sharon Dawn Johnson’s reflection Finding My Song, Finding Its Colour.

My heart’s deep-down hunger urges me: Enroll in this skincare formulating course! Signing up honours my wild self and her contours—as organic as that of the skincare organization’s eco-sustainability ethos. Lesson by tasty lesson, my heart and mind are nourished and at peace. 

Even so, self-doubt’s entangling flip-flops set up creative struggles in me—to keep exercising the sign-up trust that’s digestively sustained and strengthened by each formulating lesson.

For St. Hildegard, the recovery of the “original wisdom” already within invites us to call upon the virtues—fruitful practices that include patience, kindness, and compassion—to empower us with the life-sustaining choices that counter our wayward tendencies. When my doubt-trust, vice-virtue entanglements are too hard to handle directly, I turn to creative beading—where my needle-and-thread’s pace eases, and so releases, self-doubt’s power to sabotage my heart’s desires. 

Naming my disorderly self-doubt (and its fear-knots) as energy shared with my faith-trust engagements, like sides of a coin, helps me call forth radical hospitality, a basic monastic action. Welcoming strangers—saboteurs and wildish ones—is an essential practice whose viriditas power invites me into knot-transformations, not fisty-cuffs. As Meister Eckhart asserts: “We are to practice virtue, not possess it.”

Wildness, I note, is not on Hildegard’s list of subconscious virtues and corresponding vices displayed at the Healthy Hildegard website.  Only later will I marvel at the mystery attraction that draws my eye to the Generosity / Bitterness pairing.

*****

First hearing about Hildegard’s viriditas—divine greening power displayed in nature and applied in body and soul metaphors—generates a resonating hum in me. That hum became an invitation to learn to sing the tricky, first line phrasing from one of Hildegard’s songs honouring the Virgin Mary: 

O viridissima virga, 

Ave [O greenest branch, Hail]

I also learn the Abbey song, Viriditas, which starts: 

Let my soul be greening with the Living Light…

When I first hear Hildegard’s phrase ‘Mary as the greenest branch’, that upwelling image becomes a green bead-encrusted branch, whose story is detailed here. That artwork initiated a green-themed series still unfolding.

Even with years of viriditas greenness flowing in, around, and through me, I was brought anew to my own soul-anguished song search, much like the fairy tale Sophia in Abbess Christine’s book Journey to Joy (2025). The tale’s archetypal motifs reach out to touch and teach me. 

How I resonate with the tale’s motifs, such as Sophia’s song search—one enfolding basic human questions: Who am I? What am I here for? 

*****

Based on Hildegard’s original recipe, the digestive bitters tablets promoted on the Healthy Hildegard home page lists six health benefits, including: Improve[s] Skin Care.

What first floors me is learning that the skin’s outermost layer, the epidermis, contains bitter taste receptors! Brief details explain how bitter botanical substances stimulate the skin’s receptors to create a healthy skin barrier. A second link takes me to the 2015 research paper that first published this discovery. That paper reminded me of yesterday’s reading in my skincare formulating course, which underlined the need to support claims for an ingredient’s skincare benefits with scientific evidence.

The pairing of skin-beneficent bitters and supporting research serve as vibrant green signposts. I notice that the formulating journey, like those of contemplative and creative ones, share similar way-markers. All focus more on the lessons of presence, process, and practice than fast-lane destinations. 

Like the way-marking arrows that direct Camino walkers, my signposts help me befriend my formulating doubts. Both my self-doubt and direction-navigating trust need the wild-hearted hand-on-the-shoulder companioning to keep us on course, step-by-pilgrim step. 

*****

The signposts give me pause to reflect. Self-doubt stalled Hildegard’s midlife awakening for a time. Yet Holy Wisdom helped her shift this wearisome weakness sufficiently to redirect its energy into sustaining creative strength. Her subsequent years of multi-faceted fruitfulness exemplify the transformation. Hildegard herself was sustained by the flowing green sap—a model of green-hearted nourishment to comfort and satisfy me—body, soul, and spirit.

“The piety of doubt”, in James K A Smith’s reflection “The opposite of faith isn’t doubt; it’s fear”, offer nuances that apply to Hildegard’s doubt-and-faith companionship—and mine. As he notes, “Faith, in Scripture and a long Christian tradition, is bound up with peace, not certainty. In faith one entrusts oneself.” How that resonates with my skincare formulating lessons! A still, small voice sings, Fear not. Your green signposts are trustworthy.

