Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 37

Monk in the World Guest Post: Becky Boger

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on Becky Boger’s reflection on bringing horses into spiritual direction.

I currently live a quiet, simple, contemplative lifestyle in the country as an introverted monk in the world.

Most of my adult life has taken me far into the ways of the world as a professional musician, both in the church and in the bars, where I had to find a way to comfortably share my gifts and passions in a more extroverted, public way.

But eventually I couldn’t deny the still small voice of my restlessness and resistance that was inviting me to follow a deeper call to become a trained spiritual director in 2015.

This journey and spiritual calling to serve others as a compassionate listening presence converged with my love for horses and the natural world in the creation of Divine Equines Horse-centered Soul Care. in 2009.

I have continued following my/God’s heart with further training in trauma-informed care and as a sexual assault response network advocate to serve survivors of sexual trauma.

The contemplative and embodied practices of prayer and meditation, mindfulness, somatic awareness, breathing, the expressive arts and self-reflection that I share with all my spiritual direction and soul care clients are already beautifully woven into my daily spiritual practices- so I am doubly blessed whenever I get to duplicate the practices with my clients!

When the pandemic hit and life as we knew it closed down I have to admit that I was pretty thrilled to realize that I was being asked to do more of what I was already very skilled at as an introvert- retreat and reflect!

But immediately I realized that there was a conundrum and a problem to be solved in that I could no longer meet in person with folks who needed my presence and services .

It was during this time that telehealth remote health care really took off, which got my creative juices flowing. So I pivoted to develop my own form of horse-centered virtual soul care and called it Tele-Horse. I bring the horse to you in a video call so you can stay at home in your pajamas!

My programming has opened back up again for in-person sessions. There is still nothing better than being in nature in the presence of horses but I am so grateful for and humbled by Spirit’s inspiration and guidance that has allowed me and the horses to continue to reach out and help heal those who are suffering.

Beckie Boger is a wild child with a wild spirituality! She is a trained spiritual director who cultivates connection with self, others, creation and the Creator through compassionate, non-judgmental listening presence- with and without horses! You can learn more about Beckie and explore her offerings at www.divineequines.com and on her Facebook and Instagram.

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Please Help Us Sustain this Work ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

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 amazing people I get to collaborate with to help create our programs and offerings. I am thankful every day for you and for the many notes of encouragement I receive about what our work means to you. 

We will be adding a fourth week to our prayer cycle resources on the theme of pilgrimage! We are so excited to be releasing the audio podcasts starting in November. 

In addition to our monthly yoga classes with Melinda and our contemplative prayer services led by Simon and me starting up again in October, Simon de Voil will also be leading a Taizé-inspired sacred chant service each month as well. 

I continue to be delighted to partner with Claudia Love Mair for our monthly Lift Every Voice book club where we speak with wonderful authors and invite this community to enrich our perspectives on the contemplative life and ask deeper questions about justice and community transformation. 

We also have a brand new gift for our community – a Leader’s Guide for our Monk in the World retreat . The retreat is available as a free gift to all newsletter subscribers. You can sign up to receive our newsletter here. There are options to hear from us daily, weekly, or monthly.

We plan to continue our daily and weekly email newsletters and Facebook groups as well. All of these programs above are offered without charge so they can be accessible to anyone who desires to join us. We also offer flexible payment plans, sliding scales, and scholarship assistance for any of our online retreats to those in need as well and are able to honor most requests we receive.

This is all a part of our commitment to accessibility. We believe in sliding scale models so that those who are able to support us financially do and those who are unable at this time can still participate. We know we are enriched by everyone who wants to be a part of our community and we do not want money to be a barrier. 

However, these things we create all cost money. From the technical end of things to the human labor involved that we compensate for (artists and ministers need a living wage!) the expense of running an online Abbey is significant and program fees cover only part of that. 

We are inviting those who are able to help support these and other programs to flourish to consider joining our Sustainers Circle for the year ahead (2022-2023). This will provide us with a regular stream of income for our many upcoming projects and create a more solid base for our scholarships. You help us thrive and in return receive access to various programs depending on the level you choose. Everyone who joins the Sustainers Circle this year will also receive a set of our 10 newest dancing monk icon cards. 

