Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Every other month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they sat down with Patrick Saint-Jean to discuss his book The Spirituality of Transformation, Joy, and Justice: The Ignatian Way for Everyone. Discover how rooting our beliefs and practices in relationship–with each other, the natural world, and the Source of All Life–leads us to transform ourselves and the world. At its heart, Ignatian spirituality is practical and experiential, offering modern readers a structure for pursuing inner growth that results in transformed action. While it is a deeply contemplative practice, Ignatian spirituality appeals to many of us who are looking for purpose and meaning, and who are wondering how to live out that purpose in a way that addresses the brokenness of our world. At the heart of this thoughtful introduction to Ignatian spirituality are the Spiritual Exercises, developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola of Spain. Using ordinary language, these meditations point to the ways in which this spiritual path not only “grows our souls” but also inspires us to defend human rights, respect and listen to other cultures, find common ground between science and religion, struggle for justice, and honor a Divine Spirit who is actively at work in each aspect of our world. As twenty-first-century spiritual seekers, we do not need to be Jesuits, Catholics, or even Christians to make use of Ignatius's methods; some of history's most important thinkers–from René Descartes to Carl Jung–were influenced and inspired by the Spiritual Exercises. Let them guide you to transformation in the ordinary, everyday world. AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/the-spirituality-of-transformation/

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations on a book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we sat down with Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes about her book Glory, Too: Poems, a soul-stirring collection of poetry that delves into the depths of faith, hope, and the human experience by one of America's preeminent black poets. In a marriage of poetry, faith, and worship, Ms. Grimes' poems illuminate the Scriptures that grace every Sunday of the year. Her inimitable voice and imagination offer glimpses of glory we might not otherwise see, throughout the seasons of the year. With lyrical precision and spiritual insight, she invites readers on a journey of reflection, weaving together themes of grace, redemption, and the enduring power of God's love throughout the year. As the companion volume to her previous book Glory in the Margins: Sunday Poems, Glory, Too resonates with authenticity and depth, giving testimony to the transformative power of poetry and the enduring hope found in the embrace of God's eternal grace. AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/glory-too-poems/

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations on a book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we sat down with Felicia Murrell to discuss her book And: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World. While others often respond to the cares and concerns of our day through anger, And: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World attempts to offer a response steeped in the heartbeat of Love. This book is an invitation to encounter the lived experience and philosophical musings of another as a human, not as a project or agenda to conquer. Without apology, it embraces humanity and all the emotions, back stories, and history that come along with who we are and who Love is inviting us to be. This book is for those who want to think more deeply, those who are asking questions of how, what, and perhaps even why, and those who want to engage in deep listening and empathy. And: The Restorative Power of Love in an Either/Or World is an invitation to move beyond binaries, beyond hierarchy and comparison to embrace the concept of “AND,” with inclusion and generativity that allow for more than one perspective and/or way of being. Touching on issues of race, body, motherhood, church, and wonder, these writings are from the stirrings of the author's own soul, extending an invitation to sit with Spirit in the process of mindful meditation, to humbly sit with compassion and curiosity in ways that evoke honesty and healing so that one might move beyond either/or and discover how the restorative power and uniting thread of Love might be stitching each of us to the world and to each other. AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/and-the-restorative-power-of-love/

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations on a book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we sat down with Shannon Dycus to discuss her book The Holy in the Night: Finding Freedom in a Season of Waiting. Listen for the voice of God. If you approach this Advent season waiting for something–in your life, in your family or community, or in a fractured world–you are not alone. This season reminds us that our waiting is not wasted. Even in our longest nights, divine work endures. What if we were free enough to do the same? ​ Drawing on lectionary scripture readings from the Old and New Testaments and the voices of Black and Brown modern-day prophets, author Shannon Dycus offers reflections for each day of the season. Her meditations stretch open possibilities for faithfulness during silence, ambivalence, doubt, and unknowing. This Advent, accept the invitation to witness and know the presence of God amid waiting. Give voice to freedom, grace, struggle, and beauty–to see again the ways that God emerges in this inward season. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice/The-Holy-In-the-Night

