Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 12
October 19, 2024
Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 2 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
A Blessing for Wrestling with Angels*
You have known
the long nights of wrestling
with mysterious beings,
your breath hard and fast,
your heart pounding
like furious wings.
The dark seems to stretch forever
and you wonder how long
you will be in the grip
of this powerful stranger,
how long you will have to hold on.
Then slowly the black pool above you
gives way to violet, fuchsia, tangerine
and you feel your hip wounded,
throbbing, pulsing with pain,
know you will be limping
for many years to come,
but before letting go
you make your demand:
Bless me, your voice thunders
and the being erupts into golden light
so glad that you had finally asked.
A new name sings out through the ether
like the most exquisite melody,
a chant for the new season ahead,
a name which reminds you of the long night
and how you would not relent,
how courage and hope and stubbornness
carried you through.
May you find endurance
when you are lost and disoriented,
may your wounds be reminders
of your willingness to struggle,
may you demand a blessing
as light begins its breaking,
and may your new name
call forth the gifts already inside you,
an offering of love to others
still wrestling in the dark.
Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
Today we continue our release of the video podcasts of our Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle. The theme for our Day 2 morning prayer is wrestling with angels and for evening prayer is we are all called to be saints. Here is one of the prayers of concern for morning written by our Program Coordinator and Wisdom Council member Melinda Thomas:
Godde of Outcasts, you call us to love all who live on the margins, just as Jesus did. Open our minds and our hearts to the stories, struggles, and triumphs of those we call “other” and recognize them as beloved by You. We know this work of facing our wounded and wounding places is like wrestling with angels – those beings who know our full capacity for love. Strike open our hearts so we may stand with people of all colors and creeds, amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced and ignored. Give us the grace to live in love.
On Friday, November 1st I’ll be joined by Simon de Voil, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and Nóirín Ní Riain for a mini-retreat on Honoring the Love of Thousands at Samhain. We will celebrate the feast of All Saints and the Celtic feast of Samhain to pause together and honor our beloved ancestors and all the wise and well ones who have passed through the veil. Join us!
With great and growing love,
ChristineChristine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
PS – I am delighted to be in good company for the upcoming online Contemplative Summit hosted by Spiritual Wanderlust (October 24-27) including teachers Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Omid Safi, Tia Norman, Kaira Jewel Lingo, Randy and Edith Woodley, James Finley, James Martin, and many more! Learn more here.
*Blessing by Christine Valters Paintner from The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness
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October 18, 2024
The Soul of a Pilgrim Translated Into Braille
The Xavier Society for the Blind in New York City recently translated Christine’s book The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Journey Within into braille! Since 1900, Xavier Society for the Blind has been providing free braille, large print and audio books to blind and visually impaired people worldwide in order for them to learn about, develop, and practice their faith.
The Xavier Society has been around for 124 years and offers thousands of books available in braille and audio and serve clients of all ages and faiths, from Ireland to Australia. They are trying to serve more people in new and innovative ways during these challenging times.
We are excited to learn about their services and share this resource with the community. To learn more or request a copy please visit XavierSocietyfortheBlind.org or on Facebook or Instagram.
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October 17, 2024
The Contemplative Summit hosted by Spiritual Wanderlust
I am delighted to be in such good company for the upcoming online Contemplative Summit hosted by Spiritual Wanderlust including teachers Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Omid Safi, Tia Norman, Kaira Jewel Lingo, and Randy and Edith Woodley. The event is free. When you use the link below to register, Abbey of the Arts receives support for its scholarship fund:
https://tinyurl.com/ContemplativeSummit
October 24-27, 2024
Whether you’re new to the contemplative path or have been journeying for years, there’s something here for everyone. This Summit is about living the questions:
What do the mystics teach us about becoming whole?
How can we embody the teachings of mysticism in everyday life?
What can our bodies teach us about our inner journey?
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A Midwinter God Reviewed by Spirituality & Practice
My latest book A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness has been reviewed by Jon M. Sweeney at Spirituality & Practice.