If you have read this far, extra special thanks for listening to our request and considering your capacity. We are thrilled to continue offering you many rich resources to deepen your contemplative life and creative expression. Together we will bring more depth, presence, and transformation to the world. Simply showing up and doing the inner work demanded by this way helps each of us to be more present for others in a grounded way, rooted in Love. 

Another free offering for our community supported by the Sustainers Circle is our Lift Every Voice book club. Our featured book this month is Art+Faith by Makoto Fujimura. Listen at the link to the rich conversation Claudia and I had with Makoto. The reflections he writes are at the heart of so much of what we do here at Abbey of the Arts. 

One of the core metaphors Makoto uses is that of the Japanese process of kintsugi, where broken bowls are mended and lacquered with gold. The resulting bowl is actually more valuable than the original which is such a beautiful metaphor for how the divine works creatively in our lives to restore us to wholeness and the ways our wounds are integral to our value. 

He offers this vision of the God of abundance: “God does not just mend, repair, and restore; God renews and generates, transcending our expectations of even what we desire, beyond what we dare to ask or imagine.” He invites us to see God’s creativity as an “exuberant abundance” of generosity and points to our essential role as co-creators of this magnificent new reality. Thank you for being a part of that in whatever way you participate in this vision. 

New dancing monk icon: Desmond Tutu 

We address God in the quiet of our hearts, in hymns and psalms, in dance and chant, with tears, with pleas, and with rejoicing. -Desmond Tutu 

Desmond (1931-2021) was born and raised in South African. He was a teacher before becoming an Anglican priest and taught in seminaries and universities, as well as being one of the leading African activists in anti-apartheid and human rights. Desmond eventually became the Anglican bishop of Cape Town, where he continued to inspire and teach others. Even in retirement, Desmond continued to speak out on behalf of human rights in South Africa and around the world. 

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

PS – It is also the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere and the spring equinox in the southern hemisphere. Click the links to read reflections from our archives on these threshold moments.

Dancing Monk icon by Marcy Hall (Icon print available at the link) 

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Canticle of Creation Spanish-Language Version

We are so delighted to share this new Spanish-language song version of Canticle of Creation. We originally commissioned Simon de Voil to create this song for us and our Earth Monastery album and prayer cycle. 

The song was discovered by Yoga Master Teacher Andrei Ram in Barcelona, Spain who loved the song so much he plays it at the start of most of his classes. Andrei then commissioned Eva Donat Veiga and her partner Nono to create a translation and recording of the song which they sent on to Simon to share. (You can be in touch with Eva here). 

You are invited to listen to the song again below. Even if you don’t know Spanish I find it gives it a lovely newness and deep appreciation of global connections. 

We love Abbey resources spreading around the world!

Cántico de las Criaturas (Simon de Voil)

Oh gran Dios universal

Más grande que cualquier palabra

Alabamos tu creación

Y tus criaturas

Primero tú, hermano sol

Que es el día y tu luz

Tan bello tan fiel a ti

Sí, ahí estás, sí ahí estás

Alabanza a ti señor

La hermana luna y las estrellas

En el firmamento estás, sí, estás

Alabamos tu grandeza

El hermano viento

Y el aire

Aliento, espíritu

Sí, ahí estás

Alabanza a ti señor

La hermana agua, pura vida

Nuestra esencia, sí

Ahí estás

Alabamos tu grandeza

En el hermano fuego

Aliado en la noche

Fuerte y vigoroso, sí

ahí estás

… Piano…

Oh gran Dios universal

La madre tierra te evidencia

Tú que gobiernas toda vida

Sostienes y nutres lo que es

Con la hermana muerte,

Primer y último aliento,

La llave que abre lo que somos

Ahí estás

Ahí estás

Ahí estás

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Sharon Johnson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Sharon Dawn Johnson’s reflection, “The Green-Beaded Branch.”

‘Mary as the greenest branch.’

At the moment of reading this startling phrase, an image of a green-beaded branch appears in my mind’s eye – and issues an invitation, “Bring me to life.”

I’m intrigued by this new-to-me name for Mary, even though I’m already rooting in the green power of viriditas, the term coined by Hildegard of Bingen. The V-word constantly alerts me to the life-greening sap flowing in my body and in the world. So, when the beaded image shimmers in the visio divina way of sacred seeing, I sense my artist-self being summoned. I say yes to the invitation.

