Christine Valters Paintner's Blog

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest posts series from the community. Read on for Elaine Patterson’s reflection on walking labyrinths.

Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys. ~ H. Richard Niebuhr

I have always thought of myself as a ‘pilgrim’. I have never thought of myself as particularly ‘monk-ish’. But I loved the invitation to write about being a ‘monk in the world’ which would not let me go. And as I found myself reading the Abbey’s definition of a monk as someone ‘who lives in the world, immersed in the everyday with a single-hearted presence but always striving for wholeness and integrity’ and the detail of the Monk Manifesto, I started to entertain the possibility that I might indeed be becoming ‘monk-ish’. 

Initially I found this reflection amusing but as I played with the invitation, I started to recognise myself – I felt myself coming home to myself and found myself somersaulting inside with joy!

Over the last 20 years I have sought to live a more soulful, contemplative and creative life honouring our shared humanity and our shared human condition. I would say I have been on a pilgrimage of unfurling and unfolding gently responding to my soul’s yearning and to her kindly call to come home again and again to what truly matters to me in life and work. 

I have always loved Nordic walking and journaling mixed with nature and art based creative practices. I have always loved stillness and silence so that I can hear the murmurings and musings of my soul. But it was the discovery of the Chartres Labyrinth in France (and labyrinths in general) that sealed my commitment to monkish living – although I would not have had the words at the time. 

I have learnt to see each experience of a labyrinth as a contemplative pilgrimage – where through a path of meandering prayerful inquiry, through the power of sacred geometry and through the luminous language of image and metaphor journeying into the magic and mystery – my psyche is gifted the possibility of meeting my shy soul and where I can learn how I can keep coming home to myself. And whilst each person’s experience of the labyrinth is their own each time they walk or write the labyrinth, I have found that what is true for me has also been true for many others who I have hosted on their own walks.

This is because I found a spiritual home in the Labyrinth which offers a spiritually prayerful meandering and meditative path to the centre – our centre. The Labyrinth offers us an invitation to weave our Remembering and Gratitude as we enter, to Release as we walk to the centre, to Receive in the centre and how we Return (sometimes even dancing) back into our everyday lives having often touched the magic and mystery of life. In the words of Lauren Artess: Veriditas 1st Facilitator Training Manual

“The labyrinth initiates the soul’s organic unfolding process, which expands far beyond the specific act of walking the labyrinth.”

I have found the Labyrinth to a creative and generous host to all my confusions, worries and not knowings – and also to others who walk the path – a place of prayer, a place for reverence, a place to reclaim of kith and kin, a place for remembering, reclaiming and discerning what matters, a place of integration and healing and a place of infinite hospitality which can resource us to hold it all in the midst of everything. The labyrinth reminds me who I am when I get lost – and helps to resource me with my ‘what nexts?’ and my wonderings about ‘what is life asking of me now?’

My own experiences of taking my stories of loss, lostness and doubt into the labyrinth have always been generative, creative, hopeful and life affirming. I experience the labyrinth as welcoming as well as being gently challenging helping me to face into my shadows and to find their inner gold in later life. 

This shift in identity and perception of myself as a ‘monk in training’ is exciting and fresh. I have sought to live into my calling. I have since been on a week’s retreat to the Chartres Labyrinth with Veriditas, I have trained as an Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator with Veriditas, I am learning how to be a Spiritual Companion and I have just started writing a book on working with Labyrinths. The working title of the book is “An Ode to Labyrinths: Walking Ourselves Back Home to Soul, Spirit and Belonging”. More Soon!

Elaine is a writer and soul companion finding inspiration in the beauty of nature, the whisperings of our souls and the wisdom of our hearts for a kinder and gentler world.  She lives between London and the beautiful Lake District in Cumbria, UK. Website: CentreforReflectionandCreativity.org

The post Monk in the World Guest Post: Elaine Patterson appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

My time of sabbatical from teaching is come to a close. During my writing time I was able to complete two manuscripts: a fourth collection of poetry titled What Enters Through the Open Heart (to be published by Monkfish Publishing in fall 2026) and a book of devotions for the Easter season about practicing resurrection (to be published by Broadleaf Books in spring 2027). I also completed the final edits for A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Pilgrims, and Artists (being published by Ave Maria Press in February 2026!) And of course my newest book, Give Me a Word: An Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year is out now to support you in receiving a word of guidance. We will be offering an online companion retreat to the book starting next Sunday during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. 