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Every other month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we sat down with Liuan Huska to discuss her book Hurting Yet Whole: Reconciling Body and Spirit in Chronic Pain and Illness. What if the things we most fear about our bodies–our vulnerability to illness and pain–are exactly the places where God meets us most fully? As Liuan Huska went through years of chronic pain, she wondered why God seemed absent and questioned some of the common assumptions about healing. What do we do when our bodies don't work the way they should? What is healing, when one has a chronic illness? Can we still be whole when our bodies suffer? The Christian story speaks to our experiences of pain and illness. In the embodiment of Jesus' life, we see an embrace of the body and all of the discomfort and sufferings of being human. Countering a Gnosticism that pits body against spirit, Huska takes us on a journey of exploring how healing is not an escape from the limits of the body, but becoming whole as souls in bodies and bodies with souls. As chronic pain forces us to pay attention to our bodies' vulnerability, we come to embrace the fullness of our broken yet beautiful bodies. She helps us redefine what it means to find healing and wholeness even in the midst of ongoing pain. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice/Hurting-Yet-Whole

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Every other month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we sat down with Luther E. Smith Jr. to discuss his book Hope is Here!: Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community.  Joyful and daunting opportunities to live into God's dream of justice and beloved community are compelling and available. Hope, says Luther Smith Jr., is essential to the needed personal and social transformations that prepare us for such sacred opportunities. Yet genuine hope is often confused as merely wish fulfillment, optimism, or perceiving better tomorrows. In Hope Is Here! Smith describes how we truly perceive and join “the work of hope,” enlivening us to a life that is oriented toward immediate and future experiences of personal fulfillment, justice, and beloved community. Interpreting five spiritual practices for individuals and congregations to experience the power of hope, this book prepares us to engage racism, mass incarceration, environmental crises, divisive politics, and indifference that imperil justice and beloved community. It delivers the inner resources necessary to work for change through its interpretation of hope. Additionally, each chapter ends with questions that prompt readers to examine their experiences and their readiness to journey with hope. Written for Christians who want to commit themselves to justice and beloved community, this book will provide helpful guidance for a life sustained by God's gifts of hope and love. Hope is here for our “responsibility” and “response-ability” to live the fulfilling life that God dreams for us. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice/Hope-is-Here

AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Every other month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun to discuss her book Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways. A timely, delightfully readable, and much-needed book. —Booklist, starred review Social justice work, we often assume, is raised voices and raised fists. It requires leading, advocating, fighting, and organizing wherever it takes place–in the streets, slums, villages, inner cities, halls of political power, and more. But what does social justice work look like for those of us who don't feel comfortable battling in the trenches? Sensitive souls–including those who consider themselves highly emotional, empathic, or introverted–have much to contribute to bringing about a more just and equitable world. Such individuals are wise, thoughtful, and conscientious; they feel more deeply and see things that others don't. We need their contributions. Yet, sustaining justice work can be particularly challenging for the sensitive, and it requires a deep level of self-awareness, intentionality, and care. In Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, writer Dorcas Cheng-Tozun (Enneagram 4, INFJ, nonprofit/social enterprise professional, and multiple-burnout survivor) offers six possible pathways for sensitive types: – Connectors relational activists whose interactions and conversations build the social capital necessary for change – Creatives artists and creators whose work inspires, sheds light, makes connections, and brings issues into the public consciousness – Record Keepers archivists who preserve essential information and hold our collective memory and history – Builders inventors, programmers, and engineers who center empathy as they develop society-changing products and technologies – Equippers educators, mentors, and elders who build skills and knowledge within movements and shepherd the next generation of changemakers – Researchers data-driven individuals who utilize information as a persuasive tool to effect change and propose options for improvement Alongside inspiring, real-life examples of highly sensitive world-changers, Cheng-Tozun expands the possibilities of how to have a positive social impact, affirming the particular gifts and talents that sensitive souls offer to a hurting world. AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/social-justice-for-the-sensitive-soul/

AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/ Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they speak with Lerita Coleman Brown about her book "What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman". “Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”–Howard Thurman Known as the godfather of the civil rights movement, Howard Thurman served as a spiritual adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders and activists in the 1960s. Thurman championed silence, contemplation, common unity, and nonviolence as powerful dimensions of social change. But Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown didn't learn about him during her years of spiritual-direction training. Only when a friend heard of her longing to encounter the work of Black contemplatives did she finally learn about Thurman, his mystical spirituality, and his liberating ethic. In "What Makes You Come Alive", Brown beckons readers into their own apprenticeship with Thurman. Brown walks with us through Thurman's inimitable life and commitments as he summons us into centering down, encountering the natural world, paying attention to sacred synchronicity, unleashing inner authority, and recognizing the genius of the religion of Jesus. We learn from Thurman's resilience in the psychologically terrorizing climate of the Jim Crow South, his encounters with Quakers and with Mahatma Gandhi, and his sense of being guided by the Spirit. Each chapter illuminates an aspect of Thurman's work and includes reflection questions and spiritual practices. Decades after their deaths, sages like Howard Thurman offer spiritual kinship and guidance for our contemporary life. Thurman's spirituality enlivened an entire movement, and it can awaken us to intimacy with God and to authentic action today. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice/What-Makes-You-Come-Alive/

https://abbeyofthearts.com/lift-every-voice/ Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they speak with Steven Charleston about his book We Survived the End of the World: Lessons from Native America on Apocalypse and Hope. From the moment European settlers reached these shores, the American apocalypse began. But Native Americans did not vanish. Apocalypse did not fully destroy them, and it doesn't have to destroy us. Pandemics and war, social turmoil and corrupt governments, natural disasters and environmental collapse–it's hard not to watch the signs of the times and feel afraid. But we can journey through that fear to find hope. With the warnings of a prophet and the lively voice of a storyteller, Choctaw elder and author of "Ladder to the Light" Steven Charleston speaks to all who sense apocalyptic dread rising around and within. You'd be hard pressed to find an apocalypse more total than the one Native America has confronted for more than four hundred years. Yet Charleston's ancestors are a case study in the liberating and hopeful survival of a spiritual community. How did Indigenous communities achieve the miracle of their own survival and live to tell the tale? What strategies did America's Indigenous people rely on that may help us to endure an apocalypse–or perhaps even prevent one from happening? Charleston points to four Indigenous prophets who helped their people learn strategies for surviving catastrophe: Ganiodaiio of the Seneca, Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee, Smohalla of the Wanapams, and Wovoka of the Paiute. Through gestures such as turning the culture upside down, finding a fixed place on which to stand, listening to what the earth is saying, and dancing a ghostly vision into being, these prophets helped their people survive. Charleston looks, too, at the Hopi people of the American Southwest, whose sacred stories tell them they were created for a purpose. These ancestors' words reach across centuries to help us live through apocalypse today with courage and dignity. https://AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice/We-Survived-the-End-of-the-World  