“No one combines teaching wisdom with spiritual practice quite like Christine Valters Paintner does in her books. This one is designed for anyone who’s grieving a loss and desires to thread that loss through their lives for meaning.
The message of A Midwinter God is one of self-compassion and locating meaning in what we usually find inexplicable — suffering and death.
Paintner tells of her own grief, illnesses, and losses, and how they have slowly changed her. An early summary employs these metaphors: “I once was a child of summertime, relishing the long days of brilliant sunshine and intense heat. I used to love the way summer would illuminate everything, making it seem filled with possibility. Now I am a child of winter and moonlight.”
The spiritual wisdom that’s available to those who suffer loss, what other Christian mystics have referred to as a kind of “holy darkness,” Paintner calls “the Midwinter God.” This is the divine in the cold and dark, bare of easy comforts. Paintner explores classic and essential aspects of this vision of God, focusing mostly on Christian sources, looking for instance at the Via Negativa, or Way of Unknowing; the “dark night of the soul”; Jesus on Holy Saturday descending to the underworld; and the divine feminine in the Virgin Mary as Mother of Sorrows and the Black Madonna.
All the things that frighten people most — loss, death, isolation, darkness — are shown to be wisdom teachers.
In a final chapter, Paintner dives into three archetypes from literature and mythology that are embedded in our unconscious experiences of loss across cultures and time periods. These are the archetypes of Orphan, Destroyer, and Sovereign, and addressing them is a way to reach our shadow side. (See the excerpt accompanying this review for a sample of this.) Paintner finds them in sources ranging from The Wizard of Oz and the Bible to the Greek myth of Persephone and the writings of James Hillman and Carol Pearson.
A series of “Creative Explorations” concludes each chapter, of several pages each. These include questions in response to material that’s been introduced, ways to connect to a lesson through embodied action, art projects, evocative poems (written by those who have attended the author’s retreats), journaling prompts, and guided meditations.”
Visit Spirituality & Practice online.
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October 15, 2024
Monk in the World Guest Post: Kayce Stevens Hughlett
I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council member Kayce Stevens Hughlett’s reflection Being a Monk in the World .
“The moment of pause, the point of rest, has its own magic.” Howard Thurman
In the wee hours of the morning, I sit and remember how essential the moment of pause is for living as a Monk in the World. This October I am grateful to take a respite from travel and sink into the magic of turning leaves and dry-ish temperate days at my home here in Seattle.
When the Abbey invited me to share my own experience of being a Monk in the World, I knew these words would bubble up in this threshold season between Summer and Fall, Fall and Winter. And between my callings to be out in the world: Europe in September followed by November in Australia. It is a dance I do as a Monk—loving the cozy nourishment of my home hermitage and feeling the strong call to follow ancestral threads and artistic callings in other corners of the Universe.
One might think of a trip with packed suitcase and airplane tickets as its own pause—a vacation or vacating of one’s life, but, for me, travel (whether in my mind or on another continent) is a time of inhabiting and sinking more deeply into the exquisiteness that is available if only we have the eyes to see. If I can inhabit, infuse, ingest, and integrate the magical moments of pause when I’m out in the world, then it becomes infinitely more accessible when I return home.
Even the idea of “home” has changed its tenor as I continue to live as a Monk in the World. I take my home with me wherever I go. My footsteps, journal, paints and poems all come alive in the moments of pause. Like in music, the pause is both a thing in and of itself, and it is the prelude to what follows, to the spiraling more deeply inward so I can be more present to the world outward. That is why I stroll, rest, paint, write, create, pray, and travel—to move more fully into who I am, on behalf of the greatest good. When I allow space to listen to the still small (and sometimes loud) voice that lives inside me, I am building resilience, connection to the Divine and others, and my own magic. I am following my path as a Monk in the World.
