Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 44

Monk in the World Guest Post: Katie Birkeland

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Katie Birkeland’s reflection imagining Judas’ point of view at the Last Supper.

 I have found putting myself into a Bible story is a powerful way to connect with the message that God has for me.  I recently spent some time in the story of the Last Supper as if I were Judas and recognized in myself the tension between following my flesh—betrayal toward Jesus–  and falling into his ever present and pursuing arms.  This is where my heart and mind took me…

I walked into the room with the other disciples.  I was used to the air of humble holiness that followed the space that Jesus engaged, but the holiness in this place was thicker than anything I had ever encountered.  The rugged smell of lamb and herbs infused each breath.  The room was still except for the shadow of the candles’ flickers on the wall.  There was something about Jesus’ movement in the room, intentional, urgent, and slow.  His eyes simmered with sorrow and joy, peace and pain. Love sat so potently under his skin, I could see it ready to burst through his pores.  The holiness in this space drew me in and made me want to run.

The internal battle was strong.  The holiness made the chaos lurch in all directions.  Then Jesus caught my eye and invited me to sit on his left.  Shame flushed my skin, my eyes darted, but I sat.  I heard the gentle voices floating around me and the scraping of utensils against clay.  I put the wine to my lips and sipped at the appropriate times.  I nodded and laughed when the others did, but I wanted to be anywhere but there. I couldn’t leave, so I ran inward.  I heard, I saw, I smelled, I tasted, and I felt the movement of Jesus close to my chest.  Every input a piece of a broken puzzle scattered on a table.  A beautiful puzzle, if put together, was ignored to soothe my shame.

I was startled out of my darkened soul when Jesus stood up.  The chatter died quickly and silence followed as our gazes turned toward Jesus.  We all exchanged unsure looks as Jesus removed his outer robe and wrapped a towel around his waist. Somehow, I knew that something unusual would unfold at this feast.  I felt it when we walked in the room, but this?  My soul started shouting me back into my oblivion with comments like, “doesn’t he know he is hosting this meal?  Here he goes again making a fool out of himself, just like when he chose a donkey to ride into Jerusalem!”  I think I might have stifled a laugh as I dug back into my dark soul.

But when it was my turn and the water hit my feet my whole body responded. It cracked open the hard shell of my soul forcing an awareness of the moment; I couldn’t run.  The water splashed against my skin and echoed in my ears.  His hands gently but firmly spoke words of love.  I knew he knew, for he had told Peter that one of us were unclean.  Yet, as he dried my feet with the towel wrapped around his waist, they were clean.  My mind spun in confusion.  An invitation. An invitation that I would have to choose to accept or reject.

I wanted to leap forward into a child-like hug.  I could almost feel the sensation of joy, connection, love, and peace seep into me even in the longing for embrace.  I felt the posture of my body and soul start to turn toward the One I Loved and despised.  I loved him because he first loved me.  I despised him because he loved me so strongly that I would have to turn my gaze from the things I loved even more than him to truly accept his embrace.  His love, it beckoned so strongly.  I remained indifferent. Was it shame or pride?  My gaze hard as stone so I would not melt into it.  If I turned to look into his gaze, I would have to turn my back on so much.  Esteem.  Riches.  Recognition.  Honor.  Approval.  Comfort.  Fleshly freedom.  Human ecstasy.  Control.  In the dark soul, I felt safely discreet.  The embrace was safe for me, but not for my desires.

That moment passed.  Jesus was settled next to me again speaking to the others as a Rabbi does.  But the message for me in those moments were different.  I sat there contemplating the invitation, a battle raging. I heard through the fog Jesus say, “One of you will betray me”.  Then Jesus, the host, was handing me, the guest, a piece of his own bread.  An honor.  One last plea to let him love me.  The moment.  It was here.  I had to choose.  I took the bread. 

I don’t think the others sensed it, but I know Jesus did.  My dark soul became darker.  The thick shell became thicker.  The desires became stronger.  I stood up and left.  The only sound, the hollow echo of my feet on the floor.

And now I stand on the other side of the door.  The evening air brushing my brow, reminding me of the water brushing my feet. I shudder.  Is it disgust or regret?  In essence the evil is done.  And yet I am loved.  With clean feet, I turn away to walk down the dirty road in the other direction. 