Singing, for Hildegard, is medicine: “Singing softens hard [and fearful] hearts and summons the Holy Spirit.” She urges me: Don’t stop singing!

“What is my song?” I revisit fairy tale Sophia’s question to answer: My song is a three-part harmony of expressive green forms. When the wind asks, “What is your truth?”, I pause—then it comes to me: Green. My truth is green!

This disclosure—surprising then, obvious now—reminds me of Hildegard’s love of Latin wordplays. Wisdom (sapientia) and taste (sapere) share the same root. Her virga (branch) and virgo (virgin) playoffs are matched by a similar Latin game between viridis (green) and veritas (truth) whose volleys coined viriditas.  

My journey’s signposts deepen my wild self’s willingness to become a green ambassador for safe and effective skincare. This third facet—along with my calling to writing and bead and fibre artmaking—opens a three-dimensional space, all equally enriched by viriditas.

Green singer! Green song!

*Image – Green Bugle Bead Mandala 2.5 in/ 6.5 cm diameter, work-in-progress by Sharon Johnson

Sharon Dawn Johnson, of Ottawa, Canada, delights in the interplays of writing, beading/ fibre artistry, and organic skin care formulating. This dynamic threesome nourishes and sustains her creative and contemplative practices.

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Christine Interviewed by The Center for Action and Contemplation about Her Book “Give Me a Word”

Christine Valters Paintner sat down with CAC’s Publications Manager Mark Longhurst to discuss themes from her new book Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year.

How can we receive a “word?” Christine discusses practical tactics like contemplative listening, dreamwork, and embodiment. She also invites you to embrace nature and sacred thresholds to tune into the voice of God.

Watch this video to discover more on this unique contemplative practice.

Join us for our book launch celebration on Monday, September 22nd!

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Autumn Equinox Deep Rest ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

We live in times when it often feels like everything is coming undone. The Celtic hinge points of Autumn Equinox, Samhain, the Winter Solstice, and Imbolc offer the wisdom of living into a rhythm that honors the importance of times of rest as essential to our personal and collective wellbeing.

This Friday, September 19th, we begin our  Deep Rest series of mini-retreats  with a gathering to honor the  Autumn Equinox  and the energy of surrender.

Autumn is a time of transition, of the earth’s turning, with the balance of light and dark in the northern hemisphere tilting toward the dark season and the invitation to release the excess we carry and rest into growing Mystery. At the heart of autumn’s gifts are the twin energies of relinquishing and harvesting. It is a season of paradox that invites us to gather in the harvest, to name and celebrate the fruits of the seeds we planted months ago. At the same time we are invited to consider what we are called to release and surrender.

The season of autumn calls us to honor the full spectrum of human experience, to not push away the sorrow and grief, to not fill the waiting with distractions. Fall thrusts us into the messiness of life and challenges us not to turn away. This is sometimes the relinquishment demanded of us. 

But equally, this season calls us to the harvest. Seeds planted long ago create a bounty and fullness in our lives. Autumn invites us to remember the places in life where we had a dream that once felt tiny and has now grown and ripened into fullness. We move toward our own ripening and in that journey we let go of what no longer serves us. Fall urges us on to our own completion and sweetness.

This season reminds us that the journey of relinquishing all we hold dear is also the journey of harvesting. Somehow these two come together year after year. In holding them in tension we are reminded that in our letting go we also find abundance. What are you holding onto too tightly these autumn days that can be gently let go of in the season ahead?

Join us Friday for our  Autumn Equinox retreat . Guided by Simon de Voil, Cassidhe Hart, and Aisling Richmond we will break open the invitations to harvest and release through music, poetry, teaching, reflection, and meditation.

My latest book Give Me a Word will be released this week. Join us on September 22nd for a free book launch to celebrate the harvest of this resource that was cultivated through many years of our community Give Me a Word retreats. 

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

PS For our dancing monks in the Southern Hemisphere here is a reflection on the Spring Equinox.

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Melinda Emily Thomas

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Abbey Program Coordinator Melinda Thomas’s reflection on her new book Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse.