Sabbatical time is a gift and a privilege I don’t take lightly. It is something everyone deserves to have—time and space to ponder, create, rest, be—these modes of being are at odds with our culture of incessant busyness and rushing. It is vital to me to live these rhythms to be able to teach in a way that is authentic to the practice. 

I experienced immense joy at watching the recordings of the many online programs we offered this fall. I was awash in gratitude for Melinda Thomas, our amazing program coordinator, Delaney Hart, our wonderful abbey assistant, and all of the wisdom council members and guest teachers who created such rich offerings for our community. And of course so much thanks to all of you who participated and kept our community connected in joy and justice. 

As we continue to move through our 20th year of Abbey of the Arts I wanted to share some projects we are working on behind the scenes:

We are so excited to invite you to our Dancing Monks Map Project. We have wanted to find a way to connect dancing monks to each other locally and are so grateful to Liuan and Matthew Huska for creating a way to do just that. Please visit the page to get more details and share your information. We love our sixth prayer cycle on  Cultivating Seeds of Liberation  which was released in May and June of this year. Betsey Beckman, our resident dancer, is creating gesture prayers to companion this series and in fall 2026 we will have the video podcasts for this prayer cycle ready to share with the world. Our team has been working diligently to get the text versions of the prayer cycles all formatted consistently. The revised PDF files are available at each of our six prayer cycles. Our team has also been slowly working through our self-study retreats and updating the CC and transcripts for each to increase accessibility of these resources. Accessibility is something we value highly as integral to hospitality. We are also in the process of creating a series of free guides for personal reflection and small groups for many of the books I have written. We have been working on a book version of all the dancing monk icons (created by artist Marcy Hall) with life summaries, and creative practices and prayers for each person (written by Melinda Thomas). In addition, this book will debut six new dancing monks to bring our total to fifty of them. Look for the book in the spring!

Please consider making a donation to help support our many projects we offer at no charge including our six prayer cycles of morning and evening prayer, our Lift Every Voice book club, our scholarship program which makes it possible for anyone to participate in any of our online programs regardless of financial means.

When you visit this page, you get details of the different ways to donate based on your geographic location and needs. 

Your support will also help us continue to connect dancing monks together locally and offering more free resources like study guides to deepen your contemplative practice and creative expression. 

You help Abbey of the Arts continue to thrive and serve all dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims. Together we are creating a vision for how we want to move (and dance) through the world!

As always, if donating funds is not within your means right now, please know of our gratitude for all the ways you support our work by showing up for our programs and sharing our resources with others. 

Please join us for our Advent and Christmas season retreat Give Me a Word. We begin with a live online retreat where I will be joined by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan offering his soulful gift of music and reflection. Then the retreat unfolds with daily pre-recorded content and a vibrant facilitated forum. I have recorded audio versions of the daily meditations for you and there are some bonus practices from our guest teachers as well. 

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

Image © Christine Valters Paintner, Connemara, Ireland

The post Returning from Sabbatical ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

As a virtual monastery, our community reaches around the globe. As of November 2025, over 1700 people have affirmed the Monk Manifesto to join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks, committing to live a compassionate, contemplative, and creative life. 

We love how our virtual format allows dancing monks around the world to stand in solidarity with one another. At the same time, our leadership team has longed to find ways for our community to connect locally and face-to-face. While technology offers many gifts, there is also something special about being in the embodied presence of other kindred spirits. A unique attunement to one another and to the Beloved happens.

To that end, we’re delighted to share the Dancing Monks Map, which allows you to see where we all are located around the world to convene nearby monks for in-person gatherings. Two of our community members, Liuan Huska, and her husband, Matt Huska, developed the map and a guide for local conveners.

Learn more and view the map here.

The post Announcing the Map of the Dancing Monks appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Lillian Lewis’ reflection and poem Winter Morning Prayer.

I am dancing my morning prayer around an outdoor “shrine or altar” to the Great Mother who is Creating the winter morning even as She is creating me. I vest myself for the prayer with joyful bells, family faith, and the petition for my child. In other words…I bring everything I am to the moment of worship.

Winter Morning Prayer

I offer myself
on cold cobblestones
Humming to you
O Dark Mother of Love,
“She who Lights my path,
who keeps me Wild.
I put on my antler crown,
my ankle bells, my Jewish father’s
Blue striped shawl
To join the cosmic dawning dance.
Soft stamping round your altar,
To an old tune, pagan meter,
two flat and three hops,
Stirring yesterday’s ashes into flame,
chanting again your secret names
Breaker of Chains,
Queen Bee,
Lady of Sorrows,
Heal me to the bone,
Mend me to the core.
Shekhinah, Not Forgotten,
Forget not my red haired child.
Then, hold me to my vows.
Amen.