Who is Katie Birkeland?  The true answer to this question so often gets lost in the rhythms driving her life: loving three growing kiddos and her rustic husband, teaching the kids at their kitchen table, feeding the critters that call their cozy acre home, surviving Minnesotan winters, living in community with those around her, and filling the urge to learn and write.   Katie is slowly learning the impact of daily anointing herself in the truth that her identity is found in the One who breathed the breath of life into her.  findingedenglory@wordpress.com

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A Poetic and Mythic Approach to Mary ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

I am thrilled that my book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal is being published this Friday, April 8th. (Also mark your calendars for our May 2nd contemplative prayer service where I will be joined by Simon de Voil, Soyinka Rahim, Betsey Beckman, and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan to launch my book, the album, and the forthcoming prayer cycle). 

In the meantime, this excerpt is from the introduction and explains how the archetypes shapes my approach to writing about Mary’s names and titles: 

Mary has gone by many names in the Christian tradition. My approach to these names is influenced strongly by Jungian thought on the archetypes. Archetypes are universal energies that we all experience within ourselves and across cultures through dreams and collective symbols. David Richo writes that Jesus and Mary offer us windows into the essential Self. His book draws on the Litany of Loreto which names Mary in a variety of ways. “Litany titles are fields of energy in the spiritual world. They describe what is in us potentially and what we are called to display in and disperse into the universe.” Litany titles are indeed archetypes. Not all of the names I explore in this book come from the Litany of Loreto, but many do.

I am drawn to the names of Mary because their multitude of images points to the many ways we hunger to embody and ultimately find within ourselves. Mary can be a mirror for our deepest sacred longings. Mary invites us into practices and ways of being – these archetypes point both to her multi-facetedness as well as our own inner multiplicity. When we embrace the multiplicity of Mary’s names and titles, we discover that her qualities as Mother, as Seat of Wisdom, as Queen of Heaven do not just exist in an exterior way to ourselves, but within each of us as a mirror of our own deepest qualities when we cultivate intimacy and an encounter with them. Each name, title, or archetype describes what qualities live within us too as potential. By calling on these names, we empower these qualities within us to become more fully alive. We manifest the qualities of the sacred feminine in the world and move closer to our own growing wholeness. 

Mary is also the counterbalance to a tradition where the sacred has been heavily masculinized and patriarchal. We need the masculine energies in their healthy forms, just as we need the feminine in her life-giving aspects. 

Psychologist Carl Jung believed there were two levels to our unconscious. The first was the personal level created by personal experience, and the second was the collective level consisting of instinctual and universal patterns of thought developed in human beings over thousands of years. These primordial blueprints are called archetypes and form the foundation of our experience. 

We each have within us a gathering of different energies. Archetypes appear across cultures and traditions, in myths, stories, and dreams.  By exploring a particular archetype we can reflect on how it is alive in us, how we have suppressed this aspect, how it might illumine our personal shadows and areas in need of awareness and growth.  They can help us move toward our own growing wholeness and freedom.

Jungian Analyst Mariann Burke, in her book Re-Imagining Mary, describes two ways of encountering images of Mary. The first is historical where when we view a painting of the Annunciation, for example, it is an event in the past. However in “the poetic or mythic approach, we are not so much viewing an image as experiencing it.” When we regard images in this way, we become open to seeing “the Annunciation not as history, but as something happening now. Taken in this way, the image reflects something within me. Like a dream, the image is happening within.” This is how archetypes work. They do not invite us to simply consider these names of Mary as historical realities, but as living encounters right now with sacred aspects of ourselves. This poetic, mythic, and contemplative approach is the lens I bring to considering Mary’s titles as an encounter with dimensions of our own soul’s longing.

You can order my book on Mary at this link and pre-order the album here!

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

P.S. I offer enormous gratitude for your generous love, care and prayers for me as I recover from a successful transabdominal hysterectomy. Click to here to read my latest health update >>

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Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – April 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 this month’s video discussion along with questions for reflection.

In The Seeker and the Monk, Sophfronia Scott mines the extensive private journals of Thomas Merton, one of the most influential contemplative thinkers of the past, for guidance on how to live in these fraught times.

As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love. She asks: What is the connection between contemplation and action? Is there ever such a thing as a wrong answer to a spiritual question? How do we care about the brutality in the world while not becoming overwhelmed by it?