The poems started out of necessity. I wanted to write and had a story to tell but very little time. While I could not sustain the energy needed to write a prose novel, I could write poetry. Inspired by Nikita Gill’s The Girl and the Goddess, the project began as fiction in verse but quickly evolved into a spiritual memoir blending imaginal elements with true events.

Characters in the personified voices of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire emerged and began conversing with first person poems crafted under the persona Ivy. The narrative moves like seasons through the ache of a miscarriage, the fierce bloom of pregnancy, the primal truth of birth, and the weight of postpartum depression. They hold the sweetness of my child’s laugh, the pulse of landscape, and the expansive spiral of spirit. Rooted in the sacred rhythms of the earth, the poems embrace struggle, sorrow, and joy as vital threads in the fabric of wholeness.

In the process of writing I touched a deeper place of compassion. I wrote for mothers mired in postpartum depression. I wrote for my son to know he is loved. I wrote with the earth, listening in a new way. Journeys of sacred imagination drew me close to an inner council of archetypes who shared healing wisdom.

The fruit is Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse now available on Amazon in paperback and as an e-book! In the coming weeks it will also be available on Bookshop.org and other independent distributors. 

I am of the firm belief that books show up in our lives just when we need them. My fervent prayer is that this collection finds the hearts of those who need it. 

If you enjoy Elements of Being, please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you purchase and enjoy the printed book, pass it on by placing a copy in one of those free “little libraries” in your town.

Today I offer you a glimpse into the various parts of the narrative.

Prologue: Proximate

Feel water as the tides
of your body and fire
rising in your blood.
Sit on this rock for
one breath more

until you know the truth
of non-duality. There is
no overhead, off-planet God.
Only the pulse of Life. Of Love.

Anyone can be a mystic
and we are here
begging you to notice.

From Part I: Sacraments

Ivy: Touch of Light 1

I never thought my love language
was touch until you came along
and flooded my body with
oxytocin and I learned that
chemistry and mystery can
be one and the same.

You have been alive (alive!) for
six days that feel like an eternity
because how is it possible that
you didn’t exist until now?

Until this moment when I
am lying on the couch and
you are asleep on my belly,
tiny legs framing my torso
as your diaper peeks
out the sides of your onesie.

Every cell of me matches
your shimmering vibration
of love that is so pure I can only
breathe and savor this feeling,
imprint it as a memory, a message
we will share so that one day
when you are quite grown and wonder
if you are loved, beneath
the question and the aching doubt
your body will know, will reach down
to the depths of you and
remember the answer is yes.

Water: Reclamation

Sitting there in the cushioned rocker
bought just for this purpose,
Ivy wonders, can he taste the salinity of her tears?
Tears so effusive it’s as though the Sea herself were crying?
Does he know that soon he will no longer be offered this particular sacrament?

In a few days Ivy will wean him from her breast.
It has to be done.
In order to survive Ivy must saturate her blood and her milk with drugs necessary to quelch the chemical fire in her brain.

Through this act she will reclaim
her body and mind as her own.

Sometimes love looks like the receding tide.

From Part II: Land Magic

Ivy: Hunger

What is a woman to do
when she is a bright growling hunger
to dwell where mountains bow
to grass swept headlands which
run out to the sea then drop
down sharp and urgent into waves
that do not wait for rock bodies and
glowing women bound by love
and four walls and a garden
peopled with bees and butterflies
and rabbits that nibble the lettuce
while inside she sleeps and dreams there
is no roof, no separation between her
bones and the stars as the waves
beat rock and continue their chant
Come. Come. Home.

Melinda Emily Thomas is the Program Coordinator for Abbey of the Arts. She is an author, poet, yoga practitioner, and artist writing at the intersection of earth-cherishing contemplative spirituality, mental health, and soul care. Her first book, Sacred Balance: Aligning Body and Spirit Through Yoga and the Benedictine Way, was named a 2020 Best Spiritual Book by Spirituality & Practice. Her latest book Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse is available on Amazon. Melinda lives in North Carolina with her son and their cat, writes The Journal of Elements and Seasons on Substack, and always has flowers on the kitchen table. Her website is MelindaEmilyThomas.com.

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Resting into Uncertainty and Harnessing Opportunity ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

Tomorrow, September 8th we begin a four week journey for Resistance, Renewal, and Resilience: Resting into Uncertainty and Harnessing Opportunity with Kindred Spirits led by Wisdom Council members Aisling Richmond, Felicia Murrell, Jamie Marich, and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. This retreat will guide you through contemplative and action-based practices to meet the challenging times in which we live. 

