Abbey of the Arts

What Lives Inside Silence

Christine — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:58:44 +0000

I think we talk because what lives inside silence scares us.

-Linda Hogan

Where will your own “zona sacra” be found today?

(Photos taken at the Abbey of Montecassino in Italy)

“The love of dark November days”

Christine — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:08:04 +0000

These dark days of autumn rain, are beautiful as days can be;
the desolate, deserted trees, the faded earth, the heavy sky;
I learned to know the love of dark November days.

-Robert Frost

Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s Poetry Party – such a beautiful and transcendent collection of poems await you there. Pour yourself a cup of tea, wrap yourself in a blanket, and relish these dark November days by honoring the ancestors. This is the month of the dead in the Christian calendar, when the world moves toward the beautiful mystery of darkness.

The winner of this week’s random drawing for a copy of Sacred Poetry: An Invitation to Write is Kate Jobe. Kate, email me at Christine@AbbeyoftheArts.com with your snail mail and I will send that off to you.

Blessings on your weekend. May this season of autumn continue to bring you wisdom about your own call to release and surrender.

(Photo taken on All Saint’s Day – November 1st – on the Hood Canal at the beautiful retreat center where we hold our trainings and retreats)

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What is a Monk?

Christine — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:12:13 +0000

There is a story from the Desert Fathers where one asks another “what is a monk?” And the response was “someone who asks ‘what is a monk?’ everyday.”

Laurence Freeman, OSB at the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates in Rome began his talk on contemplation with this image and invited us as Oblates to consider the same possibility – that being an Oblate means asking ourselves, ‘what is an Oblate?’ every single day. I loved this definition shaped by a continual return to questions. It embraces one of the central hallmarks of Benedictine life which is a commitment to conversion. Conversion of life means that we recognize we are always on a journey and have never fully arrived. It means we are willing to allow God to surprise us and shake us from our complacency. It means our identity is always evolving.

We might consider this definition for anything that is a meaninful part of our self-understanding. Each day I ask myself what it means to be an Oblate in this moment in time – and I ask myself what it means to be an artist and writer, a friend and wife, a teacher and mentor. I keep asking myself these questions because I recognize that the meaning of these dimensions of myself keep ripening and emerging with new discoveries about who I am and who God is. I continue to live more deeply into who I am, and in the process I continue to become a monk. I continue to deepen as a writer and artist. I continue to learn how to love well as a friend. I continue to discover new ideas moving through me and emerge in my teaching.

What is the identity to which you keep returning and discovering new dimensions?

(photo taken at the Abbey of Montecassino)

* Stop by this week’s Poetry Party *

Invitation to Poetry: Honoring the Ancestors

Christine — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:32 +0000

Welcome to our 40th Poetry Party!

I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Add them in the comments section and a link to your blog (if you have one). Make sure to check the comments for new poems added and I encourage you to leave encouraging comments for each other either here or at the poet’s own blog.

Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog if you have one and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post and full credit is given – © Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts)

On Friday, November 6th, I will draw a name at random from those who participate and send the winner a copy of my zine: Sacred Poetry: An Invitation to Write.

*************************

Poetry Party Theme: Honoring the Ancestors

This past weekend I was away leading an art and movement retreat for an amazing group of women. Together we embraced the threshold space of the Celtic feast of Samhain and the Christian feasts of All Saints and All Souls Days. In the Celtic tradition this time of year the veil between worlds is especially thin and we can feel the presence of the ancestors more strongly. Later the Christian church claimed this wisdom for its own liturgical rhythm and we celebrate and honor those beloved dead who have gone before us.

When you stand at the threshold space between this world and the next – who is there to greet you? Who are the ancestors – genetic, spiritual, creative – who offer you guidance and support through the challenges of life?

I invite you to write a poem in honor of one of your ancestors in particular or in celebration of the great “cloud of witnesses” and “communion of saints” who gather with us.

The photo above was taken in Ireland on my journey there in 2007.

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Lingering at the Threshold

Christine — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:27:32 +0000

I am leaving again to lead a retreat on Honoring Our Ancestors. These next few days are a threshold time in the Celtic calendar, when the veil between worlds is said to be especially thin. I have been lingering in this thin place for the last month and am eager to join with a group of women to honor this sacred time of year. In the Christian tradition, we are entering a time when we honor our beloved dead who have passed on before us. Together with my teaching and writing partner Betsey Beckman, we will engage in art and movement as our intuitive language of discovery and honoring.

My heart is already overflowing and the wings of angels seem to keep brushing my cheek. What discoveries still await me?

Which thresholds you are being invited to linger in?

(Photos taken in Rome)

** Come back on Monday, November 2nd for the return of the Abbey Poetry Parties! **

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A Walk Can Change Everything

Christine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:32:35 +0000

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

-Wallace Stevens

I began my pilgrimage in Rome arriving late at night after my flight was delayed by several hours and I was bumped to a later connection. The first day of the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates was very full. I remember feeling filled with anticipation and also drained from the long travel. The Congress was held at a conference center on the outskirts of Rome, a beautiful setting. That first evening I took a long slow walk around the perimeter of the property. The evening light was illuminating the world around me and with each step I could feel my body more grounded and present. With that walk I felt my whole perspective shifting and opening. I walked for hours and hours during this time away and truth ripened in me with each step.

As I return to Seattle, I again am experiencing the drain of jet lag. With the marvel and speed of modern air travel I wonder if our bodies can be transported faster than our souls can keep up with. Again I walk so that I can become more present to this place I find myself in. It is home, but I see with a new vision, and walking helps me to expand my imagination. Again, with each step I feel myself arrive, I welcome in the radiance of autumn leaves tumbling to the earth beneath my feet.