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

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Post-Surgery Health Update from Christine

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

First enormous gratitude for your generous love, care, and prayers for me. I have absolutely felt surrounded by them along with the angels, saints, and ancestors, Mary as Life Giving Spring, and the Divine Healer infusing me with greening life energy. I checked into the hospital Tuesday and had my transadominal hysterectomy first thing Wednesday. My doctor was so kind to come hold my hand as I went under. According to her all went very well. Yesterday I felt pretty awful but to be expected after anesthesia and a major surgery.

The nurses and assistants here have been very kind and I’m getting a chance to practice my German. Today (Thursday) I am much better. I even ate a bit of breakfast, walked to the sink with assistance to freshen up, and may get my catheter removed later. I should be in the hospital until Sunday all being well and will then return to John’s able care in the apartment we’re renting in Vienna for another 3 weeks. Slow and gentle are my mantras. Breath Prayer is an intimate companion as I meet each moment. More updates as I’m able but focusing on healing now and recovery. Back to my holy pause.

With great and growing love,

Christine

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kathy Roy

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kathy Roy’s submission “Gentle Spirits.”

Stepping out my front door for an early morning walk has become a spiritual practice over the years.  This morning, the sky is a deep inky blue and as I step out of my house, my eyes are drawn to the brilliant glow of the moon shining through the branches of pine trees.  Dawn has not yet broken the dark of the night and the moon has a circle of light radiating all around it. 

This sight is a wonderful way to start the day and I feel the light of the moon begin to fill my spirit with lightness too.

The neighbourhood is so quiet at this time of day.  It is my favourite time to walk.  This morning, I pass a woman walking with her aging German Shepherd.  I love crossing paths with them.  They emanate a sense of peaceful companionship as they walk together.  The German Shepherd is never on a lead, yet he stays right by her side.  As I watch them coming toward me, they both stop at the corner of a street before crossing.  She gazes down at him and he immediately sits.  Their wordless communication has such harmony, patience and trust in it.  Whenever I watch them together, they demonstrate to me what happens when we embrace a way of being that is based on ‘power with’ rather than ‘power over’.  These two walk together in such a coordinated effort of well-seasoned friendship.  I can sense the loyalty and love that they have for one another and something in my heart expands whenever I see them together.

This morning, as we pass each other, the German Shepherd stops to say hi to me.  The woman greets me with words I have also been thinking, “It’s a beautiful time of day to be out, isn’t it?”

I wholeheartedly agree.

As I walk away from them, it dawns on me that I am love crossing paths with these early morning sojourners because they are the embodiment of gentleness. They walk in slow, companionable silence and exude what it is to live with a gentle spirit.  

As I arrive back home and reach for the handle of the front door, I pause for a moment and turn my gaze up to the moon one last time before stepping into the house.  It is still almost full and I find myself saying a silent prayer under the moon’s illuminating light:

“May I, too, radiate gentleness like a soft-glow around me.
May I carry a peace-full presence wherever I go.
May I live in harmonious companionship with those around me.
May it be so.”

Then I step inside.

Kathy Roy is a writer, spiritual companion, and interfaith minister.  She lives in New Brunswick, Canada and can often be found walking the local beaches and forest trails gathering inspiration for her life and her work. Her website is: SpiritGarden.ca.

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Monk Manifesto + Updated Artwork ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

Dearest monk, artists, and pilgrims,

I want to share a brand new video for our Monk Manifesto principles! We originally had our wonderful companion illustrations created about twelve years ago. They were delightful but in recent times, with our own growing awareness, we have realized they could be even more inclusive of a diversity of people than they were. Abbey of the Arts is committed to its own ongoing growth and transformation! See principle #7 of conversion which is all about being on a lifelong journey of discovery.  

So we were delighted to find illustrator Quynh Nguyen and loved her playful, colorful style (she illustrates a lot of children’s books.) We feel that this style really invites everyone into the space to reflect. Quynh created a great new series of images and we have put together a new video to share them with you, just click on the link at the top. Let this be a moment of meditation and an invitation to recommit to the principles that are at the foundation of our community life together. 

Abbey of the Arts Monk Manifesto:

Monk: from the Greek monachos meaning single or solitary, a monk in the world does not live apart but immersed in the everyday with a single-hearted and undivided presence, always striving for greater wholeness and integrity

Manifesto: from the Latin for clear, means a public declaration of principles and intentions.