Felicia Murrell offers this reflection.

As a descendant of enslaved humans in America, I embody resistance, resilience and renewal. These energies live within me, blood memory genetically coded in my DNA, alive in every cell. I’ve been asking Sacred Presence to show me what it looks like to move toward transformation and fully participate in life and social justice issues from a posture of awareness and openness. How can I stand resolute against systems that cause harm while holding empathy for all humanity, even for those who do wrong? The challenge is to not confuse a person’s actions with their ontology and to avoid mirroring the hate and disregard for human dignity that I oppose.

What is it to join with Love and my ancestors in the eternal work of renewal? Renewal as mutual care for our shared home, and love of neighbors and creation as an answer to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” What keeps me resilient, grounded in beauty, truth and goodness?

To be resilient is to be rooted in community and open to Light. In the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, “We cultivate resilience through ongoing practice. It’s a way of living and living well with what life offers us.” 

In my body, resistance feels the opposite of living well. Tight like a clenched fist, it’s an armored, defensive state, hypervigilant to harm. As Eckhart Tolle notes, this kind of resistance is an “inner contraction, a hardening of the shell of the ego.” Taking action from this place of negativity only creates more external resistance. It closes the shutters and blocks the light. Audre Lorde’s wisdom echoes this: “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Fighting with the same energy of blame, judgment, and division will never bring renewal. 

To navigate the tension between resistance and open awareness, I offer for consideration the practice of lament. Lament is a powerful container for our resistance, one that allows us to be with reality as it is without shutting down the flow of Love. Lament is the courageous act of bringing our full attention to the complexity of our world—to sit with pain and name it. Lament provides an opportunity to stare the monster of injustice in the face and call it what it is. It demands an authentic encounter with truth, an accurate telling of history, and an acknowledgment of suffering. Lament is the act of letting our hearts break while setting aside cheap platitudes.

Lament takes us into another’s pain, as a bridge to empathy, where resistance sometimes falls short. It creates a sacred space for both protest and grief, transforming our pain into a profound act of resiliency.

Lament doesn’t come with the assurance or announcement of hope, only hope-filled yearning — the seedbed of resiliency. Resiliency is the work that happens in the dark, in the liminal space between life as it is and life as we hope it might be. Like seeds buried in the earth, we wait with expectancy, trusting these seeds of hope will take root and germinate. Though we cannot know the outcome with any degree of certainty, we know there is no renewal without burial. The two are intricately linked.

In New Orleans, Louisiana (USA), jazz musicians embody this paradox. Funeral processions begin with the “first line,” a slow, mournful dirge—a lament for what has been lost. But after the burial, the music erupts into the “second line,” a joyous revelry for their loved one’s transition into the ancestral realm. The whole of both parts are necessary for renewal.

The hope of lament is that the mournful sounds of heartache, of injustice, will penetrate our numbness. And in a sea of awakened hearts, amid the dance of life and the merriment of our kinship, all will experience renewal.

Close your eyes.
Imagine what is true and beautiful in our world.
Take a full, deep breath
and imagine once more.

 If the only way forward is toward, what are we moving closer to? I hope the answer is each other. And I hope you’ll consider joining our band of kindred spirits as we explore these themes: resistance, resilience and renewal while resting into uncertainty and harnessing opportunity.

Many thanks to Felicia for her powerful reflection. If you are feeling overwhelmed in these times, this retreat-style program may be the fit for you. Our exploration begins September 8th.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

Image Paid License with Canva

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Rick Diehl

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rick Diehl’s reflection From the Forest to the Desert.

For over fifty years I lived in the US Northeast. Taking countless walks in the Thoreauan woods  of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Then, almost a decade ago, my wife and I  moved to the high desert of Arizona. Maybe this new landscape would give me revelation on the lives of the Ammas and Abbas of the Desert – you would have thought? Well it did, but not the way I assumed. Instead of seeing the harshness and bareness of the desert, I saw the  beauty. To this day I am amazed at how many flowers, shrubs, trees, and animals have  adapted to the thin air and relentless sun of the desert. They thrive with little. The Divine desert  design principles are built into who they are. They wait patiently for the soaking rains of the seasonal summer monsoons. Gee, I have a lot to learn from this place. 

