Tend to your sorrows and be consoled by the Divine power of Bach’s Passion. Each day, you will receive a brief online meditation and some tender guidance to visit your places of sorrow without getting lost in them.

Journey with us into the heart of Christmas, to find a place of rest, finding courage. Every day you will receive a brief reflection, poem, blessing, or practice you can unwrap like an unexpected Christmas gift. This online pilgrimage will lead you into an interior journey into the heart of Christmas in your own pace and time, from Christmas Eve via the threshold between the old and new year all the way to Epiphany and new beginnings. If you are longing for some shared solitude and a place to belong this journey might be for you.

In another year of a world spanning pandemic, where people find themselves tired and exhausted we invite you to journey with us into the heart of Christmas, to find a place of rest, cradling hope. Every day you will receive a brief reflection, poem, blessing, or practice you can unwrap like an unexpected Christmas gift. This online pilgrimage will lead you into an interior journey into the heart of Christmas in your own pace and time, from Christmas Eve via the threshold between the old and new year all the way to Epiphany and new beginnings. If you are longing for some shared solitude and a place to belong this journey might be for you.

Join us on this 5 month long journey to Hildegard’s wisdom well. Learn in a tiny online group setting about the many facets of Hildegard as a scholar, Benedictine teacher, gardener and healer, and explore more deeply her philosophy of health and healing, her healing practices and remedies, and what it can provide for your own nourishment. This inaugural Seminar will be taught by Dr. Almut Furchert, a German American scholar, practitioner, teacher and retreat leader, who will bring to you Hildegard resources which have not been available yet in English and her accessible teaching combining European seminar style with times for sharing and spiritual practice.

Our (little) school of spiritual formation is simply a committed virtual conversation among those who want to understand the many ways in which spiritual formation works, and are interested in merging insights from a variety of sources we bring. The inaugural conversation will unpack the wisdom behind the rooms of a classic monastery and unfold its exterior and interior meaning it holds for each of us. We will share our insights on how our explorations impact doing small things with great love in our day to day life in a private group setting away from social media distraction.

WALKING WITH JS BACH THROUGH PASSION WEEK

Have you wondered what to do with passion week toward the end of this long year of the plague? Do you know that JS Bach’s musical Passion has the potential to comfort the sufferer, and to strengthen our self healing potential and resilience? Bach’s passion is not just a musical masterpiece. It also holds the potential to console us in times of trouble. Our Passion week Consolations invite you to tend to your sorrows and to be consoled by the Divine power of Bach’s Passion. Each day, you will receive a brief meditation and some tender guidance to visit your places of sorrow without getting lost in them.

This live Kierkegaard Master Class, especially designed for the helping, teaching, pastoral and spiritual professions, will meet on 5 Saturday mornings starting Feb 27. In an intimate group gathering, merging European seminar and retreat elements we will read one of Kierkegaard’s most profound texts on the human self and its potential for both despair and overcoming despair. Kierkegaard’s analyses of the human self and its despair offers a depth psychology which is both intellectualy profound and at the same time accessible to all. Understanding the self and how it can choose (not) to despair allows us to understand our potential to despair within our own life’s journey and in doing so to rebuild resilience and hope. If you long for a deeper way of life, in your practice and your own journey, this class might be for you...

In a year of a world spanning pandemic, where people find themselves tired and exhausted we invite you to journey with us into the heart of Christmas, to find a place of rest, cradling hope. Every day you will receive a brief reflection, poem, blessing, or practice you can unwrap like an unexpected Christmas gift. This online pilgrimage will lead you into an interior journey into the heart of Christmas in your own pace and time, from Christmas Eve via the threshold between the old and new year all the way to Epiphany and new beginnings. If you are longing for some shared solitude and a place to belong this journey might be for you.

Did you know that JS Bach’s musical Passion has the potential to comfort the sufferer, and to strengthen our self healing potential and resilience? Bach’s passion is not just a musical masterpiece. It also holds the potential to console us in times of trouble. This online retreat, born of our “sheltering in place”, invites you to both: a time to tend to your sorrows, and to be consoled by the Divine power of Bach’s Passion. Each day, you will receive a brief meditation on an Aria, recitative or chorus in the Passion, a link, to listen and meditate on the piece yourself, as well as some tender guidance to visit your places of sorrow without getting lost in them. This will not be a music lesson, but rather a way to face your own passion journey with all senses, facilitated by lyrics and music which transcend place and time.

This contemplative online journey invites you to walk together with us towards the heart of the 12 days of Christmas, to take a break from the hustle and bustle, to breathe, and to wonder, guided and sustained by wise women and men, and the eyes of a baby child, who will lead us along.

If you feel Christmas always comes faster than expected, and you are not ready for the season, or if the Christmas story does not reach you anymore in the midst of tragic news and the buzz to get things done before the end of the year; if your heart is heavy and burdened and rather offended by Christmas Schmalz, we would like to invite you to a dwelling place, right where you are. 