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by Kaitlin B. Curtice to discuss her book Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day. “Readers will find abundant wisdom in this accessible guide.”–Publishers Weekly In an era in which “resistance” has become tokenized, popular Indigenous author Kaitlin Curtice reclaims it as a basic human calling. Resistance is for every human who longs to see their neighbors' holistic flourishing. We each have a role to play in the world right where we are, and our everyday acts of resistance hold us all together. Curtice shows that we can learn to practice embodied ways of belonging and connection to ourselves and one another through everyday practices, such as getting more in touch with our bodies, resting, and remembering our ancestors. She explores four “realms of resistance”–the personal, the communal, the ancestral, and the integral–and shows how these realms overlap and why all are needed for our liberation. Readers will be empowered to seek wholeness in whatever spheres of influence they inhabit. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by Leticia Ochoa Adams to discuss her book Our Lady of Hot Messes: Getting Real with God in Dive Bars and Confessionals. Leticia Ochoa Adams met Jesus in a dive bar when she was eighteen years old. She didn't actually meet Jesus, but it was there where she first witnessed holiness in action. The bar's regulars taught her about the importance of community, being honest about who she is, not giving up on people, and how to laugh—even when awful things happen. In Our Lady of Hot Messes, Ochoa Adams tells the ongoing story of her redemption. At times funny and heartbreaking, but always gritty and unflinchingly honest, her story shows that no matter what you're dealing with, God wants you to trust in his love. The Tejana daughter of a single mother—a cycle she would repeat in her own life—Ochoa Adams was sexually abused as a child. She married after a two-week courtship and, eight years later, divorced her husband who struggled with drug addiction. In between she suffered a late-term miscarriage and had three more children back-to-back. She always thought a dream life meant having a big house, kids, lots of money, and new cars. Since she hadn't yet cracked the code for the American dream, “I turned to the person that every American woman turns to when looking for a way to make a better life for herself: Oprah.” Watching the daytime talk show queen helped Ochoa Adams put a name to what happened to her as a child. But she was still searching for something more. Ochoa Adams was baptized Catholic but attended a small-town Baptist church growing up. When she reverted to Catholicism at age thirty-three in order to marry her second husband, Ochoa Adams was convinced that Catholics had all of the answers to life's toughest questions. But she quickly learned that becoming Catholic didn't mean she could just erase her bad choices and difficult past. And just when she thought she was getting her life together, her son, Anthony, died by suicide. God, therapy, and caring priests helped her face her pain and heal her brokenness. She wants you to see yourself in her mistakes, learn from them, and realize along with her that even when we've put our trust in God—even if it's begrudgingly—we still have to do the tough work to become the person God wants us to be. “I still make mistakes,” she says, “but I'm trying not to live as a hot mess even when things around me are messy.” AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by Therese Taylor-Stinson to discuss her book Walking the Way of Harriet Tubman: Public Mystic and Freedom Fighter. Harriet Tubman, freedom fighter and leader in the Underground Railroad, is one of the most significant figures in U.S. history. Her courage and determination in bringing enslaved people to freedom have established her as an icon of the abolitionist movement. But behind the history of the heroine called “Moses” was a woman of deep faith. In Walking the Way of Harriet Tubman, Therese Taylor-Stinson introduces Harriet, a woman born into slavery whose unwavering faith and practices in spirituality and contemplation carried her through insufferable abuse and hardship to become a leader for her people. Her profound internal liberation came from deep roots in mysticism, Christianity, nature spirituality, and African Indigenous beliefs that empowered her own escape from enslavement–giving her the strength and purpose to lead others on the road to freedom. Harriet's lived spirituality illuminates a profound path forward for those of us longing for internal freedom, as well as justice and equity in our communities. As people of color, we must cultivate our full selves for our own liberation and the liberation of our communities. As the luminous significance of Harriet Tubman's spiritual life is revealed, so too is the path to our own spiritual truth, advocacy, and racial justice as we follow in her footsteps. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by Yolanda Pierce to discuss her book In My Grandmother's House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit. What if the most steadfast faith you'll ever encounter comes from a Black grandmother? The church mothers who raised Yolanda Pierce, dean of Howard University School of Divinity, were busily focused on her survival. In a world hostile to Black women's bodies and spirits, they had to be. Born on a former cotton plantation and having fled the terrors of the South, Pierce's grandmother raised her in the faith inherited from those who were enslaved. Now, in the pages of In My Grandmother's House, Pierce reckons with that tradition, building an everyday womanist theology rooted in liberating scriptures, experiences in the Black church, and truths from Black women's lives. Pierce tells stories that center the experiences of those living on the underside of history, teasing out the tensions of race, spirituality, trauma, freedom, resistance, and memory. A grandmother's theology carries wisdom strong enough for future generations. The Divine has been showing up at the kitchen tables of Black women for a long time. It's time to get to know that God. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Abbey of the Arts Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by Carmen Acevedo Butcher to discuss her book Practice of the Presence: A Revolutionary Translation by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (Author) Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Translator) “Everything is possible for those who believe, even more for those who hope, still more for those who love, and most of all for those who practice and persevere in these three powerful paths.” Since it was first published in its pocket-size 1692 edition, Brother Lawrence's spiritual classic has remained in print, beloved by people of varying spiritual paths and religious traditions. With this new translation, award-winning translator Carmen Acevedo Butcher frees it from its centuries-long prison of dogmatic, binary language and brings fresh, inclusive treatment that readers are sure to find transformational. Brother Lawrence's years as a humble kitchen worker at a monastery, often remaining in the shadows of his community, gave way to a spiritual life that was profound. Poor, living with a disability, lacking a formal education, enduring a time of plague and civil unrest, he found God in the depths of his soul, experiencing God's loving presence throughout the day. His personal struggles and life-tested spiritual wisdom will resonate with contemporary readers as he invites us into a practice of Presence that is both accessible and deeply transformative. For the first time, Brother Lawrence's work is translated by Carmen Acevedo Butcher, a woman of color and a renowned scholar of medieval texts, who creates a dynamic, faithful translation for a new generation of readers. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Abbey of the Arts Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by author Patrick Reyes to discuss his book The Purpose Gap: Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and Thrive. In The Purpose Gap, Patrick Reyes reflects on a family member's death after a long struggle with incarceration and homelessness. As he asks himself why his cousin's life had turned out so differently from his own, he realizes that it was a matter of conditions. While they both grew up in the same marginalized Chicano community in central California, Patrick found himself surrounded by a host of family, friends, and supporters. They created a different narrative for him than the one the rest of the world had succeeded in imposing on his cousin. In short, they created the conditions in which Patrick could not only survive but thrive. Far too much of the literature on leadership tells the story of heroic individuals creating their success by their own efforts. Such stories fail to recognize the structural obstacles to thriving faced by those in marginalized communities. If young people in these communities are to grow up to lives of purpose, others must help create the conditions to make that happen. Pastors, organizational leaders, educators, family, and friends must all perceive their calling to create new stories and new conditions of thriving for those most marginalized. This book offers both inspiration and practical guidance for how to do that. It offers advice on creating safe space for failure, nurturing networks that support young people of color, and professional guidance for how to implement these strategies in one's congregation, school, or community organization. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Abbey of the Arts Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by author Mihee Kim-Kort to discuss her book Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith. Mihee Kim-Kort is a wife, a mom, and a Presbyterian minister. And she's queer. As she became aware of her queer sexuality, Mihee wondered what that meant for her spirituality. But instead of pushing her away from God, it brought her closer to Jesus and taught her how to love better. In Outside the Lines, Mihee shows us how God, in Jesus, is oriented toward us in a radical way. Through the life, work, and witness of Jesus, we see a God who loves us with a queer love, and our faith in that God becomes a queer spirituality–a spirituality that crashes through definitions and moves us outside of the categories of our making. Whenever we love ourselves and our neighbors with the boundary-breaking love of God, we live out this spirituality in the world. With a captivating mix of personal story and biblical analysis, Outside the Lines shows us how each of our bodies fits into the body of Christ. Outside the lines and without exceptions. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Abbey of the Arts Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month they are joined by author Aurelia Dávila Pratt to discuss her book A Brown Girl's Epiphany: Reclaim Your Intuition and Step into Your Power. Each of us has traumas, triggers, and painful experiences that have shaped our existence in this world. We carry these burdens with us as we navigate the realities of our lives. Learning to embody the truth of imago Dei is our catalyst for healing. We are each made in the image of God, and the Spirit of God lives within us. Therefore, we are allowed to listen to our Spirit. We are invited to develop our own Divine intuition, and we are empowered to trust our inner voice. We don't need anyone else's permission to navigate our life and faith, except our own. With the powerful voice of a woman, pastor, mother, and advocate, Rev. Aurelia Dávila Pratt gives us the compassionate nudge and tools we need to access our inner authority. By stepping out of harmful belief systems informed by white supremacy and scarcity, we can step into healthy paradigms of abundance, liberation, and power. A Brown Girl's Epiphany is a love letter to all of us in need of guidance on our journey. Honest, vulnerable, and humble, Pratt imagines a world where the walking wounded become the fully healed and liberated, where our inner work becomes the starting point for creating heaven on earth. AbbeyoftheArts.com/Lift-Every-Voice