The last few years for many of us have been less than lush with abundance. A post-pandemic world where division seems way more popular than unity and understanding. Books like Earth, The Original Monastery and Sacred Time are, for me, manna in times of want. The prayer of Saint Francis is one of my go to reminders to understand rather than to be understood. I am so grateful for all the Abbey of the Arts posts and resources along with my local centering prayer group and friends. My fellow monks and pilgrims have inspired me to finally start writing down my poetry. Here are a few: 

Silence

Once an enemy
Now dear friend
Empty?
The opposite, full
The space between all things is silence
Stillness connects moments
Balances the colors
Removes the noise
So you can hear the Wind
Wind pauses time
Quiet quenches fires
Fills sails
Moistens dry lips
Silence connects hands with heart
Stillness calms my storm
Alone?
Never… silence is presence

Each Day

Morning prayers start with the chorus of songbirds
Even before the sun fully rises
They are thrilled to praise the Maker of the new day
The mountains are my abbey
The forest my hermitage
The bank beside the still stream… my cell
Midday finds my hands at tasks
Lonely? Never
For you are the God of the laundry
The Lord of sweeping
As I cook You entertain me with thoughts of grace
I see out the window
The two squirrels that spiral run up the Ponderosa
The sun journeys along its arc whether I perceive it or not
But the crepuscular rabbits and deer let me know that sunset is coming
Vespers is lead by the chortle of the ravens as they head to roost
They know the times for Evensong better that I do
Sun down
The candle is the story of who we are in this world
My weary head finds the pillow welcoming
Stay awake to ponder or pray?
No, for He gives to His beloved sleep
Watcher over all
Isaiah warned of occupying myself with things too great or marvelous
The darkness and rest is where you are, always
Til the songbirds call me again.

Feathers

Most never noticed
I see them
I pick them up
Delicate
Vanes so soft
Colors, on some
Lift the hollow boned wind walkers
Or leave a trace to where they were
Or where they fought
I see messages in them
Wind travelers
Soaring is better than flapping
Feathers are stories

I’m by nature much more monastic than communal if I’m being honest. So my challenge lately is to not be too isolated and to join with others even in these barren times. To take a lesson from the flowering manzanita plants that grow together across an entire hillside. Or be like many cactus that for a time grow in the shade of another stronger tree until it’s ready to reach out for the sun on it’s own.

Best to all of you whether in forest, farm, city, island, or desert.

Rick Diehl and his wife Janet live in the beautiful Prescott, Arizona. A retired instructional designer and video editor who now spends his days with hiking, kayaking, pickleball, and videography. Rick and his wife often travel around America in their van seeing beautiful places and people.

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Wisdom Council Members Jamie and Richard Meet in Person for the First Time!

Longtime Wisdom Council members and Abbey friends Jamie Marich and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan met in person for the first time at the Wild Goose Festival in Union Grove, North Carolina! As a virtual Abbey and online community we have been blessed to form deep relationships with one another across the globe and it always a treat to meet someone in person we have known for years online.

Richard and Jamie are co-teaching with Felicia Murrell and Aisling Richmond our upcoming retreat Resistance, Renewal, and Resilience: Resting into Uncertainty and Harnessing Opportunity with Kindred Spirits that beings September 8th. Here is a short video of their conversation filled with the delight of community. (Click CC for closed captions.)

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Resistance, Renewal, and Resilience ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

On Monday, September 8th we begin a four week journey for Resistance, Renewal, and Resilience: Resting into Uncertainty and Harnessing Opportunity with Kindred Spirits led by Wisdom Council members Aisling Richmond, Felicia Murrell, Jamie Marich, and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan. This retreat was created to guide you through contemplative and action-based practices to meet the challenging times in which we live. Through rest and renewal we not only nourish ourselves, we settle into what is most important for our spiritual growth and our capacity for resilience. 

Jamie Marich offers this reflection as inspiration.

