Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 51

Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – August 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.  

Join us on August 20th for a mid-month community conversation on Zoom.

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. Austin Channing Brown’s first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools and churches, Austin writes, “I had to learn what it means to love blackness,” a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America’s racial divide as a writer, speaker, and expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion.

For readers who have engaged with America’s legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I’m Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God’s ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness—if we let it—can save us all.

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

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Upcoming Programs and Offerings ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks, artists, and pilgrims,

We are back after our July break from programs and newsletters. It is always a wonderful time for us to step back from the daily details of running an online Abbey and rest deeply. In the midst of that rested space emerges new inspiration for the year to come. 

One of our projects during this time has been working with a wonderful website designer to revamp our website. It still has the feel of the previous site with easier set up for us and hopefully easier to navigate for you. 

We are thrilled to continue our online retreat offerings and to add some new program options as well. Below is a rundown of what is to come this year. I recommend pouring a cup of tea and reading slowly to see what sparks your soul.

See our  Calendar  for a wide array of upcoming mini-retreats including one on exploring Queer Spirituality (open to everyone!) with Simon de Voil (August 21st), celebrate Hildegard of Bingen’s feast day with Betsey Beckman and me (Sept. 17th), delve into a Jewish contemplative perspective on Sabbath with my dear friend Rabbi Zari Weiss (October 2nd), and deepen into Sufi mystical poetry with Imam Jamal Rahman (November 6th). We are especially excited to be offering these two interfaith contemplative experiences!  Our Lift Every Voice book club returns this month with an exploration of  I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness  by Austin Channing Brown. You can watch the video conversation I had with my book club partner Claudia Love Mair and join our Facebook group. We are also going to start offering a mid-month Zoom conversation time for those of you who want to engage in the ideas we are exploring with one another in real time. Our first one will be Friday, August 20th .My newest book will be published in October! You can now pre-order Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everday Sacred . Author Carl McColman had this to say: “Breath prayer — harmonizing the sacred rhythm of the body with words that sing to the soul — is a practice both ancient and universal, but often overlooked in today’s busy world. Christine Valters Paintner has blessed us with a warm and insightful guide to reclaiming this practice of the heart, in every moment and setting of the day.”Simon de Voil and I will be launching a series of monthly Contemplative Prayer Services on October 4th – the Feast of St. Francis. In November we’ll gather on the 1st for the feast of All Saints. Join us on First Mondays for these times of quiet reflection, song, poetry, prayer, and lectio divina. A wonderful way to pray together as a global community.Starting in October we are featuring an  8-week small group spiritual direction experience  through the Monk Manifesto principles. If you want to deepen into your commitment to being a dancing monk with kindred souls consider joining either Melissa Layer or Simon de Voil for a dedicated and facilitated group experience via Zoom.Dancing Monk Icon Prayer Cards: Marcy Hall has created four new dancing monk icons for our series! Howard Thurman, Nicholas Black Elk (both of whom we explored in our book club), Sister Thea Bowman, and Abba Anthony the Great have joined our wonderful collection! We will be sharing them over the coming weeks. For those of you who already have our icon card sets we are offering you the option to pre-order  Dancing Monk Icon Completion Packs . They include the four above plus Clare of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Muirgen of Lough Neagh (the mermaid saint!), and Melangell of Powys. These need to be ordered by August 31st and will be shipped out in early September.  We apologize but we can’t send out individual cards.  We will be creating all new dancing monk icon card sets in a larger size with a custom box and prayer booklet that includes all 32 icons. These brand new sets will be available to order in September. Upcoming Projects: In October we will be sharing the video podcasts for our Monk in the World Prayer Cycle over 7 weeks. We are also currently working on a compilation album of songs about Mary to companion my book due out next spring. We will create a new 7-day prayer cycle of morning and evening prayers from this material, offer another free Novena next May to help launch these prayers, and will create a set of prayer cards from Kreg Yingst’s wonderful block print art. Lots to look forward to in spring 2022!Sustainer’s Circle: Abbey of the Arts offers many free programs including – the daily and weekly email newsletters, book club, Facebook groups, prayer cycles, and contemplative prayer services plus scholarship assistance to those who are in financial need. Now we are inviting those who are able to help support these and other programs to flourish to consider joining our Sustainer’s Circle for the year. You help us thrive and in return receive some extra perks and content. Read all the details here.

