Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 55

Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color – May 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. Christine and Claudia are joined by the author April Yamasaki. 

In her book  Four Gifts: Seeking Self-Care for Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength pastor and author April Yamasaki addresses questions about self-care. Drawing on the ancient scriptural command to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, Yamasaki helps readers think about the spiritual dimensions of attending to your own needs, setting priorities, and finding true rest in a fast-paced world..

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

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Monk in the World podcast (Work) + Revelations ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Work: Day 4 Morning and Evening Prayer

Dearest monks and artists,

This week we are delighted to share with you the audio podcasts for Day 4 morning and evening prayer of our Monk in the World prayer cycle on the theme of Work. We hope that you are enjoying being able to pray with us in this way!

On May 13th – the feast of Julian of Norwich – I will be leading a Zoom mini-retreat on Julian and Margery Kempe with Mary Sharratt whose new novel Revelations about these two remarkable women was published last month. I am delighted to share this reflection from her on The Via Feminina: Mysticism as a Female Path:

Women have been side-lined and marginalized in every established religion in the world. Even in alternative spiritual movements, male teachers and leaders abuse their authority over their female students and followers. When our institutions and communities fail us, we have no other choice but to look within for the answers. We are not alone in this–we follow in the footsteps of a long line of female seekers and mystics who contemplated the deep mysteries of the soul on a path of inner revelation.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines mysticism as the belief that there is hidden meaning in our existence, that every human being can unite with the divine. The American Dictionary states that mysticism is the belief that it is possible to directly receive truth or achieve communication with the divine through prayer and contemplation.

Medieval Europe saw the rise of female mystics, not all of them cloistered nuns. The beguines started a women’s spirituality movement based on women of diverse backgrounds living and working together without being under the auspices of a religious order or taking permanent vows–they could leave their all-female community whenever they wanted. Not all beguines lived in these communities–some embraced a wandering, mendicant life.

One of the most famous beguines was the mystic Marguerite Porete who wrote a mesmerizing book, The Mirror of Simple Souls. Written not in ecclesiastical Latin but in her own vernacular Old French, her book describes how in deep contemplation we cease to exist as separate beings and merge with God. Her book was declared heretical and Porete was condemned to burn at the stake in 1310. Her Inquisitor denounced her as a pseudo-mulier, a fake woman, whose book was “filled with errors and heresies.” Yet she refused to recant her beliefs or withdraw her book. “They can burn me,” she said defiantly, “but they can never burn the truth.” A contemporary chronicle reported that the crowd was moved to tears to witness how calmly and courageously she faced her execution.

One of the most idiosyncratic mystics of the late Middle Ages was neither nun nor beguine, but a desperate housewife and failed businesswoman from Bishop’s Lynn in Norfolk, England. Margery Kempe (c. 1373 – after 1438) is the subject of my new novel Revelations, to be published in April 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

After her attempts to run her own brewery and horse mill failed, Margery had reached her breaking point. The mother of fourteen children, she had endured many years of what we would now recognize as marital rape. Margery just wanted her husband to leave her alone, but canon law upheld his right to sexual congress without her consent. Solace came in the form of her visceral visions of Christ.

Since divorce wasn’t an option, she traveled to nearby Norwich to seek spiritual counsel from the anchoress Julian of Norwich, one of the greatest mystics of all time.

Forty years before meeting Margery, Julian had a near-death experience in which she received a series of divine visions. She spent the rest of her life unpacking them in her luminous book, Revelations of Divine Love, the first book in English written by a woman. In these pages, Julian bears witness to an unconditionally loving God who is both Mother and Father.