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we are reading Then They Came for Mine: Healing from the Trauma of Racial Violence by Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts. Black Americans' resilience during centuries of racially-motivated violence is beyond remarkable. But continuing to endure this harm allows for generations of trauma to fester and grow. Healing has to be the priority going forward. For decades, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts clung to her upbringing in the church, believing that racial reconciliation would come through faith and discipline, being respectable, and doing what's right. But when her cousin became the victim of a white supremacist's hateful rampage, her body and soul said, “no more.” The trauma of America's racial history, wreaking havoc on not only Black and Brown folk but white people too, in its own way, will not be alleviated without the will to face it head-on. We must name the dehumanization that plagues us, practice truth-telling and self-care, and make space for our vulnerability—to do the hard work of healing ourselves and our communities. This book is written with that healing in mind. It unpacks how American systems and institutions enable the kind of violence we've seen connected to white supremacy and nationalism. It examines the way media has created a desensitization to violence against Black bodies. It outlines what it looks like for a person who claims to follow Jesus to be anti-racist. But more than anything, it offers a blueprint for healing and reconciliation that includes the necessity of white people untangling from an ancestral mandate of colonization and false notions of supremacy, and Black and Brown people reckoning with the impact of trauma and feeling free to grieve in whatever way grief shows up. Learn more at: AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we are reading The God Who Riots: Taking Back the Radical Jesus by Damon Garcia. For thousands of years, religious messages have been used to either uphold the status quo or upend it. And while we are all very familiar with the kind of conservative Christianity that suppresses liberation and justifies oppression, progressive Christians are just as guilty of upholding unjust systems when we prioritize harmony and unity over justice. True justice requires us to choose sides. True justice requires action. When we look at Scripture, we see that the God of the Bible was never neutral. Again and again God chooses the side of the oppressed. Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord anointed him “to let the oppressed go free,” and those of us who claim to follow Jesus today must commit to this radical mission of liberation. In The God Who Riots, popular YouTuber and public theologian Damon Garcia uses his frank, tell-it-like-it-is style to connect us with the Jesus who flipped tables in the temple and led an empire-destabilizing movement for liberation. The spirit of this God is embodied in today's protests, riots, and strikes. As we join this struggle for liberation, we are joining the God who riots alongside us, within us, and through us. AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month we are reading Soul Talk: How to Have the Most Important Conversation of All by Kirk Byron Jones. “Though your soul may be more mystery to you than familiar reality, you are not a stranger to soul moments. When you smile for no reason, know something for sure without having learned it, or feel peace amid broken pieces, your soul is manifesting itself. Your soul is your pool of deep wisdom, peace, and joy within. Your soul is the part of you God held last as God released your free flight into the world.” ~ from Soul Talk: How to Have the Most Important Conversation of All Too often, the most difficult person to speak with honestly and deeply is yourself. And yet, if you are to live your finest, freshest, and fullest life, it is essential to maintain an empowering inner dialogue. Soul Talk presents 7 enlivening steps for creating and continuing soulfully satisfying self-communication:1. Be Still.2. Lay Burdens Down.3. Listen Deeply.4. Don't Run Away.5. Be Honest.6. Be Gentle.7. Welcome New Truth.To Connect With Your Soul is to take Advantage of the Supreme Empowerment Opportunity of a Lifetime. AbbeyoftheArt.com/Lift-Every-Voice    