Kayce Stevens Hughlett, MA LMHC is a soulful and spirited woman. In her roles as ponderer extraordinaire, spiritual director, life muse, author, creative coach, and speaker, she invites us to playfully and fearlessly cross the thresholds toward authentic living. A strong proponent of compassionate care in the world, Kayce’s live and online work focuses on the principle that we must live it to give it.
Kayce’s official titles include: Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Spiritual Director, Life Coach, Speaker/Facilitator, and co-creator of SoulStrolling® ~ a movement for mindfulness in motion, at home or abroad. She is the author of three books, including her body-mind-spirit travel memoir, SoulStroller: experiencing the weight, whispers, & wings of the world. Kayce is a member of Abbey of the Arts Wisdom Council and co-leader of Awakening the Creative Spirit.
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October 12, 2024
Love of Thousands Video Prayer Cycle Day 1 ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
We have two free gifts for you today!
It is with great joy that we start to release the video podcasts of our Love of Thousands Prayer Cycle this week. The theme for our Day 1 morning prayer is the archangels and for evening is the guardian angels. Here one of the prayers of concern for morning written by our Wisdom Council member Claudia Love Mair:
“Creator/Creatrix, you sent the Archangel Gabriel to visit Mary and herald the arrival of Jesus. Send them to us that we may give birth to music, dance, and art, to ideas, writing, and teaching, and whatever creative thing we set our heart and mind to create. Help us be who we are, and be that well, following the North Star that you placed before us. We are listening for your divine messages. Help us to always hear you with clarity.”
The video podcasts invite you into gentle movement so you can let your body lead the prayer. We are so grateful to Betsey Beckman for producing these podcasts and we will be releasing one day each week for the next 7 weeks. These are entirely free resources and if you find them valuable we would be most grateful for any financial support you are able to offer.
To celebrate the podcast release we have created a brand new free reflection guide for my book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness.
Please feel free to share these prayer and reflection resources with friends who would be enriched by praying with angels, saints, and ancestors.
I also continue to celebrate the release of my newest book A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness. You can listen to a conversation with me about the book at the Faith Conversations podcast.
This coming Saturday, I am leading a mini-retreat for our wonderful friends at Spirituality & Practice on Gifts of the Underworld Journey of Descent. One of the most powerful aspects of mythic understanding is seeing how the journey to the underworld is present across time and traditions. It is part of our human experience to experience seasons of our lives when everything we thought was certain and secure is stripped away. While I do not ever believe the Holy One “gives” us these experiences, I do believe we are companioned throughout and gifted with wisdom which helps to broaden our understanding of the divine and cultivate greater compassion for ourselves and others.
If you are wrestling with an underworld season of life, I would love to have you join me. As a reminder too we have a free reflection guide for my book available here.
These last two books I have written – The Love of Thousands and A Midwinter God – were both initially sparked by my mother’s death over 20 years ago. I was plunged into an underworld of doubt and unknowing and opened to a deeper intimacy with those beyond the veil. The mystical and mythic traditions have such richness to help us navigate the challenging terrain of being human.
If you want to connect with the ancestors through the creative practice of writing then you might want to register for Writing with the Ancestors, our newest self-study. Use code ANCESTORS20 to take 20% off through October 31st.
I’d love to see you Saturday for the Gifts of the Underworld Journey of Descent and we hope you enjoy the free resources we are sending out today with blessings and much gratitude to you for being a member of our community! You are also invited to join Therese Taylor-Stinson for Centering Prayer this Wednesday, October 16th.
With great and growing love,
ChristineChristine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
P.S. I was also interviewed on the Liturgical Rebels podcast with host Christine Sine. We had a conversation about Celtic spirituality, living with chronic illness, and A Midwinter God.
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October 10, 2024
Christine Interviewed on The Liturgical Rebels Podcast
I was invited to join Christine Sine on her podcast The Liturgical Rebels to have a conversation about Celtic spirituality, living with chronic illness, and my newest book A Midwinter God.