Upon meeting Margery, Julian offered radical counsel. She told Margery to trust her own inner guidance and not worry too much about what people thought about her. And thus, with Julian’s blessing, Margery literally walked away from a soul-destroying marriage and became a globe-trotting pilgrim-preacher and rabble rouser. Her travels took her to Rome, Jerusalem, and Santiago de Compostela, and she had many adventures on her way, including several heresy trials when she returned to England. This in an age where it was a perilous and rare thing for a woman to travel at all, let alone without her husband or male relatives. Little wonder the authorities assumed Margery was up to no good. She preserved her story for posterity in The Book of Margery Kempe, the first autobiography written in English.

Though cloistered Julian and free-roving Margery might seem like polar opposites, they complement each other. Together their lives and work form a Via Feminina, a distinctly female path to the divine.

Julian reveals the path of deep focus and cloistered solitude that nonetheless allowed her to be accessible for seekers in need of her open-hearted counsel. Margery offers inspiration for those of us who seek to live as contemplatives in the full stream of worldly life with all its wonders and perils. Like us today, both women lived in an age of pandemic and social unrest, yet both bore witness to the divine promise that ultimately all shall be well.

The mystic path is open to everyone. All it takes is setting aside time each day for some form of meditation or contemplative practice. We might not emerge as radical visionaries like Julian of Norwich, but this simple act will infuse our lives with a sense of divine presence, a numinosity that will radiate through our every seemingly mundane task so that each meal we prepare, each essay we write, each garden we plant becomes a prayer, an offering.

You can watch the virtual launch of Mary Sharratt’s new book here>>

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Art © David Hollington

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Roger Butts

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Roger Butts's reflection "Thank you, God, for Everything" excerpted from his book, Seeds of Devotion: Weekly Contemplations on Faith.

Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew 6:11

It was a Friday night, just after dinner. I was at the hospital. My work was slowing down—most people don’t need to see a hospital chaplain after 7 p.m. unless there is a really powerful reason.

Then my pager went off. A nurse on the fourth floor said to me, “Roger, there is a patient up here, an older woman. She is going to hospice on Saturday, but tonight she is terribly confused and I think she could use a visit.”

“Of course. I’ll be right there.”

I looked at my phone to check the time: in two hours I’d be off. Truth be told, I was ready for the weekend.

As I was about to enter the room, the nurse told me, “She’s been saying the Lord’s Prayer, over and over.”

I gathered myself outside the room, and said a silent little prayer to center myself. I walked in.

She was definitely an old woman, frail and weak, ready to give in to that great mystery. As a hospital chaplain I’ve walked into rooms like this many times. The feeling is palpable, a deep, abiding quiet. Often there is a profound peace, in this case made even greater because the patient was entirely alone, a rarity in such cases. Often, I enter a room full of family and friends, buzzing around, trying to fill the last few moments with memories turned to chatter. This was different.

As I approached, I noticed that the nurse was right. The woman was saying the Lord’s Prayer. I held her hand. Eventually I joined her in reciting it. Her voice was weak so I whispered alongside her. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses.

As we approached the end of the Lord’s Prayer, she noticed my presence. She looked at me through cloudy, peace-filled eyes and smiled gently. “I can’t seem to remember the ending,” she said. “But, oh well. Thank you, God, for everything.”

And with that, she entered a gentle sleep. After a while of holding her hand I simply walked out of the room with a new ending for a prayer that I love.

PRAYER

First, walk gently.

You’re entering into the great mystery.

Sorrow, regret, anger, grief, relief.
You never know what you’ll find.

You may as well walk gently into that room,
which will likely be dark and quiet.

Second, talk gently.
The dead dream.
And the survivors do too.

They are in a fog,
or out to sea,
or in the deep woods.
Pick your image.

But talk gently, that mystery
will one day be you and yours.

Third, act gently.
Your gentleness
will invite whatever needs to happen
to happen.
If at all possible,
make it so the wife/husband/
mother/child
Hardly knows you are there.

Listen gently.
Listen with your eyes
and your ears
and mostly your heart.
The stories will come.
Be there to hear them.
Stories remind the wife
that she still is alive
And is alone and is not alone
all at once.