Lillian Lewis was born and raised in post-Depression Chicago, where her eccentric but lovable Irish grandmother taught her the stories and dreams of her ancestors. She holds a Master of Arts in Theology and a Ph.D. in psychology. She is a great grandmother, a lover of poetry and Celtic lore.

The post Monk in the World Guest Post: Lillian Lewis appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Luther E. Smith, Jr. who will lead the Crossing Identity Boundaries: Where Hope Enlivens Us to Life retreat this Friday, November 21st. Luther offers this reflection.

The spiritual journey takes us to our hearts and the hearts of others as we pursue and experience the beloved community that God dreams for us. The journey entails crossing identity boundaries—the boundaries of other persons, and our reception of persons crossing our identity boundary. Encouraging journeys across identity boundaries is the work of hope.

The retreat will highlight exercises (things we can do) to clarify our own identity boundary; name identity boundary crossings that are most challenging and those that are taken with ease; determine our readiness for crossings; address mistakes made in boundary crossings; and reflect upon how we receive others who cross our identity boundary. Whether one self-identifies as an introvert or extrovert, to live faithfully relies upon our engaging all relationships with care.

The beloved community that God dreams for us is not only experienced in successfully connecting with other hearts. The joy of beloved community, through the work of hope, is also experienced in the process of embracing others. This retreat is designed to facilitate our commitment to “the process”.

Crossing identity boundaries is about how we are transformed, and not just about increasing the number of boundaries crossed. . . .  How are we sensitive to the social circumstances (e.g., poverty, discrimination, incarceration) that influence identity? How might we be in solidarity with others to overcome systemic forces that oppress persons we now know? What are we understanding about ourselves in these crossings? What are matters of etiquette and hospitality in boundary crossings? How do we perceive God’s presence on both sides of a boundary? If these journey questions are ignored whenever we cross an identity boundary, we could cross a thousand boundaries with no greater wisdom and heart transformation. . . .

Crossing identity boundaries is so elemental to beloved community that Howard Thurman concludes every effort must be made to eliminate any personal attitude or cultural barrier that prevents people from being in caring relationship. The love-ethic depends on such meetings. Thurman writes:

The experience of love is either a necessity or a luxury. If it be a luxury, it is expendable; if it be a necessity, then to deny it is to perish. So simple is the reality, and so terrifying. Ultimately there is only one place of refuge on this planet for any [person]—that is in another [person’s] heart. To love is to make of one’s heart a swinging door. [Disciplines of the Spirit, p. 127]

Hope enlivens us, as hosts and guests, to the hospitality invitation of the “swinging door.” The journey through the swinging door leads to a place where we are formed for beloved community. Hope is here in crossing identity boundaries! [Hope is Here! Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community, pp. 128-129]

We had a conversation with Luther about his book Hope is Here! for our Lift Every Voice Book Club and are thrilled welcome him back. Join us Friday, November 21st as we invigorate our commitment to beloved community.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

The post Crossing Identity Boundaries ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post from the community. Read on for Abbey Wisdom Council member Felicia Murrell’s reflection on the path of love.

Loving is the ability to see the Beloved in everyone around us.  

—RAM DASS, Vedanta (Hindu)

There are all kinds of ways of being in the world. For me, that way is Love. More succinctly, it means that I aspire to walk the path of Love in such a way that the truth of who I know myself to be is in harmony with the way I live and move and have my being. To be present to the holy, that which is sacred within me, and there in the presence of myself and that which is divine, to allow Love to mirror Love’s goodness, and then to mirror that which is good to the world. 

How does one decide what is “good”? How does one attune to the vibrational resonance of goodness in the world to see the Beloved in everyone?

Cosmologists teach that all life is connected. Connected to all that has been, all that is now, and all that is to come. If I fail to foster connection within by not recognizing the Beloved in myself, it will be impossible to facilitate or sustain connection in the world. 

To begin from kinship says I am because we are, and all exist in the Circle of Life as we are, together. Here in the circle, I do not have to prove my worth or earn my dignity. All are born belonging to Love. Love is the Source of creation’s existence. But what of kinship that asks something of me? 