Monk Manifesto: A public expression of your commitment to live a compassionate, contemplative, and creative life.

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.I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others.I commit to cultivating community by finding kindred spirits along the path, soul friends with whom I can share my deepest longings, and mentors who can offer guidance and wisdom for the journey.I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish.I commit to bringing myself fully present to the work I do, whether paid or unpaid, holding a heart of gratitude for the ability to express my gifts in the world in meaningful ways.I commit to rhythms of rest and renewal through the regular practice of Sabbath and resist a culture of busyness that measures my worth by what I do.I commit to a lifetime of ongoing conversion and transformation, recognizing that I am always on a journey with both gifts and limitations.I commit to being a dancing monk, cultivating creative joy and letting my body and “heart overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.”*

*quote is from the Prologue of the Rule of Benedict

We have several resources to deepen into the Monk Manifesto including our most recent Monk in the World Prayer Cycle, album and DVD. We also offer printable versions of the Monk Manifesto in English, Spanish, German, and Norwegian .

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

PS My surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday morning, March 30th, Central Europe time. To learn more, read my health update from last week.

Video © Christine Valters Paintner | Artwork © Quynh Nguyen

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Karen Harris

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Karen Harris’ reflection, “Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down.”

What I have discovered at this spiritually scholastic portal is that the profundity of life is equal to the level of “play” in which you are willing, and led, to engage.  This can only be accomplished when you find and then put yourself in the hands of accomplished and genuine people you have learned to trust and love.  Having found these people- I wished to send a thank you email to the Abbess, her husband and the rest of the talented people that are brought together here to teach us the ways of monastic living and so this invitation to submission has been a calling opportunity to do so.  Alas, the Abbey has kept me so busy on my off hours with rich retreats and far-flung explorations that my unfinished love note has sat on my ‘desktop’ waiting.  Hopefully with a world in Kairos time, this slight delay in submission will be overlooked.  

As a soldier and then wife of a soldier, I have spent many an isolated season of my 50 plus years living in rural regions of the United States and Japan.  But nothing had prepared me, or any of us for that matter, for the isolation of the pandemic.  And for me, as the sole caretaker of my disabled husband and furry household the fear and trepidation that accompanied every task had begun to weaken what had always been a very vital and progressive social vibe.   My activity in my neighborhood social club and the local church that had been my lingering touchstones vanished with the quickness of a utility outage and as the months ticked by I was desperately lonely for friends to have fun with, though I couldn’t have told you at the time just how much of a hole it was leaving in my joie de vivre.  

Abbey of the Arts was introduced by a friend and fellow congregant at the church of which we are both members, Bethel Lutheran in Templeton CA.   Thorjia gave a personal testimony one Sunday before the regular online sermon.  She talked about a recent ‘mystical’ interaction, lo conversation she had with St.Francis that had been facilitated by an Abbess in Ireland with which she was on a first-name basis.  Like an excited child, utterly captured by her account and discovery, I looked up the website she had mentioned.  After devouring everything I could find on the Abbey’s site, I signed up for the free Monk in the World self-guided retreat and life’s small domestic pleasures began to expand with every day that I participated.   I was a kindergartner in a new school and I soaked up the information and companionship like a sponge.  It was also like a tall drink of ‘water’ that quenched a thirst I had forgotten existed.  I listened; I cried; I drank;  I was nourished and grew stronger

I have meditated every morning for years but now it is deeper.  Even through COVID I always have celebrated Sabbath with joy and celebration as my husband-who never went to church with me physically- has now been able to join me every Sunday for my church’s online broadcast.  I wear dressier-not quite church- attire and it always feels so good to get out of my working-from-home- yoga pants.  I also drop all need for domestic duties aside from dishes, bedmaking etc. for the day.   As a student monk I have a much deeper appreciation for the reason why there is so much peace and rest in these practices-peace, rest and…. activity. The fellow teachers and leaders that work with the Abbey always act in ways that show they stand shoulder to shoulder with Christine and John in the Abbey’s mission and responsibilities.   These frequent demonstrations of loyalty and egality make the entire experience together at the Abbey feel more geographically shared- like one of a dormitory or barracks where everyone is living like brother and sister.  Simon’s songs, Betsey’s dancing and John’s words of wisdom-at some point you cannot resist the urge to reach out and expand your own faith and your own expression in ways not before imagine.   A threshold calls.  