Be the Spirit
or Jesus
or Muhammad
or the Buddha

Pick your guide and be that person.

Mary. Dorothy Day.
Thomas Merton.
It matters not.

Of course, you are the best option.
So be you, in all of your quirky,
unexpected, beautiful, flawed,
perfect essence.

Amen.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

How have you accompanied the frail, the weak, the very vulnerable? What did you do? What part of you emerged that was a surprise?

How has another accompanied you in a difficult time? What do you remember and what seemed to help?

Who are your guides and what do they teach you?

Roger Butts is a hospital chaplain in Colorado and the author of Seeds of Devotion: Weekly Contemplations on Faith (GraceLight Press, 2021) Visit him online at ContemplativeLight.org and LiberalChristian.Medium.Com

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Monk in the World podcast (Community) + Writing Into Bloom ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Community: Day 3 Morning and Evening Prayer

For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
--Song of Songs 2:11-13

Spring and all its flowers now
joyously break their vow of silence.
It is time for
celebration, not for
lying low.
--Hafiz

Dearest monks and artists,

We have our next morning and evening podcasts available on the theme of community. We are delighted to share these with you and pray together as a global community of monks, artists, and pilgrims. There is something about springtime that sparks in me a longing to connect more deeply with my friends and others. A joy that is kindled I want to share through conversation and presence.

I believe deeply that the seasons have a great deal of spiritual wisdom to offer us if we make space to listen. They teach us of the cycles and seasons of the earth and of our own lives. We are invited into the movements of blossoming, fullness, letting go, and rest, over and over again. Just like the lunar cycles of the moon's waxing and waning, so too does the body of the earth call us into this healing rhythm.

As the northern hemisphere enters the season of blossoming we are called to tend the places of our lives that still long for winter's stillness as well as those places ready to burst forth into the world in a profusion of color. It takes time to see and listen. Around us the world is exploding in a celebration of new life, and we may miss much of it in our seriousness to get the “important things” of life done.

Lynn Ungar has a wonderful poem titled "Camas Lilies" in which she writes: "And you -- what of your rushed and / useful life? Imagine setting it all down -- / papers, plans, appointments, everything, / leaving only a note: "Gone to the fields / to be lovely. Be back when I'm through / with blooming." Spring is a time to set aside some of the plans and open ourselves to our own blooming.

There is a playfulness and spontaneity to the season of spring that invites us to join this joyful abandon. As Hafiz writes, spring is a time for singing forth and celebration. We are called to both listen deeply to the blossoming within ourselves as well as to forget ourselves -- setting aside all of our seriousness about what we are called to do and simply enter the space of being. In this field of possibility we discover new gifts.

On my daily walks in Galway I have seen clusters of crocuses thrusting themselves out from the ground into the brilliant sunlight. The branches of cherry trees begin to hum, preparing to burst forth. Small shoots are ready to press outward, anticipating their explosion into a pink spectacle of petals. And in my presence to this dynamic energy I discover places within me humming and bursting forth. I notice my own deep longings wanting to emerge in vibrant ways.

The fertility of spring speaks of an abundantly creative God who is at the source of the potent life force beating at the heart of the world. Created in God's image, we are called to participate in this generous creativity ourselves. Our own blossoming leads us to share our gifts in service to others.

In the Hebrew scriptures the promise of God's abundance is often conceived of as blossoming in the desert. In that harsh landscape, a flower bursting forth from the dry land is a symbol of divine generosity, fruitfulness, and hope. Hope is a stance of radical openness to the God of newness and possibility. When we hope, we acknowledge that God has an imagination far more expansive than we do.

Take time this week to meditate with gratitude on a flower, appreciating all of its qualities of beauty, how it simply is what it was created to be. Allow yourself to fill with joyful gratitude for the gifts of the earth. Open yourself to experience the fullness of this flower and all of the ways God delights in the beauty of blossoms.