In a World
by Jamie Marich

The world is screaming around us
Endless wars
Political unrest
Hostile takeovers
Climate chaos
Corporate greed
Silenced voices
Hungry people
Thirsting for change
Begging for justice
Aching for affirmation
Of their existence

I fear that they are coming for me too
In many ways they already have
I know there are so many others
In this messy world of ours
Bleeding in every way
Who would trade places with me
Because at least I have
Running water
Food to eat
And a bed in which to sleep
The only bombs I dodge on the daily
Are those of cruelty

This is my lament in a world that is 2025. Cogent words seem impossible to string together to describe what I am experiencing. Sometimes I wonder if words written by this empathic heart even matter during these times in which we find ourselves; especially when many brand empathy as toxic. My heart feels heavy as a queer person of faith for a variety of reasons right now. I want to fight back. I know that I am finding ways to do that. Yet just as I observe divisions in the world that are the source of so much pain, I also ache in seeing many advocates and caring, faith-filled people arguing with each other on the correct way to engage in acts of resistance. You may also be finding that people whose values largely correspond with your own are attacking you for having a different opinion, or for trying to build bridges in places of division instead of burning them. It can be difficult to know how to even take up fights of resistance right now when there is so much in-fighting and quarrel amongst advocates, usually fueled by the pain of trauma responses. In a world where we need community more than ever, even community can feel very unsafe. 

I am often active on social media spaces where advocates share ideas. There is quite a bit of virtue signaling (e.g., calling out people, often in shaming ways, for not using correct language or taking what the user sees as a preferred moral stance). There is also this deep sense of, “When people start thinking and behaving exactly like I do, then the world will be a better place.” Interestingly, I grew up with this thinking in the Christian nationalist, Evangelical context in which my father raised me. And I’ve been hearing it with increased intensity from people with whom I am aligned in so many ways. I’ve been guilty of virtue signaling behavior myself, forgetting a core lesson that I learned years ago in my own healing process: You can’t shame people into transformation.

It’s difficult to know how to operate, as an advocate and a resistance fighter with no tolerance for hate and discrimination, and to not shut down vital human interactions that are needed to heal the world. Here is what I wrestle with now, in my own lived experience. I am a queer person and I am a female-identified person who believes that bodily autonomy is not just a legal right, it is a spiritual blessing given to us as free will from our Creator. Even as a person of faith, I believe that the separation of church and state is vital to a harmonious society. I regard assuring food security and health care equity for all as more important than military might. So it’s pretty obvious how I will vote in any given election in my country. I will not back down from my convictions. And I also need to remember that many people extended me a great deal of grace on the long journey to getting here, after being raised to see the world in a different manner. So is it possible to stand strongly  in my convictions, fight for what I believe in, challenge others where needed and not be a horrible person to others in the process? Even those who vote differently than I do? Even those who abstained their vote in protest? 

So what would Jesus do in a world that is imploding on itself? Sadly, even that question is up for interpretation right now, depending on who you ask and on how they see Jesus. In navigating the conundrums I lay out in this article, here is the answer I am getting: Jesus would flip tables, especially those tended to by people in positions of authority who use that position to exploit others. Jesus would speak his truth. And he would also have a meal and talk with those who others might not judge as very Christ-like. He would love them no matter what. The scriptures we venerate as Christians show us that Jesus did all of these things. And as people of faith being called to acts of resistance in 2025, we can use Jesus’ model as useful inspiration. 

Now, is it difficult to be kind to those who persecute us? Of course. Are we expected to put ourselves in situations where we are being repeatedly maligned and abused in our work to make a difference in a world that may not even want to change? That is your personal call to make. However you decide to work for the resistance in our modern times, may you also know that showing care and grace for yourself, while attending to all areas of your nourishment (e.g., spiritual, emotional, physical) is imperative. One way to look at the importance of rest is that those who are in positions of exploitative power want and even rely on the people with caring hearts to burn out and go away. One of my She-roes, poet Audre Lorde, said it best: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” 

I hope that you will consider joining us for our upcoming Abbey of the Arts online retreat, Resistance, Renewal, and Resilience: Resting into Uncertainty and Harnessing Opportunity with Kindred Spirits. This four-week experience starting on September 8 will allow you to navigate some of the difficult questions that might be coming up for you around how to practice resistance in our current climate in an environment that we are cultivating to be both challenging and free of shame. You will also learn a bounty of practices for rest and renewal for the much-deserved care of your body, mind, and soul. It will be my pleasure to be one of your teachers and forum facilitators for this experience, and I hope to see you in our shared community. 

