Category Archives: Lectio Divina

Winner of Otherhood’s “The Artist’s Rule” Comment Contest: Cole Matson

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For his comment on Otherhood Podcast: Episode 1 with Christine Valters Paintner, Cole Matson is hereby awarded a copy of Paintner’s book, “The Artist’s Rule.” The comments were all great, and the decision was a hard one.

The passion and devotion Matson offers in his poetry really captured my attention, though. And I’m a sucker for the old mystics.

The winning comment:

Nathan and Christine,

Thank you for this wonderful podcast. It was good for me to hear the effect that being a Benedictine oblate has had on Christine’s artistic practice, as I am considering oblation myself.

In support of contemplation bearing fruit in artistic creation (as in a motto of the Dominican Order, “to contemplate and to share the fruits of contemplation”), I thought I’d share with you a couple of the poems that arose out of a recent Ignatian silent retreat, after I had been reading John of the Cross and Lady Julian of Norwich.

“For John of the Cross”

Lord, let me love You
with the flame of ten thousand fires.

Let me love You
with a flame that dries and crackles,

burns and blackens the crust of my soul,
hides deep down in the heart of things,

to warm and beat,
flickering forth with tongues of fire

to burst through the shell of my cindered soul,
and leap to dance as love again.

Lord, make me all flame.

“For Lady Julian”

Lord, teach me to love my weaknesses
as Lady Julian loved hers,
seeing that the soiled, torn stain of our sins
blackening the white cloth of our humanity
was such a little nothing
because that cloth was worn by Christ,
who picked us up out of the Pit
and sat us next to Him at table,
with His Father and His Spirit,
all of us dazzling white,
with the wounds we ripped into our flesh
shining scars praising God’s glory,
His merciful meaning: ‘Love’.

Blessings on your work.

Cole

Runners up

I loved this, from Greene Fyre, via facebook:

To oblate in clarity, nor obtuse. To endeavor obscurity: a recluse? Divining the divine: propinquity. A pursuit sublime from antiquity.

Thanks also to Donelda Seymore, Genora W. Powell, Jaqui du Rocher, Jann Durkin and many others for your thoughtful reflections.

Contact nathan@artmonastery.org if you’re interested in joining our Artmonk Reading Group, where we’re about to go through The Artist’s Rule together.

Otherhood, the Podcast: Episode 1, Christine Valters Paintner and “The Artist’s Rule”

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Otherhood, the Podcast: Episode 1, Christine Valters Paintner & "The Artist's Rule" [ 27:05 | 17.43 MB ]

Meet Otherhood, the Podcast.

In this, the first episode, I interview Christine Valters Paintner about her new book (the Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul With Monastic Wisdom), the oblate life, and what it means to be both an artist and a monk.

BTW, we’re giving away a free copy of the Artist’s Rule to whomever leaves the best comment on this post. Just sayin’.

Monk Manifesto » Abbey for the Arts

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[Part of the Daily Lectio series, named after the Benedictine tradition of lectio divina, "divine reading." For instructions and background on the series, click here. Subscribe to Daily Lectio. Send comments or suggested readings to nathan@artmonastery.org]

With the previous post in mind, I invite you to meditate on this, Paintner’s Monk Manifesto: Continue reading →

The Cloud of Unknowing, “in whiche a soule is onyd with god”

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Partially in order to a brush up on my middle english (rusty since reading Chaucer in college), I’ll be working through text of the medieval Cloud of Unknowing, one of the sources of the practice of Centering Prayer. I’ll let you know what I find.

HERE BYGYNNITH A BOOK OF CONTEMPLACYON, THE WHICHE IS CLEPYD THE CLOWDE OF UNKNOWYNG, IN THE WHICHE A SOULE IS ONYD WITH GOD.

“a ‘holy’ actor in a poor theatre”

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Some good bits of artmonkish wisdom from a “visioning retreat” we recently held at the Art Monastery.

“Theatre cannot be imprisoned inside theatrical buildings, just as religion cannot be imprisoned inside churches; the language of theatre and its forms of expression cannot be the private property of actors, just as religious practice cannot be appropriated by priests as theirs alone!” -Augusto Boal

“The theatre must recognize its own limitations. If it cannot be richer than the cinema, then let it be poor. If it cannot be as lavish as television, let it be ascetic. If it cannot be a technical attraction, let it renounce all outward technique. Thus we are left with a ‘holy’ actor in a poor theatre” -Jerzy Growtowski

A Users Guide to Lectio Divina, or How to Feast on Words

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I’ve been sending out daily readings on monasticism to a handful of artmonks at the Art Monastery. Why not post them here too?