Then shift your focus from the flower to yourself. Take this sense of wonder and awe at the beauty of the flower and imagine how God gazes with delight on the beauty of who you are. What aspects of your being can you imagine God relishing? What are the longings inside of you God is asking you to embrace?

Rest in this awareness of the joy and delight of God in your own beautiful blossoming for several minutes. Notice what new longings it stirs in you.

I gave a 20-minute poetry reading for Paraclete Press on Instagram Live this week and read mostly poems about springtime (you also get a small window into my office and our dog Sourney makes an appearance as well). You can watch the recording of it here. Also my poem “At the End of Time” was published in Spiritus journal. You can read it here. And in other publishing news my book Earth, Our Original Monastery was named a finalist in the Spirituality category for the Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Book Publishing awards!

Next Saturday is the Celtic feast of Beltaine which initiates the season of Earth’s fertility. If you’d like to deepen into your soul’s own blossoming through creative writing please join me for a Zoom mini-retreat Writing Into Bloom on May 1st hosted by St. Placid Priory (the Benedictine monastery where I am an Oblate).

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Reverend Deb Goldman

I am delighted to share a beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Reverend Deborah Goldman's poem "I Spread My Wings" written during the recent Abbey of the Arts daylong retreat, On Being Free: The Spirituality of Howard Thurman and Harriet Tubman led by Therese Taylor-Stinson.

It came as a response to our morning reflections on the embodiment of freedom; my noontime walk, during which I listened repeatedly to Nina Simone singing, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free;” and to two stirring excerpts from Therese’s upcoming book, Walking the Way of Harriet Tubman: Black Mystic & Freedom Fighter. In this poetic reflection, I make reference to the fact that like Harriet, I have experienced multiple brain injuries; like Nina, I have struggled with mental illness; and like many of my fellow participants, I have lived for decades with chronic illness and a non-conforming identity and spiritual path. I incorporate also words from the poet, Maya Angelou, and Therese’s own words from the introduction to her book. As I continued writing, I had a distinct, embodied experience of Mama Harriet calling to me and taking my hand.

I Spread My Wings
By Deborah Goldman, MA
April 17, 2021

I spread my wings
without inhibition
and allow my walk to dance

Opening up to the great expanse of natural world
I am free
in this moment

I drop my stories now
of disability and impairment
True, yet not whole
And feel the caged bird in my heart
breaking free

Trapped by my own fear and doubt
and limited beliefs
Fighting valiantly
with an undying faith
in myself
in possibility
in a different way

Confined by societal norms
that make no space
for the truth of who I am

I break open the box
and jump out

Mama Harriet calls me to the river
calls me to run barefoot on the earth
calls me to be courageous
and trust in the flow of the water
upstream

She takes my hand
and tells me to use my voice
to speak out
And my ears
to listen
And my good body
to dance
And my creative spirit
to weave together a new vision
of what is possible

She implores me
to use my privileges and freedoms
to free others along the way
To set down my false ego
and needs to be perfect
brilliant
even good enough

None of that matters
when you are setting someone else free

Speak up
she implores me
Be silent no more
Find your own underground railroad
your network
your muse
And if you can’t find it
create it

Listen to the wisdom
of your sisters
and brothers
and non-binary siblings
Listen
Uplift
Encourage
And break through

There is more to you than
your body
your disability
your mind
your thoughts
your beliefs
your identity
your bank account
your successes

Beyond all those illusions
is a spirit
with vast soaring wings
and a wide-open heart
Feel it
now

Infused by her love of poetry, dance, and the natural world, and informed by her experience as an Expressive Therapist and Ritual Artist, Reverend Deb Goldman is known for her warm and grounded presence, her creation of sacred space, her deep listening and genuine outpouring of personalized prayer, and her engaging leadership style. In her role as Soul Care Companion, Deb has dived deeply into the intersection of healing, spirituality, and the arts. She has supported others in finding soulful practices to deepen connection to Self, Source, Others, and the Earth; and tools to facilitate self-expression and discovery of hidden, disenfranchised, and powerful parts of themselves. Through her work as a Life-Cycle Celebrant® and Interspiritual Minister, she has learned about the power of story, of giving voice to and honoring each person’s life journey through milestones, transitions, and periods of struggle, loss, grief, and healing. And in her training as a healthcare chaplain, she has learned to be fully present for the great mystery of life and death, of pain and suffering, eternal love and letting go.