I offer thanks to Jamie for her profound reflection and invite you to join us beginning September 8th to explore what resistance, renewal, and resilience means to you on your spiritual journey.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

P.S. Today is the last day to register for our Sustainers Circle. There are four levels each with its own package of programming. All levels include access to new weekly poems and a private forum facilitated by our program coordinator Melinda Thomas.

Image © Jamie Marich of Dr. Kellie Kirksey, one of the guest conversation partners for the retreat. Used with permission.

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Laurie vandenHurk

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Laurie vandenHurk’s reflection on praying the Rosary.

Sometimes there are no words for prayer.

Sometimes silence just opens me to the chatter and anxiety in my brain. 

A number of years ago there was a crisis in my inner circle that threw our lives into chaos. How could I support a loved one whose life just fell apart? How could I hold a supportive space for the others who are equally impacted? What do I need for my own mental health? 

Since the crisis was not mine, I could not talk with others about my worries without sharing what was not mine to share. 

One day I was meditating with the gospel story of the paralytic man whose friends brought him to Jesus for healing. There was a dense crowd around Jesus and they could not get near, so they went to the roof. I imagined the dried mud and straw as they dug open the flat roof and lowered their friend before Jesus. In the gospel narrative the paralysed man did not ask Jesus for healing. He did not demonstrate or confess faith in Jesus or in his healing. It was his friends who had faith that Jesus could heal him, and their faith was not misplaced. (1)

I pondered, who can I ask to join me in bringing these loved ones to Jesus for healing? I remembered the “great cloud of witnesses,” (2) those who, although they had died, were still nearby. I asked them to join me in a circle of intercession. I asked our parents, and a couple of dear friends; I asked Saints that I thought might understand the situation; I asked Mary and Joseph.  The prayer was simple, “Mom, pray for ….”  “Our Mother, pray for ….” I called on at least ten of them, once or twice a day. 

Until then I had never consciously addressed Mary in prayer. But understanding that she was part of the circle of saints gathered around Jesus enabled me to approach her as I approached others. Until then I was uncomfortable with, and reluctant to pray the Rosary, that most beloved of prayers in which people ask for Mary’s help.

Today I would like to relate how the Rosary has become a prayer for me when I have no words, and how it has created an inner peace when I could only hear the loud worries in my head during silent meditation. (See footnote 3 for a link to the most familiar way of praying the Rosary.) 

John Paul II introduced the Mysteries of Light for the Rosary. (4) The “mysteries” are gospel narratives with which I have been praying my whole life.  John Paul said that the inclusion of a phrase with the name of Jesus has the potential to bring us back to the mystery of Christ on which we are meditating. Following his inspiration, in making the Rosary my own, I added a phrase after the name “Jesus.”

Now whether I pray the 5 groups of 10 (decades) of invocations to Mary, or only a few, I pray…

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus, Risen from the Dead. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” 

I was moved by the fluidity of the prayer. John Paul made other suggestions which I tried, like reading and reflecting on a Scripture passage before praying each decade, and concluding each decade with a different prayer related to the mystery. But my prayer lost its contemplative nature. I was too busy thinking about what I would be saying next.  

I loosened the practice some more. Before beginning to pray the Rosary, I sit with what I am presently experiencing in my life. What are the great needs in my family, my community and in the world? What is troubling me? Is there a gospel narrative, like that of the paralysed man, that speaks to me of the hope that I am seeking? 

The crisis in my inner circle passed. More than that, something new and unexpectedly beautiful emerged from the ashes. I recognize the resurrecting work of the Spirit in the healing that has taken place. 

Sometimes I use other phrases in place of “Risen from the Dead,” such as “Prince of Peace,” or “who blesses marriages,” or “Bread for the World.” However, lately I have found that “Risen from the dead” addresses my concerns for myself and others, who are grieving, or who are struggling with mental health or addictions. It is relevant for difficult and estranged relationships. It gives me a place to rest my hopes in national and international conflicts and in care for the earth.  

The Rosary is not a magic formula. We never know the outcome of our prayers. However, in this prayer, I continuously affirm my trust in the God who raised Jesus from the dead and brings hope and new life out of seemingly hopeless situations. 

Matthew 9:1–8, Mark 2:1–12, and Luke 5:17–26Hebrews 12:1https://thecatholichandbook.com/how-to-pray-a-decade-of-the-rosary/https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae.html

Laurie vandenHurk writes as a partner, grandparent, and care-giver from her years of experience in facilitating community development, spirituality and bereavement, with people of all ages and widely diverse circumstances, including 10 years in Tanzania. Laurie is a trained Spiritual director of The Haden Institute. 

