Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 94

St. Colman – New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

St. Colman lived in the 6th-7th centuries in County Galway in the west of Ireland. His parents were king and queen of that region, and while his mother was pregnant, his father heard a prophecy that his newborn son would one day surpass him in notoriety. In a jealous rage he had his servants throw his wife into the lake with a stone tied to her. But in a miracle, the stone floated like a cork, and so she was brought safely to shore.

Once she gave birth, two priest pilgrims wandered by and she asked them to baptize Colman. A fountain began to gush from under an ash tree so that they would have water for the rite. Because her son was still in danger from the king, she asks the two old monks to care for him.

When he grew older, he went to spend time on the holy island of Inismor, one of the Aran Islands which was a center for monastic learning and spirituality. Other well-known saints who had spent time there were St Brendan, St Ciaran, and St. Enda.

After founding two churches there, he longs for greater solitude and silence. He goes into the forest of the Burren and finds a cave where he can settle. You can still visit his cave, oratory, and holy well today and it is a very beautiful site. When we bring pilgrims there, we bless ourselves at the well and spend time sitting in silence ourselves to listen to the wisdom of wind and stone, of trees and water.

It is said that Colman also brought three creatures with him – a rooster, a mouse, and a fly. The rooster would wake him for his morning prayers. The mouse would nibble on his ear if he fell back to sleep, and the fly would help him keep his place in his book of prayers.

He lives in this dysert place for seven years in silent contemplation, allowing the wilderness to teach him. Finally, through divine intervention, he is called back to community life when he builds his monastery Kilmacduagh (means “church of Macduagh”), near Gort. It became a large ecclesiastical site with many pilgrims seeking it out.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Dancing monk icon © Marcy Hall at Rabbit Room Arts (click link to order a print)

Monk in the World Guest Post: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

We are thrilled and delighted to be releasing a brand new compilation of songs, curated from some wonderful musicians we know and love. These are songs for Celtic seekers as they are inspired by the tradition of pilgrimage in Ireland and accompany Christine’s newest book which will be released in September 2018 from Ave Maria Press – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred. For six weeks we will be featuring the musicians from this album who so generously agreed to share their beautiful music with our community for this project.

Next up is Richard Bruxvoort Colligan who wrote several songs for the Abbey. Read his whole reflection below and to hear a clip of the songs go to the album page at CDBaby here>>

There’s nothing like the right song at the perfect time.

A few months ago, a circle of Abbey of the Arts pilgrims arrived on a special island on Lough Corrib where St Patrick is said to have built a church. Amid the rich landscape and silence, those monks in the world quietly sang,

Christ within, before and behind

Christ beneath, above, beside

Christ every hour, every day, every night,

the pulsing of St. Patrick’s Lorica prayer resonating in their footsteps and heartbeats.

This song, “Christ Within,” will soon be published by the Abbey of the Arts along with other chants that have become meaningful for the Abbey community in the last few years.

As a songwriter, there’s no greater joy knowing that a song is useful. Except maybe the juicy, delicious process of making it!

I’m sometimes asked how it works. How does an idea turn into music that we can sing? Well, listen— I’m the expert, so let me tell you.

I got no idea.

Like any artsy thing— painting, dancing, poetry, parenting— it begins with a vital unknown that somehow breaks open to glorious discovery. Most of the time the process seems as elusive to description as it is breathtaking to engage.

In my specific line of work, it’s music— the craft of language, time, rhyme (see what I did there?) and breath. But the heart of it, under all those particulars, is inventing a melody to carry words for a group of people to sing together.

For me, few activities are more intense and more gratifying than writing songs. The process searches my vulnerabilities and pokes. It excavates my imagination. It lowers me deeply into my best self. If that sounds like what a spiritual practice does, I agree. If I don’t make time for songwriting, I dry up like a daisy in the desert.

The icing on the cake is that the product of songwriting is often useful to others.

