The Soul’s Slow Ripening

12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred

By: Christine Valters Paintner

Narrated by: Susan Hanfield

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

What does God want for your life?

Christine Valters Paintner, best-selling Catholic author and online abbess for Abbey of the Arts, uses reflections, stories, guided activities, prayer experiences, and a variety of creative arts to help you patiently and attentively listen to God's invitation.

Everyone wants to understand God's will for their lives. Christine Valters Paintner shares one of the most ancient paths to understanding from her study of monasticism and immersion into Celtic spirituality while living in Ireland. The Celtic way, which Paintner distills into 12 practices, offers discernment that focuses on the environment rather than the intellectual focus present in other forms of discernment. It allows for what Paintner calls the "soul's slow ripening", coming into the fullness of our own sweetness before we pluck the fruit.

Each chapter begins with a story of a particular Irish saint - some well-known like Patrick or Brigid, others less so, such as Ita and Ciaran - and then introduces a helpful practice for discernment that the saint's life illustrates. Paintner explores the call of dreams, the importance of thresholds, the practice of peregrination (wandering for the love of God), walking the rounds, learning by heart, soul friends, blessing each moment, and the wisdom of the landscape and the seasons. Listeners are invited to explore these concepts. She invites us to contemplative walks with specific themes along with poetic writing prompts for expression.

As you explore an alternate way of discerning a spiritual path - one which honors the moment-by-moment invitations and the soul's seasonal rhythms - you will discover that this book will help you become more aligned with creativity and wholeness.

©2018 Christine Valters Paintner (P)2019 Tantor

Loved !!! A calming balm for me every day.

Loved It!! A calming balm every day and I'm trying to decide now which of her books to listen to next

BAD NARRATION detracts from content

The voice of the narrator is very unpleasant. it was difficult to listen to. No offense to the dear lady, but this is not her forte.
I was very blessed by the content. It encouraged me to use many other methods to develop my relationship with the Lord.

Is that an ai voice ?

It sounds like a computer generated voice- not at all congruent with the book’s content.

Great book - monotonous read

This really is a wonderful book, one which I look forward to reading again and again! My only suggestion would be to give the reader a more ‘expansive’ voice mandate as the current voice is too monotonous

Less spiritually inviting than I expected

The narration is very difficult to listen to; her cadence and word enunciation combined with the frequent sermons on scriptures sounds judgmental. I am doing my best to muddle through all of this to give the book the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not sure I will be able to finish it. The scriptures/sermons by the author's husband are frequent and while I understand there is also a Celtic Christianity tradition in Ireland this book does not indicate it is so overtly Christian. I feel there are lessons to learn here but the addition of scripture and sermon is doing it a disservice to those of us who do not practice Christianity.

Poor Narrator

This is not a review of the content itself. The narrator is just not for me. Voice is like nails on a chalkboard. I’ll be better off reading the physical copy.