She can be contacted at debinpeace@gmail.com and I live in Arlington, MA in the US.

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A mini-poetry reading from Christine plus other publishing news

Christine Valters Paintner gave a 20-minute poetry reading for Paraclete Press on Instagram Live this week and read mostly poems about springtime (you also get a small window into her office and her dog Sourney makes an appearance as well). You can watch the recording of it here.

Also Christine's poem “At the End of Time” was published in Spiritus journal. You can read it here.

And in other publishing news my book Earth, Our Original Monastery was named a finalist in the Spirituality category for the Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Book Publishing awards!

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St. Kevin Holds Open His Hand and Radical Hospitality ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

St Kevin Holds Opens His Hand by Christine Valters Paintner from Abbey of the Arts on Vimeo.

Hospitality: Day 2 Morning and Evening Prayer

St. Kevin Holds Open His Hand

Imagine being like Kevin.
Your grasping fist softens,
fingers uncurl and
palms open, rest upward,
and the blackbird
weaves twigs and straw and bits of string
in the bowl of your hand,
you feel the delicate weight of
speckled blue orbs descend,
and her feathered warmth
settling in.

How many days can you stay,
open,
waiting
for the shell
to fissure and crack,
awaiting the slow emergence
of tiny gaping mouths
and slick wings
that need time to strengthen?

Are you willing to wait and watch?
Not to withdraw your
affections too soon?
Can you fall in love with the
exquisite ache in your arms
knowing the hatching it holds?

Can you stay not knowing
how broad those wings will
become, or how they will fly
awkwardly at first,
then soar above you

until you have become the sky
and all that remains is
your tiny shadow
swooping across the earth.

Dearest monks and artists,

The story of Kevin and the Blackbird is one of my favorite of all the Celtic saint and animal stories.  The story tells us St. Kevin would pray every day in a small hut with arms outstretched. The hut was so small though that one arm reached out the window. One day, a blackbird landed in his palm, and slowly built a nest there. Kevin realized what was happening and knew that he could not pull his hand back with this new life being hatched there. So he spent however many weeks it took for the eggs to be laid, the tiny birds to hatch, and for them to ready themselves to fly away.

I love this story because it is such an image of yielding, of surrendering to something that was not in the “plans,” but instead, receiving it as gift. Instead of sitting there in agony trying to figure out how to move the bird, he enters into this moment with great love and hospitality.

How many times in our lives do we reach out our hands for a particular purpose, and something else arrives? Something that may cause discomfort, something we may want to pull away from, but in our wiser moments we know that this is a holy gift we are invited to receive.

Hospitality is the heart of our work as monks in the world– creating a safe space where we can begin welcoming back in the stranger both outside and within and in the process discover the hidden wholeness of which Thomas Merton wrote. This kind of radical hospitality is also an act of great love. Over the years, I have come to realize, that more than anything else I do, this work of healing is most essential. Abbey of the Arts strives to be a safe place where a diversity of people with a wide range of beliefs and convictions can gather.

This radical hospitality is a lifelong journey. We are always discovering new aspects of our inner world which we reject or resist and need love and care. And in the process of welcoming them in, we perhaps begin to discover that others don't annoy us quite so much. As we grow more intimate with our own places of exile and woundedness, we discover a deep well of compassion for the strangeness of others. As we come to know our own compulsions and places of grasping, we can offer more love to those in our lives struggling with addictions and other places where freedom has been lost.