I am also delighted to welcome my book club co-leader Claudia Love Mair to our Wisdom Council. This work we are doing and the conversations we are having are so vital and I am grateful to Claudia for her love for this project.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Image credit: Dancing Monk Icon © Marcy Hall at Rabbit Room Arts

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Dancing Monk Icon Cards Completion Packs

Over the last couple of years we have added some more dancing monks to our icon card set: Melangell of Powys, Muirgen of Lough Neagh, Clare of Assisi, and Julian of Norwich. This summer we have added four additional ones: Howard Thurman, Nicholas Black Elk, Sister Thea Bowman, and Abba Anthony the Great.

Because many of you have ordered our icon card sets in the past and might want to complete your pack with these new ones we are offering a one-time chance to order a completion pack of these 8 cards.

Order by August 31, 2021. Cards will be mailed out the first week of September by first class post from Ireland.

The cost is €10 per completion pack which includes worldwide postage.

Order here

Please note:

We realize some of you may have received Melangell and Muirgen in earlier sets, but to simplify things we are creating one completion pack. If you receive extra cards you can give one as a gift! We are not selling individual cards.

We are planning to re-issue the entire set of 32 dancing monk icon cards in September in a larger card size with a custom box and booklet. Keep an eye on our newsletter and website for when those become available.

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New Poetry Video – Sabbath + Summer Sabbatical ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Sabbath by Christine Valters Paintner from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo.

Dearest monks and artists,

Every summer we try to step back from this wonderful work and take a bit of time off for planning, dreaming, and resting. Sabbath is one of the profound gifts of a generous and abundant divine presence who says that work is good and rest is necessary.

We are so grateful for all the ways this community supports our work in the world and we are eager to listen more deeply in the coming weeks to what new things want to be birthed through the Abbey in the coming year.

We will be taking a break from our weekly love notes and daily quotes and questions starting tomorrow and will return on Sunday, August 1st with more Abbey goodness. You are still welcome to email us (or register for programs) we might just be a bit slower to respond than usual.

Here is a short excerpt from my book Sacred Time on the invitation of Sabbath in our lives:

Theologian Walter Brueggemann has a brilliant little book titled Sabbath as Resistance. He describes the origins of the practice of Sabbath in the story of the Exodus in which the Israelites are freed from the “Pharoah culture” of endless productivity and relentless labor into the “Yahweh culture” where rest is essential and we reject our slavery to perpetual anxiety. He writes:

"Into this system of hopeless weariness erupts the God of the burning bush (Exod. 3:1-6). That God heard the despairing fatigue of the slaves (2:23-25), resolve to liberate the slave company of Israel from that exploitative system (3:7-9) and recruited Moses for the human task of emancipation (3:10). The reason Miriam and the other women can sing and dance at the end of the exodus narrative is the emergence of new social reality in which the life of the Israelite economy is no longer determined and compelled by the insatiable production quotas of Egypt and its gods (15:20-21)."

The God who is revealed in this story is completely unlike any they have known before, a God committed to relationship and rest. It is worth imagining for a moment the revolutionary power of this revelation and how strange the Israelites seemed to other cultures in their radical commitment to a day of rest each week as an act of resistance to the endless systems of anxiety. Everyone rested, no matter what gender or social class, because God saw that as very good.

It is worth further imagining the ways that each of us is enslaved by the current “Pharoah culture” of perpetual overwork and exhaustion, of busyness and relentless doing. We may have our freedom, but how many of us choose to exercise that in favor of our own nourishment and replenishment?