Before the onset of my husband’s illness I had developed a one woman show about Phoebe Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst and the (unrecognized) founder of so many American institutions. I researched her for years and have a library of material along with a closet of period costume (circa 1900).  When I could no longer leave home- my performing experiment seemed to come to an unnatural and premature end.   The inspiration and innovation that has simultaneously been engrained in me here in my daily practices with the Abbey are now inspiring me to develop a new and interactive doorway online for this amazing American heroine, and religious pilgrim.  The door continues to open wider.

Ring around the Rosy’s lyrics embody human history’s ability to transform desolate stories of loss into the comfort of child’s play.   I feel the Abbey of the Arts has done similar miracles with COVID 19 and its accompanying isolation expanding their outreach to an ever-widening circle of singing, dancing, God-praising participants and is teaching me- a Monk in the World -to do the same.  My gratitude expands.

Karen Harris lives in Paso Robles California with her husband David, dog Cowboy and cat, Neleh (Nay-la).  She has served in the US Army as a Russian interpreter, been a tour guide to thousands at Hearst Castle, but her toughest and most important job was raising three sons to be men.

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Health Update ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

I have mentioned a couple of times that I have surgery upcoming. Last summer I was diagnosed with a very large fibroid which has been causing ongoing discomfort and pain. I spent several months trying to determine the right treatment and get it scheduled.

For many reasons including the underfunded Irish public health service, the impact of the pandemic on it, and the bureaucracy that governs our private health insurance and options in Ireland, we eventually decided the best choice would be for me to travel to Vienna, Austria for a transabdominal hysterectomy (which will be covered by our insurance). A dear friend of mine in Vienna referred me to a gynecologist whom I have communicated with several times and feel a great deal of confidence in her opinion and skill. (I have also seen three other gynecologists now in Ireland as well so have things well covered and feel much clarity about my choice.)

Then recently I had some bleeding despite being in menopause for the last three years. The doctor in Vienna said I needed to arrive earlier than planned to get a sampling of uterine cells and test to see if they are cancerous in advance of the surgery. If they are, then she will not only remove my uterus, fallopian tubes, and cervix as planned, but also some lymph nodes. The chances of cancer are quite low, but it is important to rule it out or take necessary follow up steps.

John and I traveled to Vienna this past week and saw the doctor for the initial tests. I will see the anesthesiologist this week and get the results of those tests. My surgery is scheduled for March 30th and I will be in the hospital for up to a week depending on recovery. Then we will stay in Vienna until the end of April when I should be well enough to return to Ireland.

I feel a great deal of peace around this overall, although there is also a mixture of the vulnerability that comes with any surgery and anticipation over the potential relief my body will experience. I welcome it all in. 

Vienna is such a place of the heart for me with my father and grandparents buried there and having lived there before we moved to Ireland. 

We have good friends who will be taking care of our home in Galway and sweet Sourney. She is in excellent hands although of course I will miss her terribly. There is much about how this has all worked out that feels very right, many synchronicities that have cleared the path for which I am so grateful.

If you are on Facebook you may have also seen me post that my dear aunt Nancy (my mother’s younger sister) died last Sunday after going to the hospital to drain some fluid from her heart. The suddenness of her death is very hard and I am carrying my grief with me to Vienna but also feel her presence along with my mother’s as I navigate my own body journey. Please say some prayers for her husband Larz who is, of course, heartbroken as well as for Nancy that she finds release and joy in her transition. 

Melinda will be working behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly at the Abbey and offering a couple of programs herself including a yoga retreat on the elements and our April contemplative prayer service will be hosted by Simon and Polly Paton-Brown. On April 6th Simon de Voil and Kenneth Steven are leading a conversation on Iona and the Book of Kells. Our Lent retreat is being supported by a wonderful team. It feels joyful to have so many competent and committed people who love what we do supporting this community. When I return home in May I have kept my schedule intentionally quieter to slowly navigate my way back into work depending on my recovery.

We will still have the daily and weekly newsletters for you. I will have Melinda post once I have had a successful surgery but I likely won’t be posting much myself during this time. It feels really vital to give myself the fullness of this space for optimal recovery.

I welcome your prayers during this time! I feel very surrounded by your love and the love of the angels, saints, and ancestors. 