A Women's Spring Retreat

In this weekend retreat we will journey into Hildegard’s concept of the greening of the soul, and explore how it resonates with our lives across the seasons and provides for our soul’s nourishment. We will take time for learning, reading, reflecting, journaling, resting and walking while participating in the daily rhythm of the monastery.  If you look to get some quiet at Mother's Day weekend and be inspired by other brave women, this is for you.

The deep origins of Christianity are in the desert. Also the origins of monasticism came from Christians walking into the desert, away from the distractions and comfort of urban society.  This Lent, we invite you to reflect on the spiritual journeys and wisdom of those desert Elders.  What knowledge can these gentle and severe extremists bring us for our own life journeys?

If you feel like Christmas has again come faster than expected, and you have not gotten around to your Advent wreath yet; if you feel like Christmas does not really reach you anymore in the midst of tragic news and the buzz to get things done before the end of the year; if your heart is heavy and burdened and rather offended by Christmas Schmalz, we would like to invite you to a dwelling place, right where you are - and when ever you can.

A Fall RETREAT WITH SAINT HILDEGARD AND BENEDICT 

We will discover how Hildegard and Benedict both portray the vices and virtues, and discover the central of that humility plays. We will study, explore and experience how the old tale of the struggle of the soul between vices and virtues resonates with our post modern life stories, and what this understanding can provide us for soul nourishment. While doing so we will take part in the rhythm of the monastic place sharing meals, learning, laughing, resting and walking.

Burnout is central problem for those who care deeply about their work, be it leaders, pastors, doctors, nurses, therapists, or even accountants.  We become so attached to our work that we burn out, and what used to give us joy now simply exhausts us.  In this Sunday to Tuesday Cloisterseminar, we will learn from St. Benedict the proper attachment to work and to the contemplative life.  From Kierkegaard's famous Works of Love, we will contemplate how we can burn for the work we do without burning ourselves out. Interwoven with these readings will be opportunities to explore, contemplate, and evaluate your own commitments and expectations, and for long walks in the beautiful Fall woods of the Abbey. 

A Contemplative Journaling Retreat at the Lake Side

If you are looking for a place of solitude to spend the coming Labor Day weekend, we invite you for a Friday evening to Sunday retreat at beautiful St Johns Abbey guesthouse. Time for reflecting, writing, walking, and swimming... 

A central theme of Benedictine spirituality is the integration of prayer and work, vita activa and vita contemplativa, such that both are made holy.  In our busy and secular world, how can this be possible?  We will together explore our own lives through writing about important and sacred moments in our work and personal lives, and sharing these stories with each other. We will grapple with questions like: what is my work?  What work am I called to do in this stage of my life? What meaning did or does my work have?

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In this Cloister Seminar we will explore what Rumi, Benedict, and the modern psychology of religion have to say to each of us about the process of (un)becoming during our journey of selfhood.  We will practice Rumi's poetry, Benedictine chant, and ask how (un)becoming one self and growing in love are interconnected. The weekend will be structured by guided readings and practices for personal reflection, imbedded into the rhythm of the Abbey, shared meals and gatherings.

A women's cloister retreat

In this weekend cloister retreat we will focus on Hildegard's key concept of viriditas, the greening power, life force of all creation. Participants will be guided into studying and embodying, exploring and experiencing how the idea of viriditas resonates with our life and life stories, and what it provides for our own soul nourishment. While doing so we will take part in the rhythm of the monastery, sharing meals, learning, laughing, resting and walking...

A spring renewal for people in ministry and related fields

Starting on Sunday afternoon this Hildegard cloister retreat invites especially those serving in ministry and related fields who long for some time off to rejuvenate. Learn about Hildegard's key concept of viriditas, the greening power of all creation, and how it is embedded in her understanding of cosmos and human being. Explore and experience how viriditas resonates with your own spiritual journey and what it can provide for your soul's renewal. While doing so we will take part in the rhythm of the monastic life, sharing meals, learning, laughing, resting and walking.

In the depth of winter, this cloister retreat offers you guidance into a time of rest and solitude: to read, learn, journal, contemplate, share, walk and rejuvenate. We especially invites those in-midst of life's transitions, at a threshold of life, in times of challenge or change, and also those who feel they have not yet fully arrived in the New Year. ...

At the threshold between times, this retreat offers participants guidance into silent reflection of the old and hopeful anticipation of the New Year. Time for reading, walking, reflecting, resting. We warmly invite everyone who wants to welcome the New Year quietly.

Hildegard of Bingen was not only a remarkable woman of her time but also a monastic leader, an inspiring theologian, philosopher, composer, and naturopath. In this seminar we will both learn the many facets of Hildegard as well as explore and experience her monastic spirituality and what it can provide to us for our own soul nourishment.