* * *
The Liturgical Rebels podcast is for spiritual seekers who no longer feel comfortable with a traditional approach to Christian religious observances. It empowers followers of Jesus to creatively reconstruct their faith and spiritual practices.
* * *
Christine Valters Paintner shares her journey through life, which she describes as reminiscent of the Celtic saints. She discusses her experiences living in different places, including Ireland, and the challenges and joys of following a pilgrimage-like path. Christine also talks about her love for Benedictine and Celtic spirituality, the importance of nature in her spiritual practice, and the significance of circles and circling prayers. She describes herself as a monk in the world and discusses the Abbey of the Arts, her online monastery. Christine also shares about her book, A Midwinter God, which explores encountering the divine in seasons of darkness.
Christine Valters Paintner is a Benedictine oblate and the online Abbess at Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery integrating contemplative practice and creative expression. She is a poet and the author of more than 20 books on the spiritual life. Her newest book is A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness. Christine lives on the wild edges of Ireland with her husband John and dog Sourney, where they lead online programs for a global community.
* Following a pilgrimage-like path can lead to a life reminiscent of the Celtic saints
* Nature is an important aspect of spiritual practice, and the Celtic tradition sees it as the original sacred text
* Circles and circling prayers are powerful symbols of wholeness and can be used in prayer and meditation
* Living with chronic illness can be a teacher and lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and the divine
* Abbey of the Arts offers resources and community for those seeking a contemplative and creative path
You can find more about Christine Valters Paintner and her work at AbbeyoftheArts.com | Transformative Living through Contemplative and Expressive Arts
* * *
Listen to the conversation here.
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October 9, 2024
Monk in the World Guest Post: Rosemary McMahan
I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Rosemary McMahan’s reflection and poem Today.
As a monk and artist, my primary medium is poetry, crafted in response to the wise instructions of our spiritual ancestor, Pelagius, who advised, “Write down with your own hand on paper what God has written with his hand on the human heart.” Perhaps there is no more appropriate time for the creation of poetry, or any of the arts, than right now while our world trembles and smolders. Poetry becomes the microcosm in the vast macrocosm of endless and often empty words where we flounder to stay afloat. It is the “spontaneous overflow of powerful passion” (William Wordsworth) shaped so precisely that it can pierce the heart, heal the soul, arouse conviction, shake apathy, offer solace, and, yes, even impact the world. If a picture can paint a thousand words, a handful of words can paint a picture of a moment, an experience, a transcendence, a reality, a tragedy, a miracle. In the following poem, that is what I’ve tried to do, balance the tensions of our present existence, so that as monks and artists, we can retain our humanity and our spirituality which become more precious by the moment.
TodayToday, a pregnant woman across the world
worries about giving birth in the midst of
a sniper-laden war zone.
I walk past a quince bush birthing
blooms in mellow tangerine.
Today, another young girl,
another young boy,
is sold into slavery, trafficking
and driven
into the unspeakable.
I bend to lift
the shy lavender face of
a Lenten rose
from the dirt and raise it
to the sun.
Today, the fidgeting murmurs of
nuclear war whisper over
a ruler-straight horizon while
plump pink bulbs
like fat red robins
perch on a silent magnolia tree.
Today, raging rebels overturn
poor governments
on distant islands
and desperate families
seek flight.
I notice the purple sapphires
crowning the slender silver limbs
of the redbud.
A Mexican man, trimming trees,
stops his work to chat with
me as I take my morning
walk. He is earning money
to go back home
next year to the cerulean
waters of the Caribbean
while today the vortexes
of green-striped hostas
begin
the unwinding
of hope and
the copper-colored dog
wags its tail
on the other side
of the invisible
fence.
Rosemary McMahan is a retired Presbyterian minister and poet. A graduate of the 2021 “Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist” seminar, she continues to meet monthly with five others who have remained in community continuing to explore the interplay of spirituality and creativity.
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October 5, 2024
A Blessing for Silence & Solitude ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
Holy Source of Silence,
beneath the clatter and din of the everyday
you offer your mysteries to our hearts.