How am I to be with those who make harmful, self-destructive choices? Choices that aren’t life giving or flourishing. Those who berate others, creating conditions of suffering and pain. Those who incite So. Much. Fear. How does Love invite me into the practice of kinship with those whose choices are rooted in oppression and denial of others right to exist?

The truth is I do not know the answer to my musings. I do not know the way to go, how to hold the humanity of all as beloved. I, too, am stumbling through. Yet, I know the way is the way of Love. 

I dare not speak of Love without taking a “long loving look at the real”[1] and telling the truth about my present reality. This is an age that feels rife with destruction. It’s painful to bear witness to many of the goings-on of today. I often remind my heart: humus forms in the soil when living matter decays.[2] As much as I’d like tidy explanations and clean lines, I can’t seem to find them in living (unless I create illusory ones of separation and division).

AND… even that feels like an invitation. To not match the energy of hellish torment with the same level of vitriol or vengeance. To see what is while remaining unequivocally not okay with conditions as they are AND not rushing in to fix, rescue, or save in the way that panic invites, where I attempt to wrest control and force order. 

Can I be present to chaos as my teacher? 

Make no mistake about it, to watch the world I know and love self-destruct is one of the most horrifying experiences of my human existence. And fear of ultimate demise can send me headlong into control, co-dependency, manipulation, threats, force…whatever it takes to set the world on the course I think will save it. How do I direct my way of being to hold sacred another’s freedom and their right to choose, even as I grieve their choices? Tall ask, I know.

And thus, my heart returns to Love. 

Love is how I want to respond to the groanings of the earth. That somehow, without overstepping my boundaries, the rhythm and energy of my life might be an invitation to awaken within another that same sense of calling to freedom, to union. To participate with the Divine in their own wholehearted flourishing. To remember that Love is home, and home is the place  to most feel safe, held, and connected. Home is where I come to know my own beloved-ness.

May we turn our hearts toward all that is sacred and honor it with truth and respect.
May we catch a glimpse of how this moment is inviting our light.
May we show up in the world as spectacular displays of beauty, truth and goodness who radiate Love’s glory.
When we stumble upon the broken, rocky places, remind us of our goodness.
When life’s torment overwhelms, remind us of safe communal spaces where we can be held by the tender gaze of one another.
May we come home to ourselves in the safety of one another.
Àṣẹ

[1] William McNamara as quoted by Walter J. Burghardt, “Contemplation: A Long, Loving Look at the Real,” in An Ignatian Spirituality Reader, ed. George W. Traub (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2008), 91.

[2] Accessed 10/29/2025. https://education.nationalgeographic....

Felicia Murrell is a spiritual director and the author of AND: The Restorative Power of Love In An Either/Or World. With over 20 years of church leadership experience, her writing has been featured multiple times in the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Daily Meditations and their biannual journal ONEING. As a contemplative thought leader, Felicia has spoken at the Black Contemplative Prayer Summit and other widely recognized organizations. She believes Love is the source of our authentic power and that a love ethos can be embodied as a way of being in the world. For Felicia, the Way of Love (agape) is to consciously participate with the Divine in how we live, move and have our being. Mom to 4 adult children, she makes her home in Woodbury, Minnesota (USA) with her husband, Doug. FeliciaMurrell.com

The post Monk in the World Guest Post: Felicia Murrell appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

My book, The Love of Thousands, came out two years ago because of my deep belief in the presence, support, and witness of the angels, saints, and ancestors. 

At its foundation, it is a journey of opening our hearts to the love of all those sacred beings who dwell in spiritual form across the veil. Our western minds may tell us that what we see is all there is, but the religious and mystical imagination knows a deeper truth.

Various religious traditions have taught about the existence of angels, saints, and ancestors for millennia. The God I believe in is a God of Love. A divine being from whom all of creation erupted out of this foundation of Love.

In a world so filled with struggles, discord, and violence, I know I can use as many reminders of the Love that undergirds and infuses all of life. Those beings who dwell in the light of the divine presence extend themselves toward us in loving care and compassion. They are resources to help sustain and inspire us. All we need to do is look with eyes of the heart. All we need to do is open ourselves to an encounter.  

Thresholds are potent doorways between the old and the new. When we step onto a threshold in our lives we release an old identity or old patterns and we await the new birthing. It can be uncomfortable at times to rest in this space of waiting, of not knowing what things will look like. But an essential aspect of retreat time is that we cultivate our capacity to breathe deeply and stay present to what is unfolding within us. 