Walking is one of my primary spiritual practices. For me, it is a way of honoring the seasons of the earth and my spirit. With each walk I listen for the invitation of the world around me. Walking is a way of arriving fully to this place, it helps me to arrive to this moment in time and discover the gifts hidden both within and without. When I find myself feeling stuck for ideas and inspiration or feeling like my perspective has narrowed from fatigue, a walk can change absolutely everything.

(Photo taken on the property of the Salesianum in Rome)

** On Monday, November 2nd the Abbey Poetry Parties return so please come back for some poetic inspiration and community! **

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Returning Home More Free

Christine — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:43:35 +0000

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

-John O’Donohue, from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

My plane landed safely and smoothly in Seattle last night and my beloved was waiting for me to bring me back home. I have unpacked all my material belongings, but the spiritual gifts will take months -perhaps years - to unpack. The excerpt from John O’Donohue’s blessing above accompanied me on my travels. My heart is so full and my spirit feels so free and expansive as I return to my blessed life. It feels as though I have been gone for a lifetime and only for a few moments. I have thousands of photos downloading and many stories to share in the coming days. For now I cherish being home again, and realizing that in so many ways I have been coming home on this journey again and again.

(Photo taken at Sant’Anselmo Abbey in Rome – the primatial Benedictine Abbey)

* Just ONE SPOT LEFT for the Honoring Our Ancestors Art & Movement Retreat October 29-November 1, 2009 on the beautiful Hood Canal. *

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Unexpected Bliss

Christine — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:51:03 +0000

Christine at Blisschick invited me to reflect on a moment of “unexpected bliss” for her series this week. Stop by to read my reflections on the way language can express the “curves of (our) longing” . . . lovely for me to re-read these words I wrote before my trip as I sit now in Vienna.

Tomorrow I head to Ireland for the final third of my pilgrimage triptych and won’t have much computer access while there, so more stories and photos when I return home in just over a week.

Embracing the Night

Christine — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:57:36 +0000

The darkness embraces everything,
It lets me imagine
a great presence stirring beside me.
I believe in the night.

-Rainer Maria Rilke in Book of Hours

I write to you from the beautiful city of Vienna. I am in the middle of an amazing time of pilgrimage and journeying to the heart of myself. After many months of hard work writing and writing, I am now taking time to be and receive the gifts that move in me in response to the landscapes I am visiting. My first week was spent in Rome for the World Congress of Benedictine Oblates. There is much to process from those days of being with Oblates from around the world and visiting sites significant to Benedictine tradition like Subiaco, Montecassino, and Sant’Anselmo. (I have many photos to share upon my return!)

If Rome represents a sacred place in my spiritual lineage, Vienna is a sacred site in my ancestral lineage. This beautiful city is the place where my father grew up and I spent many summers as a child. He is buried at the cemetery here and I will visit his grave, although I can feel his palpable presence with me as I wander across the cobblestone streets of the inner city.

Today the weather has been stormy, and after several days of brilliant sunshine in Rome, I welcome in this sign of autumn’s arrival, one of my favorite seasons. We are entering the dark half of the year. It is a time to move inward as the earth sheds what she no longer needs. We live in a world illuminated by artificial light and so we can begin to forget the wisdom to be gained from being in darkness as Rilke points to above. I am reading a wonderful book right now — Let There Be Night – Testimony on Behalf of the Dark edited by Paul Bogard — a collection of 29 essays and stories in praise of darkness.

The Christian church honors the wisdom of this season by dedicating the month of November to the memory of ancestors and saints who have walked before us. The Celts believed this was an especially thin time of year and the presence of the wise ones who still dwell among us can be felt more keenly through the veil between life and death. As the earth prepares for winter, we too are invited to contemplate what death means for us.

I invite you during these October days to begin to consider how you might embrace the dark half of the year. What gifts are calling to you out of the long nights ahead that have previously gone unopened? How might you give honor to those ancestors who have traveled this road before you and welcome in the wisdom they have to offer you for your life now?

* There is still time to register for the Honoring Our Ancestors Art & Movement Retreat October 29-November 1, 2009 on the beautiful Hood Canal. *

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Retreat & Learning Opportunities

Christine — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:45:23 +0000

A quick note to let you know that my Teaching Calendar has been updated with several upcoming retreat & workshop opportunities.

A reminder to join Betsey Beckman and me for a wonderful Art & Movement retreat to Honor Our Ancestors over the weekend of Halloween, Samhain, and All Saint’s. This will be a beautiful time of welcoming in the dark half of the year and the wisdom of our ancestors who beat within our very blood. Through ritual, storytelling, art-making, gentle movement, poetry, and being in nature, we will deepen our awareness of the gifts of those who have walked before us. We will gather on the beautiful Hood Canal here in Washington State to dive deep into the mysteries together.

Are you interested in learning more about Benedictine Spiritual Practices such as lectio divina, centering prayer, and praying the hours? Sign up for a 7-week online course through the Episcopal Seminary in Berkeley and make a commitment to regular practice. Together we will form a learning community online for discussion of readings and our experience – so you can join us from wherever you are – and move into these rich, contemplative ways of being in a world of doing. The class begins October 26th and ends December 20th. Each week I post a lesson and discussion questions and then engage in conversation with you on the web.

Feel free to email me at Christine@AbbeyoftheArts.com with any questions – I am traveling right now but will respond to emails within a couple of days. You can register for Honoring Our Ancestors right here at the Abbey and for the Benedictine online course, please visit the CDSP website.

(photo above taken on the Hood Canal)