When Christine has commissioned me to make music for the Abbey, it’s been for a particular moment.

For example, our Abbess introduced me to St. Kevin of Glendalough and asked for a song. I didn’t know anything about him except that his was one of my favorite Marcy Hall icons! Turns out, he was an Irish saint dedicated to a solitary life deeply embedded in nature. With a little research, I was captivated by the story of Kevin holding out his hand to receive a blackbird. The bird proceeds to build a nest, lay eggs and tend them as they hatch into fledgelings.

I decided that a song imagining Kevin’s physical posture might be interesting. What does it look like to be open-handed in the world? What might fall into an outstretched palm? Are we willing to look foolish for awhile before our goal of nurturing is understood?

The song, “Open Hand” imagines us with Kevin’s tenderness and patience, hand open. Singing together, we share his passion to be part of the rhythm of the interconnected world. Better yet, singing together, we hear the sound of lineage, legacy.

What I love best is making songs for community singing which, I would argue, is an art form distinctive from performance music.

The “Peregrine” song broke through to honor pilgrimage— the moments we are willing to put ourselves in the Way of deep change for the sake of sacred expansion.

“In My Heart is the Road,” a short meditation on Psalm 84, has found its place among those who are compelled to pursue discovery at any holy destination.

In the Abbey of the world, how wonderful to know one’s purpose. Thanks to all of you who have listened, honoring sound at sacred moments. Thanks to you who have joined your voice with others in rooms and on hillsides, journeying both inwardly and out among water and trees. Thanks to you who hum prayers on behalf of others.

There’s nothing like the right song at the perfect time.

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a freelance psalmist who has contributed several songs to Abbey of the Arts. His central work is making imaginative and adventurous community songs for the ever-evolving church. www.PsalmImmersion.com . www.Worldmaking.net

His newest song, released November 1, 2017 is poem by Hafiz for All Saints. Watch the video and hear it for free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrS9Fc2dNyU

St. Sourney – New Dancing Monk Icon ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

In January I shared two of the new dancing monk icons of Spanish mystics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. We also have four new Irish saints which Marcy has painted, inspired by my new book forthcoming this fall – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: Twelve Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (through Ave Maria Press.)  Each of the twelve chapters includes a story of an Irish saint, so we added four more to our original eight.

In addition to the release of new icons (which are available as prints or cards), we are also releasing an album of Celtic songs compiled from several friends of the Abbey. Please see more details below!

This week I introduce to you St. Sourney.

Sourney is one of the female Irish saints from the sixth century, and while there is little written about her, two of my favorite sacred sites are dedicated to her memory. The first is on the island of Inismor, and is said to be her hermitage. There is a signpost off the main road, but the path is quite overgrown with brambles. The chapel itself is in disrepair, only part of it remains, but standing inside you can imagine the saint there seeking the grace of silence and solitude on the holy island. When you step out the front door you see the wide sea beyond.

Later in her life, she was called to Drumacoo, near the village of Kilcolgan, about a half hour from Galway city. A large church ruin appears behind the cemetery with a more modern mausoleum attached to the side. Further back is the holy well of St. Sourney. When we first visited it, it was quiet overgrown and a bit hard to access without tripping over stones and tree roots. But people from the community and the Office of Public Works have cleared it up beautifully.  There is a now a set of stones in a circle to mark off the opening of the holy well and a clear path around it for walking the rounds, which we do on our own for visits and when we bring pilgrims there.

We don’t know the details of her life and service, but I love that despite this, two beautiful sites persist over fifteen hundred years to carry her spirit forward. I imagine her walking the rounds in these places, and mulling over her own discernment questions and life trajectory. While her written story did not persist, the land holds her memory in stone and water.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Dancing monk icon © Marcy Hall at Rabbit Room Arts (click link to order a print)

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sherri Hansen

We are thrilled and delighted to be releasing a brand new compilation of songs, curated from some wonderful musicians we know and love. These are songs for Celtic seekers as they are inspired by the tradition of pilgrimage in Ireland and accompany Christine’s newest book which will be released in September 2018 from Ave Maria Press – The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred. For six weeks we will be featuring the musicians from this album who so generously agreed to share their beautiful music with our community for this project.