The calling to creative service as a bead and fibre artist enriches my monk-artist practices. The process proves to be a different matter, however. I struggle with the push-pull transition from the completeness of a mind’s eye image to seeking a suitable branch and starting the branch-encircling bead work. What kind of branch? Where to find it?

Months pass as other losses and responsibilities press in. I grieve the front garden loss of a long-established shrub, a hibiscus syriacus (also named Rose of Sharon). All summer long, I resist uprooting its woody remains. Then, one September morning – Hildegard’s feast day – I discover fresh shoots sprouting from under the soil. Surprise!

The unseen roots generate new life. I accept the hidden gift that long-grieved loss contains the green viriditas power to become the place of new life for me too. This natural cycle gives evidence and meaning to my own spiritual growth and composting seasons.

For thirty-five years, the hibiscus syriacus has shown climatic resilience and adaptability because of its microclimate location. Winter snow insulates the shrub and the sun’s heat on the nearby brick wall regulates its life, winter and summer. Six weeks of large rose-mauve flowers in mid-summer proclaim the shrub’s hardy nature.

The new growth allows me to cull the dead wood, repurposing it for an artwork. I choose one small branch to bear the beading. The front garden’s shrubby gift inscribes in me a heart-etched lesson about yearning – contemplative and artistic. What I long for dwells closer to home than I ever imagined possible!

Thanks to a retort stand with adjustable test tube holder, I have a ‘third hand’ to grip the velvet-wrapped base of the branch. Using that hand, I can twist and turn the beading. Easier said than done! The artwork’s experimental nature twists and turns me out of my comfort zone. My trial-and-error methods offer a way to grow the work and myself as monk and artist. My studio becomes a sacred space, the creative work a new way of praying.

I make several unanticipated discoveries. Though I can wrap threads on certain twiggy branches, I can’t directly bead onto the main ones. The twigs add overall form and three-dimensional space, yet their dry fragility means they’re likely to break if accidentally pressured. While the third hand holds steady, my own hands must be mindful to maneuver without doing damage.

Some bead shapes prove too big or awkward to snug around a limb; the workable ones still slither around so I can’t position them. They too twist and turn, just like me and my third hand.

I devise new methods to bead the main branch sections using small, freeform sections fitted to particular spots, and add armholes or straps where necessary. Bead, fit, bead, fit again, repeat. I attach one straight section stitched in RAW (right angle weave) using invisible lacing. I’m pleased with the results, but feel raw, so I seek balm in Hildegard’s choral tonics.

Even though her viriditas themes bring fullness to my life, I don’t yet know that Hildegard originated the Mary as greenest branch phrase and set it to music. O, viridissima virga, ave… (O, greenest branch, hail…)

The slow-ripening months fill with many viriditas dreams that keep me energized, like a Camino pilgrim walking step-by-step. I’m puzzled, though, by one that I have no time to digest. The dream pictures a well-tailored emerald green jacket – no comments, no feelings, no associations. A month later, I remember my mother’s stories of my dressmaker grandmother who could cut out garments freeform without paper patterns. I gasp to realize – I’m tailoring a made-to-measure garment of praise for Mary!

But the greatest surprise still awaits me, a further month along the Epiphany road.

I intend to mount the Mary branch on mottled green fabric stretched over a 6-inch x 12-inch frame, but size doubts prompt me to consult an art teacher/ fibre friend. I’m stunned when my friend suggests re-orienting the work. She is right.

I find myself floating, suddenly, like Hildegard’s feather on the breath of God. When we shift the vertical format I’d first envisioned to the horizontal, Mary As The Greenest Branch comes alive!

Sharon Johnson, a writer and bead/ fibre artist living in Ottawa, Canada, created Mary As The Greenest Branch during 2018 and 2019. Currently, she is beading the fourth in a series of green artworks. She belongs to Out of the Box, a local group of artists exploring diverse fibre-related media.

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Join Us For The Mystical Heart and Hildegard ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

St. Hildegard Strolls Through the Garden

Luminous morning, Hildegard gazes at
the array of blooms, holding in her heart
the young boy with a mysterious rash, the woman

reaching menopause, the newly minted widower,
and the black Abbey cat with digestive issues who wandered
in one night and stayed. New complaints arrive each day.