To connect with the Otherworld—the world beyond the veil of appearances—means developing our intuitive skills and vision. It means trusting the messages from our heart and gut, rather than only what the mind shows us and our culture tells us is valuable. It means listening to daydreams and night dreams and paying attention to synchronicities – when a symbol or image starts to show up in multiple ways and places. It means spending time in the natural world and letting feather, fur, and fin reveal dimensions of our longing to us. It means listening for leaf erupting from branch and blossom emerging from stem without trying to figure things out. It means cultivating the capacity to let things be organic and emerge slowly. 

For some it might mean suspending disbelief in the possibility of this kind of love and connection long enough for messages to be revealed. As Mark’s gospel tells us,

“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.” (Mark 1:12-13, NRSV)

And this version from The Message by Eugene Peterson:

“At once, this same Spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him.”

This is our starting place: going out into the wilderness of our lives, the threshold space where we release the old and anticipate the new, and in this liminal place we know that angels and other spiritual beings surround us and attend to us.

The self-study companion retreat for The Love of Thousands is our featured retreat for November and is on sale. Use code LOTH20 to take 20% off through November 30th.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

The post The Love of Thousands ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Kate Kennington Steer’s reflection, poem, and artwork on the elements.

I am currently spending a year exploring the elements in the company of the Kinship Photography Collective.  My practice group (a special mix of people who are able to meet on zoom during the day in the U.S. and Canada so I can join with them here in the U.K.) are exploring each element by paying attention to the land-based calendar of the Celtic Wheel.  Thanks to the cultural background of one of our members, we are also able to compare and contrast this northern-hemisphere/white/western-based spiritual ecology with the Lakota Medicine Wheel, a moon-based seasonal understanding of the elements as teachers of certain human characteristics, or ‘spirits’.  We are then exploring how this might expand our somatic understanding of contemplative photography with the more-than-human world. Artistically, I am stepping way out of my comfort zone, since the group is encouraging me to make grids of my subjects, experimenting with how pattern, rhythm, movement and repetition might inform my understanding of the season of air (Sprint Equinox/Beltane/Pentecost).  Since I am also a poet, I am bringing the photographs I make into an ekphrastic dialogue, hoping that together, the words and images become more than the sum of their parts.  This image brought to mind the practice of slow stitching, and in particular, the fine art of Sashiko: a distinctive zen-based method of embroidery used to repair, strengthen and decorate a new textile from worn materials, traditionally creating complex white stitched designs onto an indigo ground.

air viii (‘sashiko’)
(29.5.25)

in the ground of my beseeching
I stitch a quilt of indigo cloud
bind tight the found-made rags
those torn shreds of holiness
fluttering surrender at the scelra.

it quivers a praying connection
into being
weaves shredded nerves
into synapsed patterns
expels my body’s breath
into miasma.

it blinds
and flits
and settles again:
the ancient rhythm,
that rising, that falling,

it directs the contrapunctuated
marks of my needle
and slowly, gathers each corner
of my vestigial attention
into folds.

it restores the spaces between
patches anew beyond the shadows
beneath the tucks of bone-deep knowing
and finally, reinforces my quotidian function
as mere receptor of the one great
gift.

Kate Kennington Steer is a disabled writer, contemplative photographer and visual artist. Kate is working on the bright-+/well project: a large series of works, combining photography, printing, painting and poetry examining wellbeing and the built environment; alongside a series of community art workshops. See progress at Instagram.com/KateKenningtonSteer. Kate’s first solo exhibition, ‘episodes’, at Farnham Pottery (2022) featured digital paintings made whilst experiencing FND seizures. She irregularly blogs at imageintoikon.com. Her Facebook project ‘acts of daily seeing’ has been running since 2015. Short films combining her writing, photography and painting are @katekenningtonsteer on YouTube. 

The post Monk in the World Guest Post: Kate Kennington Steer appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,

We are entering what the ancient Celtic tradition calls the dark half of the year. The feasts of Samhain, All Saints’, and All Souls’ Day coincide as we make a journey of descent into the gifts of darkness. Tomorrow, November 3rd, Simon de Voil and Polly Paton-Brown will lead our Contemplative Prayer Service on the theme of Mycelium. 

Mycelium is the beautiful, root-like, branching, underground network of fungal systems that act, in part, as a communication highway for plants. Trees in particular communicate with one another through this mycorrhizal network, sharing information essential to their health and the health of the forest.