First up is Sherri Hansen who wrote "Circle Me God." Read her whole reflection below and to hear a clip of the song go to the album page at CDBaby here>>

This past March, I returned to Ireland to experience my second pilgrimage, “The Soul’s Slow Ripening.” Despite having traveled there two years prior, for “Monk in the World,” I was plagued by a tremendous amount of anxiety prior to the trip. I wasn’t exactly sure why as I have travelled alone to Europe in the past and had a marvelous experience on the previous pilgrimage. Two years ago, I was healing in the aftermath of my mother’s death at the end of 2013, and my trip to Ireland was a tribute for her and a quest to see places where my Irish ancestors lived. That journey was an incredibly cathartic and cleansing experience and I truly felt that I laid my mother’s spirit to rest there.

I was taken aback then at my sense of trepidation and angst over returning. I’ve struggled with anxiety issues for my entire life but hadn’t felt that level of fear for a long while. I had a lot on my plate and the timing which had felt right the previous summer when I committed to the trip, didn’t feel so right all of a sudden. I also find being in groups of unfamiliar people unsettling. Yet, I knew there was a reason why I was drawn to returning, so I trusted the Spirit and went.

My anxiety lessened once I reached Galway and immersed in the pilgrimage. Christine Valters-Paintner, has a lovely collection of icons of various saints and spiritual figures, many of them Celtic. I was particularly drawn to an image of St. Ciaran from the ancient monastic settlement of Clomacnoise. Above the image, was the phrase, “Circle me God, keep fear without, joy within.” Fear and anxiety, that have been so prevalent throughout my life, have also prevented me from experiencing joy, especially in the present moment, and particularly as I prepared for and began the pilgrimage. As I sat repeating the phrase over and over, I thought it would make a good chant to remind me to let go of fear in order to allow myself to experience. It didn’t take long to start humming a melody that would fit and be Celtic-like.

I then looked to see the source of the phrase and a Google search lead me to a poem by David Adams called Circle Me God. I added more verses based on the poem and soon had a 4-verse chant of couplets, each a prayer to keep something negative out, and something positive in. At the retreat’s end, I was able to share the song with the other pilgrims. A few felt strongly that including a verse of “hate without and love within” was important and spoke to them so I added it.

When I returned home I asked my good friend and colleague, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, a frequent musical contributor to the Abbey if he would be willing to work with me to record it. We recorded it with me playing keyboard harp patch, flute, and tin whistle and singing. I would like to share it with you and hope that it may touch you in some place in your lives as it has already touched me.

Sherri Hansen, MD, OblSB, is a psychiatrist in private practice, a Benedictine Oblate, a church musician and composer, and passionate gardener in Madison, Wisconsin. You can learn more about her and her music at: www.sherrihansencomposer.com

 

 

 

Ash Wednesday – Lent Begins (Join us!)

A love note from your online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

I thought I would send this bonus love note today, Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day, with a few links to past reflections on this season and time of year.

Last year I shared a reflection for Valentine's Day on Becoming Body Words of Love.

And here are two poems for Valentine's  – Saints Bowing in the Mountains by Hafiz and i carry your heart with me by ee cummings. Imagine me saying these words to you from the heart.

Ash Wednesday: The Practice of Truth-Telling

This is a reflection about the essential nature of lament, perhaps more relevant today than ever.