She gathers bunches of dandelions, their yellow
profusion a welcome sight in the monastery garden,
red clover, nettle, fennel, sprigs of parsley to boil later in wine.

She glances to make sure none of her sisters are
peering around pillars, slips off her worn leather shoes
to relish the freshness between her toes,

face upturned to the rising sun, she sings lucida materia,
matrix of light, words to the Virgin, makes a mental
note to return to the scriptorium to write that image down.

When the church bells ring for Lauds, she hesitates just a
moment, knowing her morning praise has already begun,
wanting to linger in this space where the dew still clings.

At the end of her life, she met with a terrible obstinacy,
from the hierarchy came a ban on receiving
bread and wine and her cherished singing.

She now clips a single rose, medicine for a broken heart,
which she will sip slowly in tea, along with her favorite spelt
biscuits, and offer some to the widower

grieving for his own lost beloved,
they smile together softly at this act of holy communion
and the music rising among blades of grass.

~ Christine Valters Paintner, Dreaming of Stones: Poems

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

Next Saturday, September 17th is the Feast of Holy Hildegard, one of the patron saints of our work here at Abbey of the Arts because of her roots as a Benedictine monk and Abbess, and her incredible commitment to creative expression and nurturing aliveness. 

Like last year Betsey Beckman and I are offering an online mini-retreat to celebrate her wisdom. This year’s theme will be on her vision of Divine Love and is part of our brand new 10-month series The Mystical Heart: Love as a Creative Force. (You can register for each retreat individually or the full series with an additional facilitated forum for sharing between retreats. There is also a facilitated small group option you can add on.)  

In her antiphon Caritas Abundat, Hildegard writes: “Love lives in everything, from the deepest depths to the highest stars.”

This is the inspiration behind the series we are leading – the conviction that Love indeed is the foundation of everything and also the highest reaches of the heavens. We live and breathe in Love, surrounded, held, uplifted, and guided when we open our heart and listen to Love’s pulsing in the world around us. 

Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th century German Benedictine Abbess and mystic known for her powerful visions. In the third book of her theology, the Book of Divine Works, several of the illustrations presents us with her Vision of Divine Love or Caritas. Love appears as the soul of the world, the Creatrix of all that is, the living fountain that offers replenishment, and as existing in the center of the wheel of eternity. Hildegard of Bingen was a theologian, visionary, musical composer, spiritual director, preacher, and healer who held Love at the center of everything she did. 

There is a story from the desert fathers where an Abba says to a seeker, “Do not feed your heart what does not nourish it.” This can be easier said than done, since we are inclined to so many “comforts” which only serve to numb and distract us from life.  How often do we try to satisfy ourselves with that which depletes us?

What if your fundamental commitment was to only offer your body, heart, and soul that which is nourishing and to listen to what depletes you and say no to those things? What if you fed your heart with the wisdom of the mystics and their guidance on the holy path of loving the world?

Join us on September 17th, Hildegard’s feast day for an online retreat experience. Together we will explore her visions of Love through a variety of contemplative practices including visio divina, writing explorations with her symbols, and praying with her music. We will contemplate what it means for Love to be the “supreme and fiery force” that both sparked and sustains creation and take this into an embodied exploration through gentle movement where we might discover new dimensions of Love living within our hearts. There will also be an opportunity for sharing in small groups and name your emerging vision of Love inspired by Hildegard’s work.

Or better yet, join us for the whole series and make a commitment to nourishing Love in your heart and life throughout the coming months. 

I was also featured on Sharon Blackie’s podcast Hagitude where we talk about the wisdom of women mystics for midlife and beyond including Hildegard of Bingen. 

I am also offering a free one-hour workshop through the Rowe Center tomorrow on Writing with the Celtic Seasons as an introduction to the four-week series in October on Writing with the Ancestors. Everyone is welcome. 

To read an extra reflection on thresholds and thin times, visit this link for an article I wrote for the Rowe Center. 

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Image credit: Hildegard icon by Marcy Hall

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Jean Wise

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Jean Wise’s reflection “Travel Light.”

“Travel light,” was our tour guide’s instruction. We were soon heading to Germany with a group of fellow pilgrims to visit historic sites and cathedrals and would complete our journey by seeing the Passion Play in Oberammergau.  Excited, I was ready to pack.