I love the image of Miriam and the other women dancing in celebration because a new story has emerged. In the scripture text one of my favorite details is that they carried their tambourines with them in their flight from Egypt. In the mad rush to flee death and destruction, one of the essentials they carried with them were their musical instruments, what allows them to revel and dance.

I leave you with this poem I wrote about the gift of Sabbath (published in Dreaming of Stones) and the poetry video created by Luke Morgan.

Sabbath

Even as the subway car hurtles
into the tunnel and calendars heave
under growing weight of entries,
even under the familiar lament
for more hours to do

a bell rings somewhere
and a man lays down
his hammer, as if to say
the world can build without me,
a woman sets down
her pen as if to say,
the world will carry on
without my words.

The project left undone,
dust on the shelves,
dishes crusted with morning
egg, the vase of drooping
flowers, and so much work
still to complete,

I journey across the long field
where trees cling to the edges
free to not do anything but
stand their ground,
where buttercups
and bluebells sway

and in this taste of paradise
where rest becomes luminous
and play a prayer of gratitude,
even the stones sing
of a different time,
where burden is lifted
and eternity endures.

-Christine Valters Paintner, Dreaming of Stones

May the gift of Sabbath rest be yours in the days ahead.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance (Westminster John Knox Press, 2017) Kindle edition.

Video Credit: Morgan Creative

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Sandi Gaines

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sandy Gaines' reflection on praying with money.

One of my contemplative practices involves praying with money. Not praying for money, rather praying with money. It began on an ordinary Monday morning in August 1997 when I found a dime at the bottom of the shallow end of the pool where I swam laps. As I placed the dime on the edge of the pool for the lifeguard to retrieve, I began thinking about how often I find money on the ground. “What value does a loan dime or penny have?” I wondered. So, I decided to start saving the coins I found to see how they might add up over a few years.

As I took my evening walk that same Monday in August, I found a penny on the sidewalk. At that moment I felt an invitation from God to use the penny as a token for prayer.

Put the penny in your pocket, give it the name of someone you know and pray for that person throughout the day. Thus, began my contemplative journey of praying with money.

The following are excerpts from the Prayer Pennies journal I kept over the years.

If I am with a person when I find a coin that is who I choose to pray for that day.

The most ordinary places become holy once I find a penny on the premises.

This is more than just a story about lost and found coins. It's about my desire to expand my intercessory prayer life and God's grace in helping me do so.

At this time with $6.51 worth of people having been prayed for, I think I've covered everyone in my family several times, all of my friends, many church members, several neighbors, and a few dollars' worth of strangers.

Yesterday, I found a one dollar bill at the grocery store. I sit quietly and ask God, why a dollar bill? Immediately, I hear-think-sense a response….100 days-100 people. Am I up for this type of commitment? With God's help, I believe that I am.

This journey that began with a dime and led to a dollar, now feels worth a million bucks.

In hospital waiting area while Adrienne has ear surgery. I overhear a lady at the desk ask, “Does anyone know why these pennies are here?” I am tempted to jump up and say, “I do!” Instead, I silently pray for everyone who passes through this same-day surgery unit, patients, employees, and families who anxiously wait.

I have prayed a pocket full of pennies for Mike at this point.

Grace appeared on two sides of the same coin today when I found a penny as I stepped out of my car to meet Ann for breakfast.

I often feel overwhelmed by all the prayer needs there are in the world, however, to immerse one person at a time in prayer feels quite manageable to me.

Occasionally God prompts me to reach out to the person that I'm praying for. This morning, after praying for Ashley, I sent an email of support and encouragement to her.

As part of my praying-with-money practice, I keep journals where I write the names of those I pray for, along with some of my prayers. Most often, I just sit quietly holding the imagine of a specific person in the light and love of God and wait for the prayers to surface.