The following is a series of reflections I shared last Lent on different ways to approach the practice of fasting:

A Different Kind of Fast – Ash Wednesday Blessings & Lenten Resources
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Two – Embrace Vulnerability
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Three – Embrace Trust
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Four – Embrace Slowness
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Five – Embrace Attention
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Six – Embrace Organic Unfolding
A Different Kind of Fast: Part Seven – Embrace Mystery

And of course, we are offering our online retreat for Lent which is a transformative journey through the scriptures. With reflections from John Valters Paintner and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan, psalm-based songs from Richard, live webinar sessions with Christine and guided contemplative practice, creative invitations from Melissa Layer, and a vibrant facilitated forum for sharing and conversation. Join us for Watershed Moments in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

Here is an excerpt from John's introduction:

The Bible is not a single, declarative statement of fact. It is a series of competing voices, written and compiled over generations and through many different styles and authors, wrestling with great questions of faith.

Of the many Biblical stories, three (The Exodus, The Exile, and The Crucifixion & Resurrection of Jesus) are the most foundational. Prior to each of these watershed moments our spiritual ancestors thought they had life figured out. They thought that they had God figured out, or at least had come to accept their spiritual fate. And then suddenly everything changed: forgotten slaves are rescued, an invincible nation is destroyed, the Messiah is executed and returns.

There are several ways to frame the many stories of the Bible. Certainly, one could go chronologically or in order of the canon of books. I have chosen to group the stories thematically and so won’t be going exactly as one might suspect. I was even tempted to start with The Exile, as that is the moment the scattered stories and tales of Scripture became what we think of today as “The Bible.” But ultimately, I decided to work our way up to what can be argued is the most significant of Biblical moments. We’ll start more personally, with the story of a simple family of nomads and their strange calling to go and be something more.

This retreat will explore the watershed moments in sacred history that motivated the authors of Scripture to write down their stories of faith for themselves and future generations. Through contemplation and art, we will ask ourselves these same questions that continue to shape our own faith journeys today:

We hope you will join us for this journey of the heart through sacred texts and wrestling with our own questions.

Sending you a shower of blessings for Lent from Ireland!

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

Love and Radical Hospitality ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

A few days ago I received an email from a woman who is writing her dissertation and asked me to respond to the question: "If you had to choose one spiritual practice that is a non-negotiable for spiritual growth in the 21st century, what would it be and why?" My answer was supposed to be short and succinct.

Here was my reply: "I would choose hospitality, both inner and outer, because I believe the welcoming in of all of the exiled pieces of ourselves to be essential for the healing of the world." Of course, it is one of the principles of the Monk Manifesto, and feels like a necessary gateway to silence or hesychia, which the ancient desert monks described as a deep inner stillness.

As I was thinking about writing this love note, I realized Valentine's Day is coming, which for many of us is a holiday that only serves to make us feel inadequate, as all highly commercialized things do. And yet the message of love is worth repeating if we can look beneath the chocolate hearts and flowers and the expectation that we all be in a significant relationship or be lacking.

When I read the question posed above, I did not hesitate in my response, because I find that this is the heart of our work – creating a safe space where monks can begin welcoming back in the stranger within and in the process discover the hidden wholeness of which Thomas Merton wrote. Over the years, I have come to realize, that more than anything else I do, this work of healing is most essential. The Abbey, too, strives to be a safe place where a diversity of people with a wide range of beliefs and convictions can gather. I love that people show up each with their own longings.

Maybe there is a deep loneliness as this holiday of roses and Hallmark approaches. 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.

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.

For the last few months I have signed this love note "With great and growing love" but never explained the choice I made. I started after finding some old letters written by my mother and father to one another in the early days of their marriage. I had forgotten that one of their terms of endearment for one another was "GGL" which stood for "great and growing love." These missives all began and ended with those three letters.

Even though my parents' wounds eventually led them to separation and my father to rejecting much of the love offered to him toward the end of his life, I still treasure this image. I cherish knowing that there was this sense of love abiding between them, growing slowly. Rather than feeling despair or cynicism, I actually feel a great tenderness to know of all the places love plants her seeds.