You call us to pause,
to slow down and listen to the true longing
planted in each of us by you, a seed of holy desire.
Support us in letting go of the inner and outer noise.
Open wide in us a sacred cave for stillness
where we can attune to your presence.
Enliven us with the gift of your sweet music
and allow us to encounter your holy presence
flaming in each of our hearts.
Help us to catch a note of your song
in the wind or in the voice of another,
in times of sadness, and in the rush of our lives.
In a world so filled with distraction,
we listen for your whispers
which call us to another way of being.
and ask for the courage to respond to all
we discover in this tabernacle of silence.
Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
Tomorrow Simon de Voil and I are leading our first Contemplative Prayer Service of the program year. Throughout the year we’ll be exploring the principles of the Monk Manifesto. We begin with silence and solitude.
Read of for an excerpt from our Monk in the World self-study program:
Monk Manifesto Principle 1: Silence and Solitude
I commit to finding moments each day for silence and solitude, to make space for another voice to be heard, and to resist a culture of noise and constant stimulation.
We live in a time when there has been tremendous growth in the number of people seeking wisdom from ancient monastic spirituality and other contemplative paths for meaningful ways of living in the world. From becoming Oblates, who are lay members of monastic communities and commit to living in a contemplative way in the everyday world, to the communities experimenting with “new monasticism,” where ways of living out monastic spirituality are adapted to often urban spaces and a commitment to justice in their communities.
There are others who don’t necessarily want to formalize their commitment to a community but are still longing for a more meaningful and heart-centered way of being in the world and are looking to the contemplative way as a model of balance and depth. . . .
Being a monk in the world means choosing to live contemplatively in resistance to the demand for speed, to live mindfully and with intention instead of rushing through life, to savor experience rather than consume it, and to remember that our self-worth is not defined by how much we do or achieve, and so we are called to make time for simply being.
I came to the contemplative way out of my experience with autoimmune illness, which I was diagnosed with at age 21. My body’s absolute demand for slowness meant that I had to discover a new way of being which honored my body’s limitations and need for spaciousness. In my hours spent horizontally in rest, amid dealing with chronic pain and fatigue, I found myself embraced by the holy there. In my being, rather than my doing. I knew my body had a more profound wisdom.
In Meditations of the Heart, prophet and mystic Howard Thurman writes, “As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind – A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear. It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions are answered, our spirits refreshed . . .The moment of pause, the point of rest, has its own magic.” . . . .
Cultivating silence and spaciousness doesn’t have to look one particular way. It does not necessarily mean sitting on our meditation cushion for an hour every morning, although that may be the way that most nourishes your own connection to silence.
It does mean bringing our hearts and minds into a space of deep attunement to the presence of the holy all around us in whatever circumstances we are in. We might cultivate interior silence and listening while walking or dancing, while preparing our meals or sitting with a friend in pain. This intention for the divine may guide us in our desire to work for greater justice in the world, as we listen to how we are being led.
Just for today claim a window of time – even ten minutes is enough to begin – and rest into an experience of stillness. Connect gently with your breath, breathing in the life-sustaining breath of the spirit, breathing out and releasing whatever distracts us from this moment. As thoughts or anxieties arise, gently release them, and return to this moment. The invitation is toward both an outer and inner silence. Notice the way silence nourishes you and consider ways to give yourself this gift each day.
Join us tomorrow, October 7th, for our Contemplative Prayer Service on the theme of Silence & Solitude.
With great and growing love,
ChristineChristine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
PS – Read about an exciting new project I am working on!
*Blessing written by Christine for a book of blessings (due to be published in spring 2026)
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October 2, 2024
Christine interviewed on the Faith Conversations Podcast
Christine was interviewed on the Faith Conversations podcast with Anita Lustrea about her latest book, A Midwinter God. In their conversation they talk about how we deal with darkness and grief in our culture and realize those moments are actually the path of true prayer.
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