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Trust in Abundance ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

A Blessing for Trust in Abundance*

Spirit of generous abundance,
remind us there is always more than enough,
enough food, enough love, enough time, enough resources.
Help us to see how our patterns of living
separate and disconnected amplifies our scarcity.
Bring us into the joy and challenge of community
where bread divided multiplies, where laughter shared overflows.
Empower us to share freely from our own abundance
with others in need. Slow us down to see how time expands
when we breathe and pay attention.
Bless us in our efforts to trust
in the goodness and love that pulses through the world
sustaining it moment by moment.
Give us the courage to speak out
when resources are distributed unfairly,
so we may remind others there is more to share.
Encourage us to release that which we no longer
need to hold onto so tightly.
Inspire us to live in a way that witnesses
to our trust in the lavish fullness of life.

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

As part of this 20th year of Abbey of the Arts’ ministry I have been contemplating harvest a lot and what comes from endurance and steadiness, staying the course over a long span of time. I am beyond grateful to recognize this rich harvest over the course of this service I am called to offer as well as my own contemplative journey.

When I started Abbey of the Arts, it was initially a blog to share my reflections on the contemplative life and a way for me to untrain myself from academic writing! After working several years to earn a PhD I discovered academic life wasn’t where my heart was. As much as I loved the students, I found the admin and bureaucracy draining. I wanted to engage with people and their lived experience, and I wanted to focus on the contemplative life. I still have a strong scholarly heart and love to bring that in service of opening up ancient wisdom for our current lives and world.

Over the years, the Abbey has grown, mostly by word of mouth. We often have people join us who say their spiritual director or pastor or friend pointed them our way, and that is the highest compliment we could receive. Thank you to everyone who has ever shared Abbey of the Arts with others. 

One of the gifts of steadiness over time is the amazing group of artists and teachers we have been blessed to partner with. Many of them are on our Wisdom Council, or offering retreats and programs, or part of our prayer cycles. This community of kindred souls longing to offer this inclusive vision of a place to celebrate slow rhythms and creative expression is a wonder to me still. Add in our amazing dancing monks who show up with such open-heartedness, kindness, appreciation, care, and a desire to be a force for Love in the world, each day I am grateful. You are each in my prayers every morning. You help to sustain and nourish me when things feel hard or challenging.

In Benedictine terms, I have been called to stability and staying with this beautiful ministry over the span of 20 years (and beyond), I have been called to obedience and listening to the way the divine calls this community into continual unfolding, and I have been called to conversion, letting myself be surprised again and again by the holy at work in our midst and always being open to my own ongoing growth. 

At Abbey of the Arts, in addition to being a place to nourish our contemplative hearts and creative visions, and in addition to being a welcoming and inclusive place for everyone who desires to live this path of Love, is also fiercely committed to financial inclusivity. We strive to make all our programs accessible to anyone who wants to join us, regardless of financial means. We have a sliding scale fee lower than many other similar programs and also full scholarships available.

If you have the means to support us financially in our 20th year, we invite you to consider joining our Sustainers Circle for 2025-2026. This is one way to help keep our programs affordable while also allowing us to pay a living wage to the many artists and teachers we partner with. Please read over the options available for this support. The registration will close on August 31st. 

If you prefer to make a one-time donation or a recurring donation without receiving programs in return or would like a tax-deductible option for those living in the States, please visit this page for more details.

For those of you who don’t have financial means right now, please know there are so many other ways you can support what we do. Your presence is a gift in itself, truly. Your words of appreciation for our programs inspire us. When you tell a friend about our work, you light a spark. Your positive reviews on my books left at Amazon, Goodreads, and other online booksellers is another free way to help this work reach others and continue to thrive. Thank you. 

The harvest is rich and plenty. The banquet table is piled high with sweet fruits. A spirit of generosity pervades the air and says a powerful “no” to all the forces that tell us we do not have enough or that we need to hoard to survive. We are so grateful for all the ways you practice your generosity with us and with the world.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

*from A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Artists, and Pilgrims by Christine Valters Paintner (to be published in January 2026 by Ave Maria Press) 

Image © Christine Valters Paintner. Quin Abbey, Ireland

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