What would it be like to welcome in that lonely part of yourself and to love him, to trust that she has a place in you? Maybe there is self-judgment and criticism that you try to push away. What would it be like to make space to sit with these difficult parts with compassion and listen to what they really want to tell you? This would be a generous act of loving.

We share this week the audio podcasts for Morning & Evening prayer of Day 2 of our Monk in the World Prayer Cycle which is on the theme of hospitality. Make some time this week to let these prayers carry you to a place of radical welcome within yourself and see how this impacts your hospitality to others. Special thanks as always to Simon de Voil for putting such care into creating these audio resources for us.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Video credit: Poetry Video by Morgan Creative

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Greta Kopec

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World Guest Post series from the community. Read on for Greta Kopec's reflection, "Mary Magic and Miracles."

Once upon a time, I only knew Mary as the mom in the nativity story we heard each Christmas. In the past three years she has become a companion and muse who has taught me many names of the sacred feminine, those names multiplying as I have encountered her in various ways, in different places. She began by inviting me on a journey that would take me to Fatima, Portugal and Cz?stochowa, Poland where I was surprised to meet her as part of tours a year apart. Before each of these trips, she sent me, a non-Catholic, a rosary. She had my attention!

She brought me people who helped me know her through their own stories, books, images, magazine articles, a small icon from Crete.

As part of my SoulCollage® practice, I created eight collages after Fatima, exploring her many energetic presences, including: Alchemical Womb, Mary of Nazareth, Mystical Rose, Our Lady of Sorrows, and Hagia Sophia.  For SoulCollage® we also write from the collaged images with the voice of the energy, as for Alchemical Womb: “I am the one who welcomes you into my cavernous womb where you are safe, where there is room for all. . .”  From the names of those collages, I brought her closer through writing this prayer:

Ave Maria

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us–
You who are the eternal sacred feminine,
We bow to your everlasting power.

Most Powerful Woman, Mother of God,
Goddess within us, remind us we are all
Mothers of God, pregnant with the Holy,
Giving birth again and again.

Hagia Sophia, Ancient Wisdom,
Guide our discernment when
The unbidden Angels appear
With difficult messages.
Help us as women to find our voice
And to speak our Truth.

Alchemical Womb of Notre Dame,
Provide the sanctuary we seek
From the woes of the world.
Heal our wounds and make us whole(y).

Weep with us, Sorrowful Mother,
For all the lost and wounded children
And for all of humanity's transgressions.

Illumine our Darkness, Black Madonna,
Make us fierce warriors against injustice,
Fuel our righteous anger,
And afford us comfort
In our dark nights.
Do what is necessary to wake us up.

Perfect Mother Goddess,
Help us to see you are just Miriam too,
Ordinary woman of your culture.
Help me to relax my own expectations.

Hear my prayers, Mystical Rose,
As I hold my own mother close
In grateful remembrance.

THEAtokos show me the way
To bear the divine feminine
Into the world.
Be my Star, my beacon,
Beckon me onward.

Mother Mary, come to me,
Let the divine child in me
Be open to your presence,
Your protection, your unconditional
LOVE.

Poland’s Black Madonna riveted my attention on these mysterious versions of Mary (and their miracles) found all over Europe. The day of our visit to Cz?stochowa was the same day we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau. The contrast between the celebratory ambiance in Mary’s chapel, where First Communion was being celebrated, and the grimness of the concentration camps was profoundly staggering: Madonna and child shining brilliantly in bejeweled votive clothing, followed by the dusty, dreary landscapes of the camps where fear is an eternal presence, the darkest place on earth. Out of this experience emerged collages about bringing darkness into the light, particularly the ways hatred, cruelty and oppression need to be illuminated for what they are.