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month Christine and Claudia Love are joined by Kat Armas, author of Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength. What if some of our greatest theologians wouldn't be considered theologians at all? Kat Armas, a second-generation Cuban-American, grew up on the outskirts of Little Havana, Miami's famed Cuban neighborhood. Her earliest theological formation came from her grandmother, her abuelita, who fled Cuba during the height of political unrest and raised three children alone after her husband passed away. Combining personal storytelling with biblical reflection, Armas shows us how voices on the margins–those often dismissed, isolated, and oppressed because of their gender, socioeconomic status, or lack of education–have more to tell us about Christian faith than we realize. Abuelita Faith tells the story of unnamed and overlooked theologians in society and in the Bible–mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters–whose survival, strength, resistance, and persistence teach us the true power of faith and love. The author's exploration of abuelita theology will help people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds reflect on the abuelitas in their own lives and ministries and on ways they can live out abuelita faith in their day-to-day lives.

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month Christine and Claudia Love are joined by Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation. “From the womb, we must repeat with regularity that to love ourselves is to survive. I believe that is what my father wanted for me and knew I would so desperately need: a tool for survival, the truth of my dignity named like a mercy new each morning.” So writes Cole Arthur Riley in her unforgettable book of stories and reflections on discovering the sacred in her skin. In these deeply transporting pages, Arthur Riley reflects on the stories of her grandmother and father, and how they revealed to her an embodied, dignity-affirming spirituality, not only in what they believed but in the act of living itself. Writing memorably of her own childhood and coming to self, Arthur Riley boldly explores some of the most urgent questions of life and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this indelible work of contemplative storytelling, Arthur Riley invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it. At once a compelling spiritual meditation, a powerful intergenerational account, and a tender coming-of-age narrative, This Here Flesh speaks potently to anyone who suspects that our stories might have something to say to us.

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month Christine and Claudia are joined by Makoto Fujimura, author of Art + Faith: A Theology of Making. Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura's broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God's being and God's grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman's words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art. AbbeyoftheArts.com

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola uses Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises as a framework for discussing the spiritual challenges of antiracism. Each of the Exercise's four weeks are applied in practical ways to the work of antiracism, combining history, present-day events and data, the life and teaching of Ignatius, prayer, and guidance for personal reflection and journaling. An excellent resource for both group study and personal meditation. Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J., PsyD, currently teaches in the psychology department at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where he is also a psychotherapist. He enjoys jazz, traveling, and learning new languages; and he plays the guitar, harmonica, and drums. He also likes a cup of hot water in the morning.

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. Jesus asks his followers to stay awake, which begs the question: stay awake to what? Staying Awake is a practical exploration of Christianity for people who want to show up for justice and stay in the movement. Discover nine essential practices to transform you for transforming the world. Complete with stories, worksheets, poetry, original cartoons, and a commitment to centering queer people of color, this book is here to support you in staying awake: to God, to the evils of oppression, and to the world's coming liberation. www.AbbeyoftheArts.com

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. What does it mean to become rooted in the land? How can we become better relatives to our greatest teacher, the Earth? Becoming Rooted invites us to live out a deeply spiritual relationship with the whole community of creation and with Creator. Through meditations and ideas for reflection and action, Randy Woodley, an activist, author, scholar, and Cherokee descendant, recognized by the Keetoowah Band, guides us on a one-hundred-day journey to reconnect with the Earth. Woodley invites us to come away from the American dream–otherwise known as an Indigenous nightmare–and get in touch with the water, land, plants, and creatures around us, with the people who lived on that land for thousands of years prior to Europeans' arrival, and with ourselves. In walking toward the harmony way, we honor balance, wholeness, and connection. Creation is always teaching us. Our task is to look, and to listen, and to live well. She is teaching us now. www.AbbeyOfTheArts.com