I chuckled thinking about her advice about packing. I have tended to overpack on most of our vacations and dreaded facing this challenge once again. I stuffed my suitcases with “just in case I might need this” and “how can I get by without…” covering all the possible scenarios. What if I forgot something important?

My hubby and I have a contest each time we pack: whose bag will weigh the lightest?  I always lose.

But once home I began to pack with a new determination to travel lighter this time. Over the years I have learned a few tricks, but knew I still carried too much. I began to consider: What do I need to leave behind before my journey? What is essential to bring as we travel?  

We are all pilgrims on life’s journey too. And like in regular travels, many of us tend to overpack in life. Our burdens weigh us down, ruin the trip, and add to exhaustion and stress.

Especially these last two years. This trip to Germany was originally scheduled for May 2020 and we all know what happened that spring, cancelling many events including the Passion Plan in Oberammergau. 

Covid upended our lives. We began taking on the extra luggage we may not have gathered into our hearts in an earlier year. We packed our souls with heavy loads of insecurity, fear, anger, and anxiety. Disappointment and discouragement filled my emotional suitcase.

In these times of uncertainty and political upheaval, all sorts of emotions surround us. I gathered them up like a starving child seeking some type of comfort in whatever I conveniently find. I don’t want to be left without and vulnerable by not having what I needed. I overpacked.

Our culture doesn’t make this practice of traveling light easier either. The world tells us that life would be better and even perfect if we had more, did more, were more. Home improvement shows highlight perfect homes styled in 60 minutes while stirring up desires within us for new gadgets and just the right appearance for others to see. Advertisements to buy, buy, buy because we don’t have or are not enough scream at us on every device. 

How do we learn to travel light? I have started this year as a monk in the world to ask two basic questions: What is overloading my heart? What is essential to carry with me? 

I begin with silence and stillness, listening to what is present, presently within me. I pay attention to all the emotions, especially those that like to control and be bossy, like fear. I have learned that “not being good enough” likes to hide in the dark crevices out of the light of love. Worries and disappointment sneak in, hindering my walk. Becoming aware and attentive to what I have picked up and packed is the first step in setting those heavy burdens aside.

I name the emotions. Welcome them. Then bid them goodbye. I intentionally choose not to carry them in my life’s luggage. I find writing them out in my journal and spending time in prayer strengthens my resolve to set them aside.

The next key questions become: what are my essentials? What are most important items to carry my soul’s suitcase?

Rest. Peace. Love. Gratitude. Kindness.

I assure I have the sense of my mission/calling in life tucked in. I add my deep desire to learn and continue to grow. Don’t forget the spiritual rhythms that draw us closer to God.

I save space to hear God’s voice and my own, too. I have the choice and have chosen to trust God and live without the things that I don’t really need. This is not always easy and I find I need the reminder every day to travel light.

If we pack our hearts with our essentials, we really won’t have room for other less important things, especially the burdens we aren’t supposed to carry.

What is overloading your heart right now? Take the time to assess how heavy your heart is, what your essentials are and remember to travel light.

Jean Wise is a writer and speaker at retreats, gatherings, and seminars. She is a spiritual director and Deacon for her local church. Find out more at her blog: www.healthyspirituality.org and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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Christine Interviewed on “The Hagitude Sessions”

Christine Valters Paintner was this week’s guest on Sharon Blackie’s ‘The Hagitude Sessions’ podcast which helps to celebrate Sharon’s wonderful new book. In this episode we talk about Hildegard of Bingen, one of the inspiring elder women featured in ‘Hagitude’, other elders in the Christian tradition, and the transformative effects of chronic illness.

See all the episodes here:https://hagitude.org/podcast/

Find Christine’s episode here.

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The Sacred Art of Doll Making + New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

This Saturday, September 10th, Wisdom Council Member Polly Paton-Brown is leading a retreat on Praying with Poppets: Rediscovering the Sacred Art of Doll Making. Polly worked for many years as a psychotherapist and trainer in the field of trauma. More recently, her focus has been on helping people explore their spirituality and prayer using creativity and connection with nature. Polly has a particular passion for creating healing dolls as a portal to transformation. Read on for Polly’s reflection on the art of doll making.

Creativity, nature and spirituality have always been interwoven for me. As a child I loved the Anne of Green Gables books and remember very clearly reading the part where tight laced spinster Marilla Cuthbert instructed Anne on how she should say kneel to say her prayers. Anne replies: 

“Anne knelt at Marilla’s knee and looked up gravely.