I love each of you, my dear monks, I don't think the intensity of this work is sustainable without that kind of love. I love your seeking hearts. I love your desire to find a more compassionate way to be in this life and on this earth.

As I continue to offer love to myself through acts of trust in my body's wisdom and welcoming in the less flattering parts of myself, the love grows.

My beloved husband John will often say "I love you more," and I respond by asking "More than what?" And his reply is "More than yesterday." We have been blessed with 25 years of growing love.

My invitation to you, as Valentine's Day approaches, is to consider whether your love for your own beautiful self grows each day, knowing that there will be days of such self-disdain it might not be possible, and then you welcome in that small and wounded place and discover a hidden fountain of love beneath. Once we begin welcoming in the places we resist, we find that the deep peace of silence can be ours.

This week, let your prayer be "welcome" to every stranger arriving at the inner door and an act of trust in the wholeness that you are.

And know of my love for you, which is always growing.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

Join us in 2019 for a Pilgrimage or Retreat in Ireland

 

Join the Abbey in 2019 for a pilgrimage to the sacred edges of the world and of your own heart and horizon. Christine and John Valters Paintner lovingly curate and guide these slow-paced experiences with small groups (12-16 people max) so that we create a community of kindred souls walking a magical landscape.

We have had one room come available (can be single or double if traveling with a friend or partner) for Writing on the Wild Edges Retreat in Ireland for August 26-September 1, 2018. Please contact us if you are interested. For program details click here>>

March 26-April 3, 2019: Soul’s Slow Ripening – Monastic Wisdom for Discernment

For details and registration click here>>

April 27-May 3, 2019: Writing on the Wild Edges on the Island of Inismor

For details and registration click here>>

May 28-June 5, 2019: Monk in the World Pilgrimage in Ireland

For details and registration click here>>  

Please note: We will be taking a time of sabbatical from live program offerings from June 2019-June 2020, so there will not be any additional pilgrimage dates scheduled in 2019 and the next live programs following the ones above will be available in fall 2020.

Monk in the World Guest Post: Janice Burns-Watson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series. Read on for Janice Burns-Watson's reflection on welcoming the stranger as a friend.

Too many years ago now than I want to admit, I was a young missionary in Kenya.  I was in my twenties, still inexperienced in life and as a minister.  But I was up to a challenge and excited about “experiencing life as most of the world lived it.”

To prepare for our time of service my then husband and I were sent to a site near Nairobi to learn Kiswahili prior to going out to where we would be serving for the next three years.  Part way through this training we decided to go out and explore our work location.  While we were there we were given the keys to what would be our home. The two keys were held together with a piece of electrical wire.  It was exciting and scary to receive these tokens that made our stay seem more permanent and real.  But the keys at that point seemed merely to be symbols and not really important.

On our way back to the learning center were we were staying our car died.  Here we were novices to the country who barely understood Kiswahili or any of the local languages and about all we knew is that our car had just died in an area we had been told was frequented by bandits.  We had no cell phone with us.  All I knew to do was to pray.  I don’t think I had even had time to put words to a prayer though before a car pulled up behind us.  I remember starting to heave a sigh of relief until I see who crawled out of the car.

Because the man who got out was huge.  He was well over six feet tall and very muscular.  Intimidating in and of itself.  But he also was wearing a turban and had a huge beard.  He was an Asian, as the Black Kenyans called Indians.  A Sikh, who seemed out of place in rural Kenya. It makes me feel horrible now, but I remember thinking that this man might be the end of me.  He very purposefully strode up to the car and asked us what the problem was and we timidly told him.  He told us to pop the bonnet, or hood, of the car, which we did. He tinkered around for a few minutes and then wanted to know if we might happen to have some electrical wire with us.  And yes, yes, we did!  (God provides in funny ways sometimes).  And he managed to get the car running, barely.  He told us that the car would likely die again shortly, so he would stay behind us to fix it again.  And he did, following our car for more than two hours as we limped back to Nairobi.  Fixing the car probably at least four more times.  Once we made it to the city he led the way for us to an auto mechanic who he knew fixed cars for the mission organization we were associated with.  Then he stayed with us until someone from that organization came to pick us up.