When we think of mycelium as it relates to our human lives, we can ask the questions, “Who do we belong to? How can we support our neighbors and community?”

During these Samhain days that the Celts consider a “thin time” the portal between words is especially open. We are invited to pause, reflect, and interact with our ancestors, many of whom may be buried deep in the living earth, wrapped in a web of roots and mycelium. We are invited to consider how we are communing with those who have gone before, and, how we are communing with our own soul.

During our Contemplative Prayer Service Simon and Polly will break open these questions with music, storytelling, silence, and reflection.

On Friday, November 7th we are excited to welcome Abbey Program Coordinator Melinda Thomas for a poetry reading to celebrate her new book Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse. This collection weaves imaginal elements and true events with personified voices of Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The poems move like seasons and walk between worlds to chart the sacred terrain of motherhood, mental illness, and joy. During this hour-long, free event Melinda will share poems, stories, and a meditation inviting you into communication with your soul-network. 

Here is an excerpt from the beginning of Melinda’s book.

Fourth Voice: Earth

Weight of stone
Texture of soil and sand
Home to roots and rhizomes
that dispatch intelligence throughout
the community of forest and field.

She comes to me seeking solitude, wonder, provision—
all that is sacred and alive.

And I deliver the arc of seasons,
messenger spirits traveling on the backs
of raven, redwing and chickadee,
morning dew and mountains that expand her heart
for one more drop of love

bringing her back to those sad days when she stood
empty and grieving.
Only now she feels joy for she has learned my secret.

To live in this world,
to incarnate,
is to always walk with
Earth and Sky, Wind and Water, Fire and Air
sorrow and joy.

These are the elements of our Being
And I am Mother to you all.

~ by Melinda Thomas from Elements of Being

Join us Monday for our Contemplative Prayer Service and Friday for the Poetry Reading as we honor the mycelial web of interconnection with our ancestors, each other, and the earth.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE

Image: Paid license with Canva

The post The Interconnectedness of All Things ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Tom Delmore’s poems Sparse hay does not a savior make and Ascension Thursday ~ Heal Thyself.

These two poems come on the heels of retirement and a shift in writing. What is God calling me to in this craft? I began to see this as words jumped onto the page that seemed part of the poem but out of place, but not wrong. “A push the envelope moment” that sent shutters of not what I think but what others might. It is being on the cusp of something I know I must continue to do. I read somewhere that the writer Loren Eisley was so far away from his belief in God that he was right next to God. Monks have to trust. If you have ever seen a crossover dribble by Alan Iverson, the apostles will nod in understanding.

Sparse hay does not a savior make

Sparse hay does not a savior make
Nor herald angels on high. Coke filled
Shepherds like Silago lads turn against
The wind.

This new ark has no two-zees
But buttresses a woozy. Cow
And sheep get an eyes view
Becoming covenant species.

Donkey is alpha and omega transport.

A triad of men so old their journey
Was played out in kingdoms
Yet to exist. Rules say: no child
Left behind. No magi till Epiphany.

Rehab for sheep herders has no sign
So the crèche is an ethereal trip
Through frosted grass.
Belief is a tricky business.

Ascension Thursday- Heal Thyself

Make him a tent or something
Then we take refuge in there.
That por favor moment, like sand
Through an hourglass, sayin, get grindin.
Bethany first, then we do Manhattan.
We stubbed toes as if the earth was Astroturf.
We twisted ankles, crossover dribble
In the wake of Allan Iverson. Skinned knees
Like hopscotch neophytes.
Ascension gazing is not naval gazing.
For the love of Christ it was a Thursday
And all the GPs were on the back nine!

This opportunity to heal, to make holy
Is in the huddling of the twelve.

Tom A (TA) Delmore lives in Woodinville, Washington. His books of poetry include Eclipsing F Crow Poems (Little Letterhead Press, 1996); Child is working to Capacity (Moon Pie Press, 2006); A Poultice for Belief (March Street Press, 2009); Tell them that you saw me but didn’t see me saw (Moon Pie Press, 2011). Individual poems have been published in Raven Chronicles and Seattle M.E.N. Magazine. His latest Poem appears in; Take a Stand Art Against Hate. A Raven Chronicles Anthology. Titled: Homeless Vet. 2020 and A Thurible of Belief August 2022 in America Magazine a Jesuit Weekly.

The post Monk in the World Guest Post: Tom Delmore appeared first on Abbey of the Arts.