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Image © Christine Valters Paintner

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Kreg Yingst

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Our reflection this week comes from Kreg Yingst whose block prints of Mary are featured in Christine’s forthcoming book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary for Creativity and Renewal. Read on for Kreg’s reflection “The Creative Act as Spiritual Praxis*”

“Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.”

– Abba Moses

Some of the most magnificent works in art history have been the beautifully illuminated Psalters of the Middle Ages. These prayerbooks were for kings, queens, and only the very wealthy. When the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century, Bibles, religious books, and illustrations became affordable. Yet in all of my research I have yet to find one book of Psalms entirely illustrated with woodcuts. This surprises me somewhat since printmaking, especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, was often used for thematic cycles; most notably The Passion of Christ and The Dance of Death (Ars Moriendi; Art of Dying).

This void was the impetus for me illustrating the entire Psalter a number of years ago using relief prints. I had hoped to knock out the project in a relatively short amount of time, perhaps a year or so. These prayers, however, proved much more difficult than expected, predominantly because they weren’t narrative in nature which I was more accustomed to. What the Psalms did offer were poetic similes, metaphors and visual language that allowed me to transfer words into concrete images. Needless to say, the year came and went, then another, and then another. My discipline on the project waned, but not my desire.

For me, these scriptures, as difficult as they were to read and interpret became a devotional and my artwork became a prayer – or perhaps I should say the act of making art became prayer. The project took on a new dimension. There was a paradigm shift – one from rushing toward an end product to simply engaging with the Divine through the process. The journey became more important than the destination.

During the early Monastic movement, a time when few could read, monks would gather together around the abbot during the reading of the scriptures. There was an emphasis placed on memorization; not just engaging the word for knowledge, but for spiritual transformation as well. As a result, the monks would listen carefully and allow a passage of scripture to speak to them. St. Benedict incorporated this practice into his Rule for Monks, a prayer method which would come to be known as Lectio Divina or Divine Reading. The process required four stages: reading, meditating, praying and contemplating. My approach to the Psalms’ project would initially begin in this manner. 

The scale I was working on was quite small however, and as I began to illustrate the Psalm in its entirety it became just too problematic. So I took a smaller bite. This would sometimes be just a sentence or two to use as inspiration for an image. A spiritual sound bite, so to speak, also had a name and was used by Christians well before St. Benedict’s time. It was known as Meleté.

In his book, Desert Banquet, author David Keller writes: “[Meleté] is the practice of repeating a verse or short phrase throughout the day…done silently or aloud at different times, [it] can help us remain centered on God’s presence in the midst of distractions and responsibilities that consume our attention. The ‘formula’ reminds us to always seek God’s help and reminds us that we are never without God’s presence. This simple practice destroys the myth that there is not enough time in the day for meditation. It enables us to pause several times each day to become mindful of what is most fundamental in life.”

There, in the silence of my studio, I was able to engage with the Creator through the act of creativity. 

Perhaps the only thing during this project that had shifted for me from my usual practice of creating art was intentionality and awareness. The seventeenth century Carmelite monk Brother Lawrence speaks of a non-duality in the spiritual and practical life. “I rest with him,” he writes, “in the deep center of my soul…” There are spiritual practices we can come back to time and time again in living a holistic life, such as breath prayers, sacred reading, and fasting. These can be embedded into our daily activities in such a way as to create a continual awareness of God’s presence. Brother Lawrence affirms, “A little lifting up of the heart suffices. A little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship…”  In the quiet of our cell, communion, rest, and creativity forms a sanctuary of the heart. 

When I began work on the Marian series to illustrate Christine’s book, Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal, my approach was very similar. I tried to use art-making once again as an act of contemplation. There was, however, one major difference from the previous project. Whereas the spiritual disciplines of Lectio Divina and Melete were initially used, both word based meditations, this time around Visio Divina and Art History would lay the foundation for centering. Rather than taking a word or phrase through the day, the meditational focal point became an icon or painting. The first step was to research the Marian title to be interpreted. And while reading was still essential in providing the needed information to proceed, emptying my mind during the actual art-making process became the gateway for images to emerge.