When we asked if we could pay him.  He seemed almost insulted and told us to simply remember his good deed the next time we saw someone stranded alongside the road.  To this day I think of him as my Sikh Angel.  The man who I originally thought was my enemy.

What I have grown to realize is that we all too often view those who are different from us as the enemy, when in actuality they are merely a stranger.  What we are called to do as a person of faith is to open our hearts, souls and minds to seeing the Divine Spark within each and every person we encounter.  When we are able to sincerely do that we discover the world is full of a lot more love and peace than we thought possible. And this grows with each person we meet, so that they become our brothers and sisters and no longer enemies.

St. Benedict seems to have understood this when he included the act of hospitality as one of the values we are called to live by.  Given the divisions that seem to be growing more and more prevalent in our world today, hospitality and love are traits we need to actively need to seek to grow within us.

Rev. Janice Burns-Watson is an ordained minister with dual standing with Christian Church (DOC) and United Church of Christ.  She has a certificate in Spiritual Direction and has done extensive missionary work.  She is the single mother of three wonderful kids and a dog.

 

Introducing Melinda Thomas ~ the Abbey's Administrative Assistant

Melinda Thomas has been working with the Abbey since 2015. She formats the newsletter and daily love notes, and uploads the blogs, including those from the Monk in the World Guest Post Series. Melinda has recently taken over managing the Abbey's Dancing Monk email account. You can still reach Christine at that address but general queries and operational email replies will come from Melinda.

Melinda is a writer, activist, and yoga instructor who lives in North Carolina with her young son. She is currently writing The Benedictine Path of Yoga: Integrating Monastic Wisdom with the Practice of Yoga, and blogs weekly at TheHouseHoldersPath.com. Melinda has also contributed to the Monk in the World Guest Post series. Her posts include:

Homing Beacon
The Dance of Becoming a Monk in the World

Join us for an online retreat this Lent ~ A love note from your online abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

I am delighted that John Valters Paintner will be taking the lead on our Lenten retreat online. He has a great love for the scriptures, and taught them at the high school level for many years. The upcoming retreat is the fruit of years of his reflection on exploring some overarching themes in the Bible. What follows is an overview of what the retreat will cover and the rich questions you will be invited to explore:

Week 1: Introduction

The Bible is not a single, declarative statement of fact. It is a series of competing voices wrestling with great questions of faith. Of the many Biblical stories, three (The Exodus, The Exile, and The Crucifixion & Resurrection of Jesus) are the most foundational. Prior to each of these watershed moments our spiritual ancestors thought they had life figured out. They thought that they had God figured out, or at least had come to accept their spiritual fate. And then suddenly everything changed: forgotten slaves are rescued, an invincible nation is destroyed, the Messiah is executed and returns.

This retreat will explore these watershed moments in sacred history that motivated the authors of Scripture to write down their stories of faith for themselves and future generations. Through contemplation and art, we will ask ourselves these same questions that continue to shape our own faith journeys today: Why are we so blessed (The Exodus)? Why do we suffer so much (The Exile)? And who was Jesus of Nazareth (The Crucifixion & Resurrection)?

Week 2: Foundations of Faith (Abraham & Sarah to Joseph) – Why were we chosen?

To know one’s self, one must know one’s own history. Our origin stories are as important to us as it is to everyone’s favorite superhero.  And so to understand what it is they lost during the Exile, the authors tell the story of how they got everything in the first place.

The Patriarchs & Matriarchs of the Israelites are very human and very flawed individuals. And yet, through them, God lays the foundation for a great nation and roots them in a specific place.

This week, we will explore the themes of family and relationships. We will dig into our past and what makes us who we have become, as well as where who we will become and where we are going.

