Encountering Silence

Encountering Silence


Christine Valters Paintner: Wild Silence and the Cloister of the Earth (Part Two)

April 06, 2020

Our conversation with Christine Valters Paintner concludes with this episode.

Christine is the online abbess for Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery offering programs and resources on contemplative practice and creative expression. She is the author of thirteen books on monasticism and creativity, including her most recent Earth, Our Original Monastery and her second collection of poems forthcoming this fall, The Wisdom of Wild Grace.
Wild, for me, is breaking beyond the confines of the limits of our imagination... wild, for me, is a doorway into this more expansive image of the Divine... wild, for me, is this understanding of the great Mystery that is. You can't commodify wild or mystery, you can't define it; this gift of wildness also asks us to access our intuitive knowing and our embodied knowing, as well. — Christine Valters Paintner

She leads writing retreats and pilgrimages in Ireland, Scotland, Austria, and Germany and online retreats at her website AbbeyoftheArts.com, living out her commitment as a Benedictine Oblate in Galway, Ireland, with her husband, John.

Christine returns to Encountering Silence (click here to listen to her previous interview with us, from 2018) bringing her warm, wise and inclusive spirituality which encompasses deep contemplation with an inspiring commitment to creative expression.

This is part two of a two part episode. Click here to listen to part one.

Some of the Resources and Authors We Mention In This Episode:

Christine Valters Paintner, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
Christine Valters Paintner, The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom;
Christine Valters Paintner, The Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice;
Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of the Body: A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women;

Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred.
Christine Valters Paintner, Dreaming of Stones: Poems
Christine Valters Paintner, Lectio Divina: The Sacred Art
Evelyn Underhill, The Letters of Evelyn Underhill
C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and Prose
The Desert Mothers and Fathers, Early Christian Wisdom Sayings
The Psalms

Episode 95: Wild Silence and the Cloister of the Earth: A Conversation with Christine Valters Paintner (Part Two)
Hosted by: Carl McColman
With: Cassidy Hall, Kevin Johnson
Date Recorded: March 30, 2020

Featured image photo credit: Burren/Seashore Photo by Gabriel Ramos on Unsplash.