Christine is a gift. I first met her through Abbey of the Arts, her virtual monastery, and got to know her through a few of the online courses that she offers. In emails and other exchanges, I got to know her a little bit better, and then at a Spiritual Directors International event I was graced with meeting her in the flesh. As you'll read below, Christine is articulate, warm and deeply intuitive. What you don't know is what I experienced upon meeting Christine in person for the first time—to be with her is to know yourself profoundly accepted. It is a rare thing, and a holy one.
Introduce yourself to the Anam Cara readers. Who are you? Where do you live? What do you do other than spiritual direction?
I am Christine Valters Paintner and I live in Seattle, WA with my husband and my canine companion (who is one of my primary spiritual directors) in the heart of the city. I am a Benedictine oblate which means I have made a commitment to living as a monk in the world outside the monastery walls. I am also the online Abbess of Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery offering resources, retreats, and online classes in contemplative practice and creative expression. So my main work other than spiritual direction is as a teacher and a writer of several books on monastic wisdom.
What brought you to the ministry of spiritual direction?
Like many folks, I found that there were people starting to come to me for guidance in the spiritual life. This first started happening in my mid-twenties when I was working as a campus minister at a Catholic high school. From there I went onto graduate school to earn my PhD in Christian spirituality. Despite the academic focus of my life, I also continued to feel drawn to being in relationship with people in ministry and so began moving into retreat and spiritual direction work. It was really these kinds of relationships that ultimately helped me to decide not to pursue the academic path after graduating. I wanted to keep being involved with people in this intimate and holy way.
Why do you think spiritual direction is valuable?
Spiritual direction has a multitude of values which include sitting with someone who has some wisdom about the spiritual journey (sort of a mentor for moving more deeply inward), being in a safe and sacred space to explore the holy and terrible moments of one's life, having a place to dream the dreams God has planted in our hearts in an uncensored way, and returning again and again to a place where we can integrate the different threads of our lives.
For me the metaphors of midwife and weaver speak most powerfully to the spiritual direction ministry. The spiritual director helps to support the holy birthing happening in souls and the weaver helps to draw together the threads into a tapestry.
What's your favorite thing about being a spiritual director?
It is a profound honor to sit with people, create this safe container to hold whatever comes forth in our time, and then be privileged to enter into the intimacy of their lives. What I have been told again and again, that often peoples' greatest learning and gift from their time in spiritual direction or my retreats is the permission and encouragement to be exactly wherever they are in their journey without judgment and to welcome in all the difficult feelings that arise with compassion, and to have permission to fully take care of one's own needs which leads to the ability to begin to name what those are.
You were just given a yacht. What would you name it?
I would name it "peregrinatio," which is a Latin term for something the ancient Celtic monks would do, which is set sail in a rudderless boat without oars and let the wind and water carry them to the place of their resurrection. I try and live this in a more metaphorical way in my daily life, surrendering myself to the unfolding of my life, leaning into the holy direction it is taking.
Give us your life story in 6 words.
Pilgrim yogi monk dancing her prayers
Okay, you can have more than 6 words. Share your full bio.
Writing is one of my biggest passions and I have six published titles including The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom. I am currently developing my online class Eyes of the Heart on contemplative photography into a book length reflection on that process. I love spending hours at a time diving into the joy of the written word.
Much of my work focuses on supporting what I call soul care practitioners (spiritual directors, chaplains, counselors, and pastors) in their own self-care, contemplative life, and bringing the expressive arts to their work. I have recently created a Soul Care Institute through Abbey of the Arts to offer a sequence of online and live programs to support this vision.
On a more personal level my daily practice includes lectio divina, journaling, and yoga. Yoga has become a significant practice for me in the last 15 years and I recently completed training to teach. Mostly I am interested in the ways that the philosophical path of yoga is in such alignment with monastic wisdom in Christian tradition, especially the desert mothers and fathers.
Walking and pilgrimage are also vital practices for me, keeping me immersed in the life of the world and taking journeys to visit places of ancestry. I believe that the stories of our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers are our own stories, we come to know ourselves more deeply in this way. Daily walks at home keep me connected to the rhythm of the seasons, a source of great wisdom for my life.
I have been married for 17 years to a wonderful man who supports me in all my crazy dreams and visions. Marriage has been the place of learning my deepest self-acceptance and love as well as the rich wrestling that comes from having to negotiate daily life with another person.