‘Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep, woods, and I’d look up into the sky–up–up–up–into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer. Well, I’m ready. What am I to say?’”

What am I to say? The emphasis on verbal prayer has always been a stumbling block for me.  A late diagnosis of various forms of neurodiversity explained the struggle but for much of my life I didn’t know this. I just felt a failure at prayer in church settings. I was blessed to find dance when in the Catholic Church during my teens and experienced the freedom of being set free from the need to use words. This freedom was taken away when I became part of an extreme Evangelical fellowship. Years of masking neurodiversity and dissociation caused by trauma meant that my inner life was chaotic. The certainty offered by the fellowship made me feel safe, but it came at a cost. Dance was forbidden and the rigid forms of verbal prayer meant that I continually felt there was something wrong with me. Why couldn’t I manage the ‘quiet time’ they insisted was the right way to pray?

It has been a long journey to heal from that particular wound. A journey that took me into training as an Integrative and Expressive arts therapist, becoming a member of the Iona Community where the arts were welcomed in worship and of course here in the Abbey. Mime clowning, puppetry, clay, collage and dance became part of prayer and worship. The journey also took me out of the institutional church and into a more earth based spirituality where I began to explore the ways of my ancestors. I discovered that activities I was drawn to such as weaving, spinning and the use of herbs would have been enough to get me burned as a witch during the burning times.

And the dolls. The dolls broke into my life totally unexpectedly in the autumn of 2019.  Grieving climate change and how human beings were such a part of it, I was out in the field where my horses graze. ‘Make an offering and leave it in the hedgerow.’  The words were whispered in my heart. I didn’t know where they came from but they were very clear and were accompanied by images of small felted figures. I had no idea as I needle-felted those small figures that I was partaking in the ancient craft of Poppet making, something that would have been familiar to my ancestors and has been used across many cultures.

The word Poppet comes from the Middle English word pupet,  meaning a doll or small child. People are often put off because they connect such figures with images of effigies with pins stuck into them, made popular in horror films and books. Of course it is a fact that such figures have been used for cursing. But they were also used for healing. My own experience has been that the dolls not only provide a way of expressing prayers but that the actual making of the poppet can reveal hidden wisdom and messages for our lives. When making a doll I don’t begin with a set idea of what I want it to look like. The process starts with an intention or prayer and then I allow my hands and the material to lead. It includes listening deeply, allowing the Spirit to speak through the making. Materials can be as simple as some sticks and found objects. The doll making becomes both an act of devotion and prayer as well as a physical reminder of the grace they bring.

Join us September 10th for this creative retreat and make your own poppet.

Harriet Tubman – New Dancing Monk Icon 

God set the North Star in the heavens and meant I should be free. -Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was born into slavery just south of the Mason-Dixon Line in Maryland. She was brought up in the Methodist church. Harriet eventually escaped north to Pennsylvania. But she soon joined the Underground Railroad, making thirteen rescue mission that freed 70 people. Harriet worked as an abolitionist up to and through the American Civil War. Later in life, Harriet became very involved with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and her visions and vivid dreams have become part of her enduring legacy.

On September 17th we begin our monthly series on The Mystical Heart: Love as a Creative Force. I’ll be joined by Betsey Beckman as we explore the wisdom of St. Hildegard. There will be a session on Harriet Tubman led by Therese Taylor-Stinson in February 2023.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Dancing Monk Icon by Marcy Hall (You can order a print at the link)

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Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – September Video Discussion and Book Group Materials Now Available

Join Abbey of the Arts for a monthly conversation on how increasing our diversity of perspectives on contemplative practice can enrich our understanding and experience of the Christian mystical tradition. 

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. 

Click here to view or listen to the full conversation along with questions for reflection.

This month’s selection is Art + Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura.

Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

Join our Lift Every Voice Facebook Group for more engagement and discussion.

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Monk in the World Guest Post: CJ Shelton

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for CJ Shelton’s reflection Reclaiming Our Sense of the Sacred.

On summer mornings I often wake to the sound of birds singing their first tentative greetings to the dawn’s early light, the soft beams of which filter through the curtains swaying in a gentle breeze.