I have saved all of the money, $43.00 after twenty years. It's a treasured reminder of my time with God and all of the people who have been along for the journey. Every penny, every person, every prayer has been a gift upon my life.

Sandi Gaines lives in Northern Kentucky where she enjoys reading, writing, making quilts, doing Soul Collage work, spending time at a local Benedictine monastery and walking with others on their spiritual journey.

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Iona Poetry Reading with Kenneth Steven

On June 21, 2021 Kenneth Steven offered us a poetry reading which told the story of Iona from both personal and mythic perspectives.

Poems Read from the Iona Collection
Light p. 21
Place p. 38
Coll p. 40
The Illuminated Manuscript p. 33
The Death of Columba p. 37
Salt p. 52
Hebrides p. 55
The Summer House p. 59
The Harp p. 6
Iona p. 41
The Road p. 72
The Sacred Place p. 81
Finding p. 3

Order Iona by Kenneth Steven
Kenneth and Kristina's Celtic retreats on Iona
The Well of the North Wind by Kenneth Steven (novel about the Celtic Christian story)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (book mentioned by Kenneth)

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New Poetry Video – Crossing the Divide ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Crossing the Divide by Christine Valters Paintner from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo.

Crossing the Divide

She walks, as if from a dream, into your life,
ribboned hair unraveling, brown eyes
like cups of tea, come to whisper
a secret into your trembling ear.

You try hard not to listen, clinging
to your calendar, your achievements,
your loneliness, until the silver ache
of it all spreads through your limbs

and she holds out her hand across
the ravine, and you see how the chasm
is not empty, but filled with a rushing
river, and you can swim until

you become fish and flow, until
you are the ancient stream
emerging from stone,
until her face becomes yours.

Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of Wild Grace

Dearest monks and artists,

This poem is about all those places inside of us where we feel divided, especially when the planning and achievement-oriented part of ourselves encounters the part of us that invites us into a more organic and spacious relationship to life. We might feel it is an either/or, but there is always a pathway of both/and. We can hold the gifts of the left-brain and the right-brain together.

Does the creative life ever feel far away from your reach? Do you ever feel like you have settled into a pattern of doing and have forgotten a rhythm of being?

See if you might reach for the hand extended to you across the perceived chasm between your different parts. The point is to fall freely into the river’s flow until you are carried to a new awareness of what is possible in your life.

I invite you to read the poem first slowly, then watch the video twice with a soft gaze. See what moments especially shimmer for you. When do you recognize a part of yourself? Listen for how you are being invited through this prayer into a new awareness.

We are at a turning point in the year as well where the days will become shorter or longer depending on where you are on this beautiful Earth. Give yourself the gift of some time of retreat and reflection. As the world shifts, what might shift within you?

If you are in the Northern Hemisphere and want to read about the Summer Solstice please click here >>

If you are in the Southern Hemisphere and wish to read about the Winter Solstice please click here >>

With great and growing love,

Christine

Video credit: Morgan Creative

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Spiritual Direction Supervision

One of our Wisdom Council members, Lita Quimson, is now fully trained as a supervisor of spiritual directors.

She finished an 18-month training in the practice of supervision of spiritual directors early in 2021. She can be contacted by email.

Her fee is 20 € for each hour long session zoom.  She is based in the Philippines.

What is Supervision and Whom is it For?

Supervision is a form of accompaniment for Spiritual Directors who want to learn about their skills as someone who accompanies others. Accompaniment is not an easy task because people are complicated and we feel either inadequate in how we accompany the person,  or sometimes we fill the issues brought to the spiritual direction session had triggered some of our own unresolved issues.  This is when it is good to have a supervisor.

Our spiritual directors, who have just come in out of training would benefit much from monthly supervision so that the director may notice and value their giftedness and at the same time be aware of their growth points. We help the spiritual directors notice interior movements and to notice and practice self reflection.

