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 12 Days of Christmas might remind some of a silly song. But we use these days to revive the early medieval tradition of a sacred time between Christmas Day and Epiphany. We started our 12 Day of Christmas Online Journey following a vision of a sacred reading retreat where seekers like us can walk together towards the heart of Christmas, to take a break from the hustle and bustle, to breathe, and to wonder, guided and sustained by wise women and men before us (including Mary, Joseph, Meister Eckhart, Hildegard, Rumi, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard and others). And the Journey has gathered readers around the globe since. We do not follow much of the traditional string of saints’ days for the season, but rather explore every year anew what Christmas might mean to each of us, while creating a breathing space for you, guiding you through readings and practices from Holy Night to the threshold of the Old and the New Year and all the way to Epiphany on a quiet interior journey in your own pace and time.
And may Christmas find you where you are, Almut with Chuck and little one
Click to learn more about our 12 Days of Christmas 2025-2026 journey.
Create your own Epiphany retreat
using our 12 Days of Christmas contemplations
below.
If you feel moved to give a gift in return it will help to support this labor of love and to keep it assessable to all :-)
— Kathleen Schmidt, participant
On Epiphany we traditionally remember the three Kings or Magi who brought Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh as gift to the child. Their coming from “the East” (likely Persia) is traditionally seen as a foreshadowing of the international reach of the Divine revelation. But the Nunc Dimmitis is another place where inter-religious themes emerge: “before the face of all peoples.” Listen to this beautiful piece sang by all St Olaf choirs…
The innkeeper in Bethlehem has gotten bad press for many centuries, even though he barely makes a cameo appearance in the story. But, was he really the embodiment of uncaring rejection we make him out to be?
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Some women point out rightly that if it had been three wise women, they would have brought different gifts to the holy child, perhaps a blanket and some food, and they might have watched the baby so Mary could sleep. But when we translate the story into our own inward journey, bringing our most precious gifts might not be so inappropriate, after all.
Today, on the last step of our journey though the 12 days of Christmas we invite you to ponder the Divine word within.
Weary from the pilgrimage we seek refuge in some wisdom words by Kierkegaard and Rumi.
Today we invite you to tend to your dreams like you would looking at sacred art.
Why is it that we fall in love? How do we lose our balance to do this? And isn’t this a good thing, this falling? At the beginning of this New Year, listen to Rumi’s poetry calling you into the wide expanse of this new year. Try something different – slip to one side of yourself and fall in love with this new day.
With this image of the Christmas star over our home we greet you at this turn of the year. By gracious powers wonderfully sheltered is a much-loved hymn by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that is widely sung in German speaking lands at this threshold. May it comfort you walking into the new year…
Instead of simply saying good riddance to this Annus Horribilis, we invite you for a time of gracious recollection and redemption. You can do this by walking in silence, by looking back on the reflections of this 12 day journey so far, or by taking some time to look with kindness on your life using the practice we provide.
It is in holy birth, that our sufferings and joys intermingle. Come listen and see, and hold your sorrows into Christmas.
On the fourth Day of Christmas, take time to ponder the Mary of the stable and of the Magnificat. We invite you into a Visio Divina meditation on a ceramic Madonna and Child.
On this third Day of Christmas we invite you to ponder the “virgin heart.”
Hannah is adamant that the figures in the manger scene in our Christmas Angel are Mama, Papa and Hannah. No Joseph, Mary, and Jesus baby. Almut thinks she has a point. “It is deeper, than play,” she says, “We really are Joseph and Mary and Jesus.” Then I saw her vision of the holy in all the ordinary, even in our own ordinary stories. We, today, are the manger, we are Bethlehem.
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.
With this image of the sun breaking into the Sacred Heart Chapel at Saint Benedict's monastery, MN on New Year's Eve we greet you one last time in 2020. Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen (By gracious powers wonderfully sheltered) is a much-loved hymn that is widely sung in German speaking lands at the turn of the year. May it grant you peace and consolation at the end of this year…
Instead of simply saying good riddance to this Annus Horribilis, we invite you for a time of gracious recollection and redemption. You can do this by walking in silence, by looking back on the reflections of this 12 day journey so far, or by taking some time to look with kindness on your life using the practice we provide.
Today we muse on the difficulties and distractions of the way before us and we invite you to deepen your heart, and to (re)visit or practice some aspect of this shared journey. Do not lose heart, dear one. Take courage.
We live in challenging times, thrown back more than usual onto the small communities of our household. You may have suddenly found yourself becoming a caretaker or a parent again. Or found yourself lonely and longing for someone with whom to share your solitude. So now more than ever we need to practice the art of solitude and especially to learn how to share places of solitude.
As it belongs to our human condition to rest in order to grow, the same is true for our spiritual life. On this second Sunday of our journey we invite you to a sacred pause.
The tale of three wise kings sounds too much like a fairytale from former times, but, on the second view, it may hide deep wisdom. Aren’t we all know of wannabe kings, who do not rest, until the world bows before them? Much rarer are the real kings who courageously humble themselves to bow before a higher truth. Therefore I like that the kings of Epiphany are supposed to be wise kings. How urgently we need wise leaders in this world, don’t you think?
Whether or not we have eyes to see, the Christ child is being born, God is with us, the Divine is seeking shelter, all around us. The holy birth is not reserved for Christmas Eve. It happens for us every time again, when we open our heart to a sacred encounter
My daughter has seduced me into learning again how to smile. I have always thought that my smile was a natural and winning one. It is shy, kind, and a bit mysterious and ironic. It is also completely useless when trying to communicate with a 9 month old baby…
Today we invite you to light a candle for your sorrows. If God Almighty had wanted to send a loud message to the world he could have stuck to Hallelujah choruses and angel choirs. Or a mighty king proclaiming the will of God. But instead God bends down deeply, silently, into the night of our sorrows, where we feel little and vulnerable just as a newborn child…
Today we invite you to take a New Year’s walk, and be gently and graciously aware of the gifts you carry. Cradle the beginning of the new year as it would be a baby child.
Like a door or hallway is the space between rooms, night stands as a transitional space between days. We step into it and the old is gone but the new is not quite there yet. Life is in suspension. Today, at the Eve of the new year, when the old is not yet gone and the new is not yet visible, we approach another important night…
Are you tired of bucket lists and New Year's resolutions? We would like to invite you for a time of recollection instead. You can do this by walking in silence, by looking back on the reflections of this journey so far, or by taking some time to look with kindness on your life using the practice we provide.
Little babies rest a lot. They do not care where they are or what is appropriate etiquette. They sleep when they need to. As it belongs to our human condition to rest in order to grow, the same is true for our spiritual life.
What if you, like the shepherds, kings, and other visitors long ago, were able to be there at the manger in Bethlehem? Today we invite you to walk into the story with child like curiosity…
What if Christmas isn’t a fuzzy feeling but a birthing process we must give in to? Today we invite you to see things with a “beginners mind,” like a child, like you see them for the first time.
On this Second Day of Christmas we invite you to become present to “God with us” and “within” us.
PS: We are giving this gift from our hearts to yours. If you have been touched by the 12 Days Journey please do consider giving a gift in return. Your gift, any size, will help us cradle this journey into the future, and keep it accessible to all.