Week 3: The Exodus (Moses & the Ten Plagues) – Why are we so blessed?

In a few generations, the Israelites go from being The Chosen People to Egyptian slave. Once invited and honored guests of the Egyptian empire, the Israelites eventually become an enslaved and hated people. Trapped in a foreign land, this oppressed people are surprised by the return of the God of their ancestors come to rescue them.

This week, we will explore the themes of enslavement and abandonment. We will look at how we have been the oppressed and the oppressor. We will face our loneness and our need to be connected, to reach out.

Week 4: The Creation Myths – Why is there suffering?

In the first Creation Myth we learn about God through the way this God creates a world full of goodness and order for us from the chaos of the abyss. In the second Creation Myth we learn how the perfect world that a good and loving God created is so full of suffering and evil.

The Creation Myths in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis establish the Jewish understanding of a God that is very different from the ones that came before. These Myths also give a foreshadowing of the events and lessons that are to come later during the Babylonian Exile.

This week, we will explore the theme of blessings and consequences. We will look at what we have been given and what we can do with it.

Week 5: The Babylonian Exile – Why do bad things happen?

Even though last week covered the Creation Myths, this week we get to where things really began. That is to say, where the Bible began. It began in destruction and despair and great lose.

Many of the stories, mostly in the oral tradition, had been around long before the Babylonian Exile. However, the Bible as we have it today first began to take form during the lowest point in the sacred history of the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. And that fact is perhaps the most important of everything this course has to offer. For the Bible is not a statement of reassuring faith, it is a series of questions of faith shaken. The Bible isn’t a victory speech; it is an analysis of a great loss. It isn’t a statement of doctrine; the Bible is search for meaning and understanding.

In 587 C.E. the Babylonian Empire invades Judea, conquers Jerusalem, and destroys the Temple. And so with their nation gone and the people scattered, the Chosen People begin to ask themselves how this all could have happened to them. Their answer eventually becomes what we know today as the Bible.

This week we will explore the themes of loss and rebuilding. Just as the Babylonian Exiles had to come to terms with all they had lost and what they could do to recover, we will explore our own losses and our response to having our faith shaken.

Week 6: Incarnation – How is God made manifest in the world?

Only half of the four Gospels have Infancy Narratives and they are not the same in most respects. Also, they seem to have been added to the beginning of those Gospels last, almost like an afterthought. But, I believe, very important afterthoughts.

Traditionally, Easter and the Resurrection are seen as the foundation of Christian faith and focuses on the need for God’s mercy to lift us out of our sinful state. Alternatively, Christmas and the Incarnation offer another perspective on Christianity by focusing on how God’s grace honors our sacred origins.

This week we will explore what makes us human. We will delve into our origins and examine what that means for all those we meet.

Week 7: The Crucifixion – Who *was* Jesus of Nazareth?

The Gospels don’t quite agree on when His disciples came to know Jesus as the Messiah, but one thing this is clear: they were shocked by His arrest and execution. They were frightened and confused until the unimaginable happened.

This week we will explore the themes of confusion and misconceptions. We will examine both our preconceived notions of Jesus and how they keep up from knowing Him through the lens of the Passion.

Week 8: Resurrection – Who *is* Christ Jesus?

The four Gospels don’t portray the Apostles as the smartest group of individuals. They are quick to follow Jesus, but very slow to catch on to who he truly is. And just as things are becoming clear to them, Jesus is arrested and executed as a common criminal.

The Gospels don’t quite agree on when His disciples came to know Jesus as the Messiah, but one thing this is clear: they were shocked by His arrest and execution. They were frightened and confused until the unimaginable happened.

This week, we will explore holy surprise and true triumph.

We will break open these themes through reflection, lectio divina, writing our own midrash, creative invitations, and a vibrant forum for conversation and sharing.

You can find out more about our Lent retreat at this link>>

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner