The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
Gracefully written and ever-consoling,The Artist's Ruledemands engagement from its reader. It challenges artists of every variety to journey actively with their Rule, and to thereby plumb the riches of both a contemplative and generative discipline. ---from Image JournalThe Artist's Ruleentices us to plunge into the riches of a contemplative, creative life. With hospitality, wisdom, and grace, Christine returns us to ancient monastic practices that have preserved the soul of spirituality across the ages and can restore us in our own time.  --Jan Richardson"This jewel of a book will help you tap the eternal in your deep soul." --Macrina Wiederkehr, O.S.B., Author ofSeven Sacred Pauses(from the Foreword)"It is a time of shift, of awakening, new challenges, greater complexity in every dimension of daily life.The Artist's Ruleis a treasure for those of us who long to live a rich inner life, to be fully human and creative members of a creative Universe, to give expression to what is moving within us--to write, paint, make music, and dance. Christine frames her exploration in monastic wisdom, but in our present context where the whole world is our monastery. The inner guide of each of us is thoroughly welcomed and nourished throughout the chapters--in explorations, guided imagery, mystical insight, poetry, music, reflections, inspiration, practices of creativity, ritual--as we travel today's call to creativity and contemplation." --Mary Southard, C.S.J.,Artist/Illustrator forThe Cosmic Dance: An Invitation to Experience Our Oneness"Graciously offered, wisely conceived, carefully crafted,The Artist's Ruleleads the reader ever more deeply into practices that recover the awareness that contemplation and creativity spring from the same Source. This work, grounded in Benedictine spirituality, offers us ways to rediscover the sacred art of living and serving, following the Spirit's lead and awakening to the artist's palette of our daily lives." --Mary C. Earle, Author ofThe Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices from the Women of the WildernessandDays of Grace: Meditations and Practices for Living with Illness