About Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color
Join Abbey of the Arts for a monthly conversation on how increasing our diversity of perspectives on contemplative practice can enrich our understanding and experience of the Christian mystical tradition.
In the Beginning We Create with Nathan Lloyd Nicholson
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 we sat down with Nathan Lloyd Nicholson about his book In the Beginning We Create: Reflections on Collaboration, Creativity, and Rest.
In the Beginning We Create, award-winning graphic designer and artist Nathan L. Nicholson reflects on God’s timeless patterns of creation, offering practical insights for how and what you create. Nicholson guides you through twenty-one reflective meditations inspired by God’s creative process, each paired with the author’s original artwork, uncovering how collaboration, creation, and rest are essential rhythms for expressing your unique creative vision.
Nicholson explores how God is the ultimate Creator, and his creative abilities are beyond compare. In the Beginning We Create invites you to explore God’s creative process and discover how you canemulate his creativity in the creative gifts he has given you. Using the book of Genesis as the foundation, you’ll dive into the story of God creating the universe and find inspiration for your own creative journey. If the Creator of the universe took time to rest, the cycle of creation and rest is necessary for our healthy creativity as well.
AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/in-the-beginning-we-create
30 Apr 2026
The Way of the Desert Elders with Lisa Colón DeLay
Welcome to The Lift Every Voice Book Club from Abbey of the Arts. 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 they sat down with Lisa Colón DeLay for a conversation about her book The Way of the Desert Elders: How the Wisdom of Ancient Christians Sustains Us Today
A spiritual expedition into the stories and wisdom of ancient, desert-dwelling Christians, who show us how to forge faith at the edges of empire.
For all that bewilders and bedevils us, the desert mothers and fathers can help us face our circumstances and ourselves. In The Way of the Desert Elders, Lisa Colón DeLay asks: What if desert elders from more than a millennium ago could walk beside us and nourish our spirits now?
In wise and vivid prose, DeLay introduces us to a cast of characters who were both devoted and flawed. Like us, the desert abbas and ammas wrestled with gluttony, lust, greed, wrath, acedia, despondency, vainglory, envy, and pride.
Desert spirituality doesn’t mean going it alone; it means finding companions to walk with us. With their ordinary longings and extraordinary commitments, the desert elders can lead us toward peace, spiritual growth, and intimacy with God.
AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/the-way-of-the-desert-elders/
27 Feb 2026
Liturgies for Resisting Empire with Kat Armas
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 sit down with Kat Armas to discuss her book Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World.
In Liturgies for Resisting Empire, Cuban American theologian and writer Kat Armas provides a roadmap for Christians seeking a countercultural way of living that prioritizes community and humanity over dominance and power.
Armas combines spiritual practices and biblical theology to help us create authentic belonging to God, ourselves, each other, and creation. She begins by examining how empire affects us daily through its pervasive ideologies and systems of control. Drawing from decolonial and postcolonial biblical interpretation, she explores how the New Testament church resisted Roman imperial power while building communities centered on God’s kingdom values rather than worldly dominance.
This book offers hope for Christians struggling to live faithfully within systems of exploitation and oppression. Armas provides practical spiritual disciplines, community-building strategies, and theological frameworks that empower readers to resist empire’s dehumanizing effects while cultivating spaces of authentic belonging and liberation.
AbbeyoftheArts.com/lift-every-voice/liturgies-for-resisting-empire
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Contact Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