WINNER of the 2021 Thomas Merton Award awarded by The International Thomas Merton Society What if we truly belong to each other? What if we are all walking around shining like the sun? Mystic, monk, and activist Thomas Merton asked those questions in the twentieth century. Writer Sophfronia Scott is asking them today. In The Seeker and the Monk, Scott mines the extensive private journals of one of the most influential contemplative thinkers of the past for guidance on how to live in these fraught times. As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love. She asks: What is the connection between contemplation and action? Is there ever such a thing as a wrong answer to a spiritual question? How do we care about the brutality in the world while not becoming overwhelmed by it? By engaging in this lively discourse, readers will gain a steady sense of how to dwell more deeply within–and even to love–this despairing and radiant world.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Wilda Gafney about her book Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. Womanist Midrash is an in-depth and creative exploration of the well- and lesser-known women of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using her own translations, Gafney offers a midrashic interpretation of the biblical text that is rooted in the African American preaching tradition to tell the stories of a variety of female characters, many of whom are often overlooked and nameless. Gafney employs a solid understanding of womanist and feminist approaches to biblical interpretation and the sociohistorical culture of the ancient Near East. This unique and imaginative work is grounded in serious scholarship and will expand conversations about feminist and womanist biblical interpretation.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Lisa Colón DeLay about her book The Wild Land Within. In The Wild Land Within, spiritual companion and podcast host Lisa Colón DeLay offers a map to our often-bewildering inner terrain, inviting us to deepen and expand our encounters with God. Through specific spiritual practices from early desert monastics, as well as Latinx, Black, and Indigenous contemplatives, she guides us in cultivating lives of devotion.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Barbara Peacock about her book Soul Care in African American Practice. Soul care director Barbara Peacock illustrates a journey of prayer, spiritual direction, and soul care from an African American perspective. She reflects on how these disciplines are woven into the African American culture and lived out in the rich heritage of its faith community.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Kaitlin Curtice about her book Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God. Curtice draws on her personal journey, poetry, imagery, and stories of the Potawatomi people to address themes at the forefront of today's discussions of faith and culture in a positive and constructive way.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation about Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church by Barbara A. Holmes. Joy Unspeakable focuses on the aspects of the Black church that point beyond particular congregational gatherings toward a mystical and communal spirituality not within the exclusive domain of any denomination.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation about I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown.  I'm Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God's ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness—if we let it—can save us all.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Lerita Coleman Brown about the book Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman.  Howard Thurman, the great spiritualist and mystic, was renowned for the quiet beauty of his reflections on humanity and our relationship with God. This collection of fifty-four of his most well-known meditations features his thoughts on prayer, community, and the joys and rituals of life. 

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with April Yamasaki about her book Four Gifts: Seeking Self-Care for Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. Drawing on the ancient scriptural command to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, Yamasaki helps readers think about the spiritual dimensions of attending to your own needs, setting priorities, and finding true rest in a fast-paced world. 

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Jon Sweeney about his book Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint. Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) is popularly celebrated for his fascinating spiritual life. How could one man, one deeply spiritual man, serve as both a traditional Oglala Lakota medicine man and a Roman Catholic catechist and mystic? How did these two spiritual and cultural identities enrich his prayer life? 

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation with Therese Taylor Stinson about Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color. These essays speak of how we have incorporated our contemplative practices into our family life; our urban, non-religious background; how we have been nurtured in struggles for health and life through our contemplative prayer practices and our courage to survive and even thrive in the midst of dire circumstances.

Claudia Love Mair and Christine Valters Paintner have a conversation about Claudia's book God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila. This lively little book introduces postmodern readers to one of Christianity's most endearing prayer warriors, and guides them through her most radical teachings. Here, Teresa of Avila is not a lofty, inaccessible saint; she's a companion, taking readers on a rollicking journey through their own interior castles.