More gifts from Mary keep coming unbidden. I was guided toward a new spiritual director who also holds a special reverence for Mary. I came across a tiny gold medallion that was my mother’s, which was labeled “Maria Zell.” I discovered online that she was a dark Madonna in Austria, where my mother had emigrated from as a refugee. I was reminded I come from a very long ancestral line of European Catholics.  I encountered Mariazell again in Christine Valters Paintner’s writing of her experiences. The Abbey of the Arts “Wisdom of Mary” retreat gave me new Marys, especially “Star of the Sea,” as I felt her light and darkness beckoning me to her, while also towards further exploration.

In 2019, at Chartres Cathedral outside of Paris, I found Mary’s “Seat of Wisdom” pose in the dark “Our Lady Underground” statue in the ancient crypt. This seated pose of the older child facing outward was in two of my dreams that I eventually understood as a message to trust my own wisdom as Grandmother, Mother, and Child. How am I Mary’s child sent into the world? I, too, am called to be “THEAtokos”— god(dess) bearer.

In Paris, I sat in the empty little church of “Our Lady of Good Deliverance,” a sanctuary entirely devoted to a larger Black Madonna. Another Black Madonna happened to be visiting for “Mary’s month!”

Mary remains my spiritual companion and muse, especially in her darker forms. Her darkness is the dark night of the soul, but also the sheltering, healing darkness. The Black Madonna is the hidden “earthy” aspect needed to complement the elevated Queen of Heaven. She stands for the oppressed and overlooked. Her message is especially timely for this past year of sheltering, challenges, and trauma. She will be with us as the earth and all of humanity can begin to heal.

Greta Kopec is a spiritual director, workshop and retreat leader, and SoulCollage® facilitator in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys exploring creativity with her women’s groups.

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Monk in the World Podcast + Harriet Tubman Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Silence & Solitude: Day 1 Morning and Evening Prayer

Dearest monks and artists,

We are thrilled to be able to start releasing the Monk in the World prayer cycle podcast to you weekly from now through Pentecost Sunday. Each week we will post a morning and evening prayer. This first week is focused on the first principle of our Monk Manifesto Silence & Solitude. I am enormously grateful to dear friend, minister, musician, and Abbey Wisdom Council member, Simon de Voil for putting these podcasts together with such a loving and attentive ear.

Many of you have sent us notes expressing how much you savor these prayer resources. You are welcome to share these with others who might find them grounding during this season of life. The video podcasts will be produced later in the summer and you will have the chance then to learn some of the dances and movement prayers to accompany the songs (and deepen your commitment to being a dancing monk!) If you are able to donate to support these we are always most grateful. You can purchase the album here. We do hope and plan to create more weeks in the future.

In other Abbey news, we are delighted to be hosting Therese Taylor-Stinson next Saturday who will be leading an online retreat for us on the mysticism of Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman. Therese is currently writing a book on Harriet Tubman’s spirituality and is also the editor of several books on spiritual direction and persons of color (Embodied Spirits was our book club feature for March).

Here Therese shares with us a brief excerpt from the book she is writing to give us a flavor of the invitation to freedom she will be guiding us into on Saturday.

From Walking the Way of Harriet Tubman: Black Mystic & Freedom Fighter:

As I stood on the bank of the Choptank River in Dorchester County, Maryland, one early Spring afternoon, in a single line across the sand with other pilgrims on this Tubman journey, I was in awe of the thousand flickers of light reflecting off the river from the noon-day sun.  After a reflection on joy and pain as we held the sweet gum pods in our bare hands and imagined the enslaved running barefoot through the abundance of sweet gum under their feet, through the woods to the river, which would help take them to freedom with Harriet, we walked to the bank and poured libation in the river as we named our personal ancestors, including Mama Harriet and others.  Then we fell silent.  In that silence the wind picked up strength blowing a soft but forceful presence in our direction.  I couldn’t help but believe that Harriet and others were before us, welcoming our presence, and then slowly, the forceful breeze ceased.  I turned with wide eyes to our guide standing next to me, and he nodded confirmation.  No words.  But he knew and I knew we had been visited by our ancestors.  I later mentioned to another pilgrim, “Did you feel it?  Did you notice their presence?”  She answered, “Not like you did.  I’m sure.” This was a mystical experience for me I will never forget, and Mama Harriet and her treks to freedom are closer to me now.

