Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World: A WALKING A SACRED PATH PILGRIMAGE IN CHARTRES, FRANCE with Christine Valters Paintner

What, gazing on the garden of the world, does the heart desire? ~Hafiz

Join us for a five-day immersion into the gifts of poetry and how they can break us open to encounters with the sacred revealed in the ordinary. Reading and writing poetry helps us to slow down and begin to see the world around us in new ways. Together we will savor poems from ancient and contemporary mystics, listen to the questions they ask of us, carry lines that shimmer with us into our day, and write our own poems. We will explore how poems encourage intimacy with the divine, invite us to cross thresholds, and open us to the eternal moment. You will be introduced to a number of practices that help you connect to the poetry of life and access your intuition and imagination.

No previous poetry writing experience is required, just a willingness to open to the creative process with your pen on the page. This is not a workshop or critique experience but an experience of writing and reading for discovery.

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE is the founder and director of AbbeyoftheArts.com, a global online monastery integrating contemplative practice and creative expression. She is a retreat leader, spiritual director, and the author of twelve books on spirituality and the arts including her most recent The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred and her forthcoming collection of poems titled Dreaming of Stones. Six years ago she embarked on a midlife pilgrimage which brought her eventually to Ireland where she lives with her husband and together they lead pilgrimages and writing retreats in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Austria.

Below is a webinar introducing this Pilgrimage week in Chartres

·        Dreaming of Stones by Christine Valters Paintner (available from Paraclete Press in early spring)

·      Love Poems from God by Daniel Ladinsky

·       Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart by Jon Sweeney and Mark Burrows

And for all Walking a Sacred Path programs: 

·       Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice by    Lauren Artress

·       The Universe of Stone by Phillip Ball

Accommodation:

Here is a list of hotels convenient to the Cathedral and the Maison St. Yves where the programs are held.

Transportation:

NEW! Hassle Free Transportation from Charles DeGaulle Airport to Chartres if
you arrive mid day on Sunday, June 2, OR Monday, June 3 for Cycle 1 AND
Sunday June 9 OR Monday June 10 for Cycle 2. Mini-buses organized with
fellow participants.  Price will vary based on number of participants
from 30 euro for 6 or 150 euro for one.