To create a conducive atmosphere in the studio, I rarely worked in silence. Too often during extended periods of quiet time my brain becomes filled with words, noise and distractions – what the Buddhists call “Monkey Mind.” This can, in fact, stifle the imagination. Abigail Fagan writes, “Even though the mind is a wonderful thing, it can sometimes get in the way of creativity, mainly because the voice in our head can get in the way of what our heart wants to say.” But if I’m able to fill that emptiness with the angelic harmonies of monastic chant, the pleasing melodies of Hildegard von Bingen, or the soothing instrumentals of the classical minimalists, these distractions float away into the ether.

As a novice in these ways of contemplation I’m determined to take the advice of Blaise Pascal that “in difficult times you should always carry something beautiful in your mind.” There’s a serenity in beholding through our inner vision the loving embrace of the Madonna and Child, and perhaps a unity with the world too when we view this love through the lens of different cultures. In a world of turbulence, distraction, and worry, of which we’re evermore experiencing these days, to be able to cultivate a mind of stillness and repose becomes an inner-source of healing. As the late author and poet John O’Donohue so eloquently put it, “The world cannot ruffle the dignity of a soul that dwells in its own tranquility.”

*Praxis, the Greek word for “action that is habitually repeated,” is labor and vigilance directed toward inner spiritual formation, leading to love of God and neighbor. [David G. R. Keller]

Kreg Yingst is a printmaker and painter living in Pensacola, Florida. His subject matter for the past twenty years has focused on people – Saints and sinners and everyone in between – while stories, poetry, lyrics and travel have always served as an unending source of inspiration. Yingst received his Bachelor’s Degree in studio art from Trinity University and a Master’s Degree in painting from Eastern Illinois University. His art can be found in private and public collections including Purdue University; The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, South Carolina; Janus Corporation, Denver, CO; College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL; and Pensacola State College in Florida. .

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Celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick with Us! ~ A Love Note From Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

This Thursday is the Feast of St. Patrick. After two years without St. Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland, they are returning this year to great celebration. 

We are so delighted to be welcoming Irish poet and musician Mícheál ‘Moley’ Ó Súilleabháin who will be offering a free online event for our community to celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick through poetry, storytelling, and song. He is the author of Early Music.

This excerpt about St. Patrick is from my book The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred. 

The Call of St. Patrick 

Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and the most well-known of all the Irish saints. He was born in 390 near England’s west coast or in Wales. When he was young, about sixteen years old, he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland where he lived as a slave for six years.  He endured many hardships including hunger, thirst, and cold under the rule of a cruel pagan king. 

It was during his enslavement, while spending long hours in solitude tending sheep, that he had a spiritual awakening. Through the prompting of dreams and other voices, Patrick was able to escape and return back home again. He set out for Gaul for many years to learn theology and prepare himself for his future ministry. After many years passed, he had another dream where he heard the Irish people calling out to him to return to the land of his enslavement. 

Patrick’s name actually means “one who frees hostages,” and when he returns he is very vocal in his opposition to slavery, including women. 

He returned to Ireland in 432 and spent the rest of his life preaching the message of Christianity and helping to establish the Christian church in Ireland. There is a great deal of evidence that Patrick was not the one to bring Christianity to Ireland, that it had already begun to flower, certainly he was instrumental in this role.

He traveled first to Tara, the home of the Irish kings. He prepared for the celebration of Easter and kindled the fire and blessed it on the Hill of Slane, which could be seen from Tara. It was an act of defiance, and angered the king greatly. The legends say there were some great battles where Patrick prevailed. 

I find his story intriguing. Here was a man enslaved, who escaped by divine intervention, and then hears the call to return to the land of his slavery and he goes willingly. He must have experienced more than his share of discomfort and strangeness at the thought. 

Seeking out this “strangeness” and “exile” was at the heart of the monastic call. In going to the places which make us feel uncomfortable and staying with our experience, rather than running away, they cracked themselves open to receive the Spirit in new ways. 

But in this seeking out of strangeness and risk, one does long for a sense of protection or safety within the arms of the divine. . . . St. Patrick’s lorica prayer was one type of prayer to invoke this protection and a reminder of the sacred presence always with us already. 

Join us on Thursday! Please consider supporting Mícheál by purchasing a copy of his book Early Music in advance, either directly from him or through your local or online bookseller. It promises to be a really rich time of creative celebration together. 

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

PS My most recent book Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred was named one the best spiritual books of 2021 by Spirituality & Practice!

Image credit © 

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