Contemplation and Creativity: An Interview with Christine Valters Paintner

August 14, 2011 by Christine Valters Paintner

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What's the thing you loved most about writing this book, and what do you your readers receive by reading it and engaging in its practices?

I have loved the monk and artist paths for many years and have been so deeply enriched by their mutual aliveness for me. When I first offered the online classes I was so taken by surprise that there was such a hunger for the material. I felt like I had been following my call for years but with offering this material and connecting with the community of people hungry for it I was amazed and so gratified. The only thing better than doing the work you love is having such a grace-filled community of people to receive it.

One of the things I hope my readers receive through this process is a deeper trust in their own deep longing, even when it takes them to uncomfortable places. I have a chapter on hospitality in the book that invites this attitude of welcome toward our own inner shadow places, to the parts of self that we dislike or have been suppressed by others and we have rejected often unconsciously. When we remember all of our parts and meet them with love and openness, we grow in our own wholeness. We begin to meet others with much more compassion because we can welcome in ourselves what we find in others. Ultimately for me this journey is about widening my capacity for bringing compassion to myself and to the world.

Visit the Patheos Book Club for more on Christine Valters Painter and her new book The Artist's Rule—including an excerpt of Chapter 1.

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8/14/2011 4:00:00 AM

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About Christine Valters Paintner

Christine Valters Paintner, Ph.D., is a Benedictine Oblate and the online Abbess ofAbbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery without walls offering online classes in contemplative practice and creative expression and pilgrimages to Ireland, Germany, and Austria. She is the author of eight books on monasticism and creativity including The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom (Ave Maria Press) and her forthcoming book The Soul of a Pilgrim: Eight Practices for the Inner Journey (Spring 2015, Ave Maria Press). Christine lives as a monk in the world in Galway, Ireland with her husband of twenty years.

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