Supervision provides the director with

A space for consultation on questions on how to help their directee.Open themselves up to receiving new skillsTo learn a kind of presence for the directee that would stretch the director.

We help the director recognize their growth points:

This can include noticing the possibilities of transference and counter transference

            Code of ethics issues

            Boundaries

            Burden bearing

Lita hopes to be able impart Education, Consultation and Self Reflection to her Supervisees.

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Simon Ruth de Voil

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is a member of the Abbey Wisdom Council and longtime creative collaborator. Read on for his reflection on creating a version of Mary's Magnificat for the Abbey.

Back in 2020, an email from our abbess Christine landed in my inbox on Good Friday. She said her heart longed for a version of Mary’s Magnificat for Abbey of the Arts, would I accept a commission?

I don’t know why I didn’t say OMG I can’t do that. I think if anyone else had asked me to do this I probably would have hid under my pillow. No way could I take on such a bold task! But this was my friend Christine; she wouldn’t ask me to do something unless she genuinely believed it was something I could do. So without even a second of a doubt I said Yes.

There was some divine timing at work. For months I had been praying with Joy Cowley’s setting, Modern Magnificat, and I knew in my heart that the Magnificat was a key in opening the pathway to our unitive consciousness—a key that the world urgently needs right now. I had also been captivated by Jan Richard’s poem, “Gabriel’s Annunciation”. Jan writes,

Yet when the time came,
when I had stammered
the invitation
(history would not record
the sweat on my brow,
the pounding of my heart;
would not note
that I said
Do not be afraid
to myself as much as
to her)
it was she
who saved me—
her first deliverance—
her Let it be
not just declaration
to the Divine
but a word of solace,
of soothing,
of benediction
for the angel
in the doorway
who would hesitate
one last time—
just for the space
of a breath
torn from his chest—
before wrenching himself away
from her radiant consent,
her beautiful and
awful yes.

After saying Yes to Mary’s Yes, I did what I always do when I set prayer to music: I placed myself inside the prayer and listened, deeply listened, to the words and feelings. I don’t try to write anything for a long time, instead I make a space ready within me in case the song wants to take form. That takes its own time, and sometimes quite a lot of time! It was close to a year later, in February 2021, when the song arrived. I remember I was listening to some French nuns singing Gregorian chant to Psalm 4, accompanied by a classical guitar. I decided to learn the guitar part, for no particular reason… and as I did, the entire melody and structure for Magnificat suddenly arrived, along with most of the words. I was, and still am, pretty astonished and delighted, and very grateful to those French nuns. I made a rough recording of the song-sketch and emailed it to Christine. I think she told me it made her cry, which I took as a sign that the prayer was ready.

The first time I publicly shared the Magnificat was during the 2021 Abbey of the Arts Novena on the feast of the Annunciation. Something vital started flowing through me; I felt so fragile, with my voice and guitar holding this cosmic prayer. Luckily I made it through the whole song and the 300 or so folks on the Zoom went nuts! I have never had a reaction like that to a song before or since, and while I soaked up all the love and blessings, what they were reacting to wasn’t truly my song—it was the blessing held within the song. All I can say is: Thank God for that, because if there was ever a prayer that deserved a good song it’s the Magnificat!

My faith has changed since I took on this task of translating the Magnificat into my own authentic song. For once thing, Mary is no longer just a mystery. Her sacred heart touches my heart. When I pray with her I feel more connected to that pulse that beats in all things. She has become a companioning presence that carves a path of healing and renewal where before there was only pain. I pray that others who listen and love this song will meet the sacred mother, just as I did, and be transformed and strengthened by her divine ferocity and unwavering compassion.

I’d like to share one last amazing and everyday miracle that happened while I was recording this song. Because the song was so fresh in my heart, my Easter sermon was very influenced by the Magnificat. I talked about the way that Mother Mary’s witness and presence of the Crucifixion and resurrection births the Christ in Jesus and in us today. I described her as the “mama bear” of Christianity, a face of Godde so desperately needed. Less than two weeks later, as I was arranging the strings for the recording of Magnificat, a lean young black bear passed by my window and proceeded to circle my house! I do live in the woods, but this has never happened before and I felt the blessing of her steady, graceful beauty.