Hence, I’ll be posting readings from a variety of traditions and sources, along with commentary from a secular monastic, art monastic or “monastech” perspective, as a new series of blog posts called Daily Lectio after the Benedictine tradition of “divine reading.”

About once a week, I’ll post something a bit… perpendicular. A poem or a piece of writing that has nothing overtly to do with secular monasticism.

Below are some instructions on how to “do” lectio divina, stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia. Naturally, if the Christian jargon is a put-off, you can replace it with whatever you please and still benefit. For example, no matter what tradition you come from, you can:

  1. read slowly,
  2. meditate on the text with broad awareness, and let the openness and clarity of your awareness illuminate the text for you,
  3. pray—connect your life, all that is ugly or lovely, obvious or hidden about it, to that awareness you’ve generated,
  4. step back from the text and into the wordless clarity of ever-present awareness.

Subscribe to Daily Lectio with your favorite RSS reader.

Send comments or suggested readings to nathan@artmonastery.org. Continue reading →

BBC’s “the Monastery”

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In 2005 & 2006, a series aired on the BBC called “The Monastery.”

Worth Abbey in Sussex is home to 22 Benedictine monks. Last year they agreed to take part in a unique experiment. The BBC asked them to open the doors of their cloistered world to 5 outsiders. The aim is to discover whether the 1,500 year-old monastic tradition has anything to offer modern life.

Here is part 1 of 18:

For the rest, see Worth Abbey’s website.

Worth Abbey’s tips for Lectio Divina:

In order to receive what a sacred text (the Bible) has to offer, we must read slowly. This brings to mind the recent ‘slow food’ movement in Italy, where villages guarantee to visitors that there are no ‘fast food’ outlets and that all can enjoy their meals in peace. As an antidote to speed reading we need to foster slow reading, what monks call lectio divina.

It is a right brain activity; we do not grasp the entire content immediately but in a circular manner. We read and advance, and then we go back and read again. With each repetition, something new may strike us. It takes time for us to become attuned to the subtle rhythms of a particular writing; the more we can slow down our reading, the more likely it is that we will catch sight of something unexpected.

Reading can become communion with God if we pray before, during and after our reading. Ask God to speak and ask for the grace to listen with the ear of your heart. You could make your own this psalm. ‘O that today you would listen to his voice. Harden not your hearts.’

Worth Abbey’s tips for meditation.

Getting the questions right

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Examples of the secular world learning from the world’s ancient contemplative and spiritual traditions abound.  Neuroscientists, psychologists, doctors, cognitive scientists and cosmologists are learning from inner technologies of meditation and contemplative practice.

But what of the outer, visible, measurable technologies of those traditions? How are we learning from those technologies that fit into what is broadly called monasticism? And how are we impacting them? This blog asks the question:

What can the secular world learn from monasticism?

and

What can the secular world do for monastic traditions?

Some interfaith and secular groups are already learning from monasticism.  For example, I live in an ex-Franciscan convent in Labro, Italy with a community of artists called the Art Monastery, where we live together as “artmonks”.  We are growing our own monastic order: the International Otherhood of Artmonks.

Why can’t anyone build or be part of an “otherhood”? Any community or movement—whether seculary, interfaith, or of a single spiritual tradition—can choose to benefit from the wide array of monastic technologies that humanity has produced in the past 3000+ years.

This blog is about:

  • secular monasticism,
  • and high-tech monasticism,
  • and art monasticism,
  • and religious monasticism,
  • and interfaith monasticism,
  • and scientific monasticism
  • and integral monasticism
  • and more…

This is for:

  • Artmonks and other Creative contemplatives
  • “Re-monks” (part of the Christian “new monasticism” movement)
  • Co-ops, cohousing and other intentional communities (member of intentional communities around the world)
  • Benedictine, Augustine, Franciscan monks
  • Neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, information scientists
  • Doctors and medical professionals
  • Secular buddhists
  • Regular folks who want to add a little order to their lives
  • Sufi fakirs
  • Theravadan monks, Tibetan buddhist monks, Zen monks
  • Advaita Vedantan monks, etc.
  • …

Have an idea for an otherhood you want to start?

Monasticize your community’s future. Add a little order to your life. Grow your own Otherhood.

About the author

Nathan Rosquist is a writer and composer living as an artmonk at the Art Monastery in Labro, Italy.  He has a MBA in Sustainable Community Economic Development from Bainbridge Graduate Intitute.