My cat, happily ensconced on a thick pile of blankets, yawns deeply, and stretches right out to the very tips of each toe. I envy that stretch and try to mimic it although, I admit, not very successfully. No matter … it is still wonderful to feel my own bones and muscles flex, even if they can’t quite match her suppleness. 

As a small gust of wind billows out the curtains, I glimpse the peachy glow of the morning sky and know if I were to get up, I would probably see the neighbourhood bunnies out enjoying an early breakfast of greens on the fragrant, dew-covered lawn. 

It is simple moments like these that delight. That inspire. That are sacred. 

I do my best to find such moments whenever I can … backlit leaves against a blue-drenched sky. Fiddleheads unfurling in the forest. A joyous burst of evensong from a cardinal. A heron gliding on long, graceful wings.

And of course, there is always the continuous enchantment of living with a feline. My beautiful girl is sixteen now and sleeps most of the time, but still has completely spontaneous moments of the “cat-crazies”, those sudden bursts of tearing around like some invisible spirit is in hot pursuit.

Although I’m not nearly as old as her cat-years yet, I too seem to need a little more rest between playtimes than I used to. I also find myself envying that she doesn’t have a care in the world beyond where dinner and the next comfortable sitting spot is, while I am faced with the challenges of living in an increasingly complicated world.

We are all reeling from what has been multiples year of collective trauma: Covid, war, corrupt leadership, constant fear. We’re tired. Focusing on anything for more than a few minutes is hard work, sometimes even impossible. Our vigilance these days is spread across the environment as our brains do the cat-crazies and our attention spans last about as long as the skittish bunny’s out on the lawn.

And yet … we still want to make things. To create things. To express ourselves. To show up and contribute to this fragile world with all that is best in us.

While it can be overwhelming, I take the cue from my cat – to consciously choose what I focus on and be someone who shares a bit of light when things are looking dark. I may not always succeed but, like my less-than-perfect morning stretches, at least I am reclaiming a wee bit of the sacred for myself.

Theologian Matthew Fox says, “there is nothing wrong with the human species today except one thing – you have forgotten the sense of the Sacred”. His words underscore Thomas Berry’s sobering observation that, “if we have lost a sense of the Sacred, we are set up for despair, for depression, for apathy”. 

In medieval times there was a name for this, acidia. Thomas Aquinas described acidia as “the lack of energy to begin new things”. It is often misinterpreted as being the result of sloth or laziness, a sin of the spirit. But acidia is much bigger than that. Aquinas says it comes from a “shrinking of the Mind”. 

Many modern mystics believe we are experiencing acidia right now and suffering severely from anthropocentrism, the misguided conviction that human beings are the most important entity in the universe. Even Pope Francis says humanity is undergoing “a narcissism of our species”. This “shrinking of the Mind” is the natural result of an anthropocentric culture, a culture more invested in “what’s in it for me” rather than “what is in the highest and best interest of us all?” 

So, what are we to do – and do right now – in the face of all this existential exhaustion? 

For myself, reclaiming the sacred is essential … challenging as that is while living embedded in a society that insists on burying its head in the sand. But I look to the mystics, indigenous elders, poets, artists, and other wise folk for inspiration, to those who know how to walk lightly on our good Earth, who sing her praises and show her respect. Who know how to appreciate life’s simple moments as echoes of the Divine … like birdsong at dawn’s first light and a contented cat enjoying a comfortable resting place. 

Appreciation of the beauty-in-the-moment is simple but sage advice for any of us trying to find our way back to a sense of the Sacred. To Source. To energy. And joy. 

The storms of these last few years have been humbling. But I keep reminding myself that “to be humble is to befriend one’s earthiness” and all the great mystical traditions tell us that when we are humble, we create a bridge between the Earth, our psyches, and the cosmos where the sacred can flow unimpeded into every facet of our lives. 

So, I will continue to strive and reclaim the sacred in the small everyday things. And to acknowledge others as sacred echoes of nature and the Divine. Because these are the things that are fully within my control; the simple things that delight. That inspire. That reconnect me to my Source.

CJ Shelton is a Visual Artist and Educator who inspires and guides others on their creative and spiritual journeys. Through her art, teaching and shamanic practices, she reveals the meaning, magic and mystery of the Great Wheel of Life. To learn more about CJ and view her work visit www.dancingmoondesigns.ca.

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