…

Several generations ago, Araminta Ross married a free black man, John Tubman.  However, “Minty,” as she was called, was enslaved like her mother, which was the rule.  Her father was a free man, and Minty desired freedom so that the children she hoped to have with her husband, John, would also be free.  During enslavement, a black child’s status depended on the legal enslavement or freedom of their mother.  But to be truly free or even to garner the courage to seek physical freedom, one must first find internal freedom to act and withstand.  Araminta found her internal freedom in the strength of her family and in her intimate relationship with the Divine.

Minty first decided to free herself alone, leaving behind her husband, John, in his freedom—temporarily she thought.  The enslaved had a certain amount of physical liberty on the Maryland Eastern shore not common in the deeper South.   In contrast to the enslaved across the river in Virginia and in the deeper South, those enslaved on the Eastern shore experienced a degree of physical freedom.  They were allowed to hire themselves out for work when the seasonal work of the region was slow, and their families were spread out amongst the slaveowners in the area—many among themselves related, creating a network of relationships across the Eastern shore.  Also, the Eastern shore was not far from where legal liberty began in the North, in Philadelphia.  There was an active underground railroad conducted by Quakers in the area, and there were also familial connections and friendships among the enslaved and free blacks who cooperated with the Underground Railroad.  Most of all, Minty’s ingrained internal freedom made it possible for her to mentally and emotionally overcome any physical threat from land or person.

Minty’s ancestral connections to Africa were only one generation removed.  She more than likely inherited her ancestors’ deep connection to the land and acquired their skills for cultivating crops and identifying needed resources, among other talents.  This gave her the ability to learn direction, identify and follow the Northern Star to liberation, and to use the natural environment to hide and to sustain her.

Minty, soon to be called “Moses” by the slave catchers and Harriet Tubman in her newly found freedom, had a deep connection with a Supreme Being, calling her to freedom in order to lead others to the same.  She can be firmly seen as a Public Mystic through her many strains of service to free the enslaved within her reach.  Though her narcolepsy caused her life-long disability, Minty used those moments of unscheduled sleep to hear from a God who had no boundaries. She even used her brain injury to discern her path to freedom and to trust Divine leading.  Harriet Tubman had a strong conviction to make her life and actions matter for the larger community.  Freedom was her call, not just for herself or her husband, John, but for the larger enslaved community to which she was connected.

Please join us Saturday, April 17th for On Being Free: The Spirituality of Howard Thurman and Harriet Tubman.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Art © Kreg Yingst

The post Monk in the World Podcast + Harriet Tubman Mysticism ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

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. Christine and Claudia are joined by the author Jon M. Sweeney.

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

Featured Book for April 2021! – Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint

Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) is popularly celebrated for his fascinating spiritual life. How could one man, one deeply spiritual man, serve as both a traditional Oglala Lakota medicine man and a Roman Catholic catechist and mystic? How did these two spiritual and cultural identities enrich his prayer life? How did his commitment to God, understood through his Lakota and Catholic communities, shape his understanding of how to be in the world?

To fully understand the depth of Black Elk's life-long spiritual quest requires a deep appreciation of his life story. He witnessed devastation on the battlefields of Little Bighorn and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, but also extravagance while performing for Queen Victoria as a member of "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show. Widowed by his first wife, he remarried and raised eight children. Black Elk's spiritual visions granted him wisdom and healing insight beginning in his childhood, but he grew progressively physically blind in his adult years. These stories, and countless more, offer insight into this extraordinary man whose cause for canonization is now underway at the Vatican.