Welcome to our “little cloister”
where we
EXPLORE MONASTIC WISDOM FOR EVERY DAY LIVING
Drs. Almut & Chuck with little one
Home of
+The Hildegard Seminar,
+Kierkegaard Masterclass,
+Bach Passionweek Consolations,
+The 12 Days of Christmas Contemplations &
+The “Little School” of Spiritual Formation
The gift of Lent is practicing the luminous in everyday living. Let us expand our image of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer and use them as ways to open us to the divine in our daily routine.
Consider the phrase “luminous darkness.” What does that look like-shining, shimmering, reflecting, glossy, black? Where do we find that deep, rich black that shines and illuminates? Or consider “generative darkness.” Who brings us that deep, fecund, nourishing dark soil? In this Lenten time of repentance, our guest writer, Marian McKone offers us these images of darkness as a corrective to our limited stereotypes of dark and light. She draws us gently towards the darkness as a positive image of nourishment and clarity of vision, and provides us with inspiring examples of luminous and generative people of color.
What if we would see our Lenten journey as a wonderful invitation instead a time of penitence? A time to discover our deep longing and yearning, to create space to invite the voice of Life to speak? Maybe in the hot, dry, dizzying place of the desert we might see beauty, discover life lessons from nature and unearth sustenance from simple things. Maybe in our thirst we will experience moments of Oneness and explore who we are and whose we are.
This week our midweek blessing comes in the words of Hildegard of Bingen.
🌿Dear fellow traveler,
I am looking forward to our Kierkegaard Masterclass starting this Saturday. I have designed this class especially with learners from helping, healing, teaching, pastoral and spiritual professions in mind, wounded healers, educators and existential seekers :-) Because neither my studies in psychology nor philosophy nor theology taught me what a little book of Kierkegaard taught me about the human self, the anatomy of despair and the journey towards the deeper self….
Winter Solitude Retreat, Feb 20 2021, 10 am - 4 pm (CT), zoom
with Drs. Almut Furchert & Chuck Huff
In the depth of winter, this virtual gathering inspired by RM Rilke invites you into a shared time of rest and solitude: together we read, contemplate, reflect, journal and share, supported by the poetry of wise women and men before us. This year we will bring a brief text by the Danish writer Søren Kierkegaard on the deeper self to help us along. We especially invite those in-midst of life's transitions, at a threshold of life, in times of challenge or change, and also those who are in need to share solitude with others.
If the world around you
gets so busy
that you fear to drown in the noise
retreat to the little things
which your heart can capture
and hold in real time….
Hildegard helps us to see that we have, all along, already been traveling with the wise (wo)men on their journey. This is the journey of the heart to the place where Divine wisdom dwells, away from what we considered urgent and important and towards the living light, who wants to dwell in us.
Birthing the holy is not an easy task. No Spa treatment has it on the menu. But it is the heart of Christmas after all. A humble stable. Birth pangs and exhaustion. A little tender cry of hope. A child. A newborn. Immanuel. God with us...
On this first Sunday in the New Year we invite you to a time of non-doing. Invite gratitude, practice joy, be present.
We will always fall down. Indeed, it is necessary. But grace is available to not despair, to gently cradle hope and to get up again and continue. The gentle powers, and even our own perseverance, are more evident in how we get up again than in how long we manage to walk without falling.
A warm welcome to you into the new year! On such a day, we do not recommend any heavy spiritual lifting or deep meditation. We propose instead a New Year’s walk to clear the mind and to welcome your body into the new year. Follow this by imbibing Hildegard von Bingen’s spiced wine to warm your hands and heart. There is a recipe at the very end of this reflection.