Thank you Godde, for asking me to pray with the Magnificat, Mary’s radiant consent, her beautiful and awful Yes.

Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is an interfaith/interspiritual musical minister, trained to be a sacred presence outside the conventions of traditional religion. As a musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, poetry, storytelling, and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness.

Simon is an accomplished musician and songwriter with 20 years of experience as a performer. Originally a folk musician, he still very occasionally tours in Australia, Canada, and Scotland, as well as the US.

For the last 14 years, though, Simon’s focus and calling has been in sacred music. This grew out of his work at Iona Abbey, and has since led him to provide music for worship, ceremony, and prayer in a wide variety of churches and non-religious spiritual communities. He particularly loves to create music for meditation, healing services, and rites of passage.

Simon is currently serving as a bridge pastor for Suquamish United Church of Christ in Washington State.   He’s also a youth mentor, a maker of sacred objects, and a YouTuber. He considers his livestream channel and online community worship services to be among his most creative and vibrant musical offerings.

You can find out more about Simon and hear his music at SimondeVoil.com

The Magnificat is available on both the Pre-paid CD or get the digital download now at SimondeVoil.com/music

Until August 25% of all CD sales will be donated to Covid relief.

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New Poetry Video – God Among the Pots and Pans ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

God Among the Pots and Pans by Christine Valters Paintner.mp4 from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo.

God Among the Pots and Pans
(After St. Teresa of Avila)

Sifting flour for daily bread
white mist rises
dough multiplies before my eyes

Chopped carrots
form a broken string
of orange prayer beads

The sharp knife cuts through
any confusion
bone gleaming exposed

Sizzle of steak
onions and mushrooms
alchemy of steel and flame

My cup of coffee
is of course
always a revelation

And the glasses of wine
waiting on the table
a wonder of earth and time

Magpie caws outside
an apparition in black and white
among russet leaves

The sun descends slowly
in violet reverie recalling
the beauty of endings

The timer bell rings
calling me back again
to this prayer

To the miracles
of dinner and dishwater
and our long slow sighs.

-Christine Valters Paintner, Dreaming of Stones

Dearest monks and artists,

St. Teresa of Avila famously said that “God walks among the pots and pans” and St. Benedict writes in his Rule that the kitchen utensils are to be treated with as much care and reverence as the vessels of the altar.

One of the things I have missed most during this time of pandemic is inviting friends over for dinner. There is something magical that happens while preparing food with love and sitting down to leisurely conversation. This is as much an act of communion for me as the ritual meal we partake of in church. Jesus sat down at table with so many others. Of course, why wouldn’t this most fundamental act of nourishment become a place of holy encounter? There are miracles at work through the alchemy of cooking and eating.

I love savoring the meal together and after the food has been eaten, the wine has been drunk, and we shift to the comfort of the living room with our coffee and tea in hand. We feel the loveliness of time enough and spaciousness, of the joy of friendship.

I miss the games we would pull of the shelf to play together and the deep laughter that erupts in those spontaneous moments. Or the moments of more gravity when someone shares something that is weighing on their hearts. I miss hugs, lingering  and loving embodied expressions of care.

The poem above was written in pre-pandemic times and is also a prayer of hope for what is still to come. What are the things you have been missing the most? What do you cherish about cooking, eating, or gathering?

I am grateful to Morgan Creative here in Galway for creating this video for us.

With great and growing love,

Christine

PS – You can read a lovely review of my new book Sacred Time at the Englewood Review of Books

PPS – If you’ve been interested in joining us for Awakening the Creative Spirit October 31-November 5, 2021 in the Pacific Northwest, please note there is only one space left!

Video credit: Morgan Creative

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