(Re)Introducing Cloister Notes: a letter for dancing monks, wounded healers and weary pilgrims.
Cloister Notes #1: A (re)introduction of sorts, a digest and an invitation to our upcoming Passion Week Consolations.
Dear friends of our Cloister Seminars and new subscribers of our Cloister Notes,
This in fact is our very first very official Cloister Note newsletter #1 from our new blog / newsletter home. We (re)started the journey at the Substack platform back in December with our 12 Days of Christmas Contemplations. Things worked out so well, that I have now finally moved our whole newsletter list here and will also host our upcoming Passion Week Consolations from this new home.
So here is a very warm welcome for all to this renewed format of our Cloister Notes: a letter for dancing monks, weary pilgrims and wounded healers in the intersection of psychology, philosophy, spirituality and healing.
Many of you know us from our virtual cloister at www.cloisterseminars.org, a website my husband Chuck and I founded for offering retreats and seminars on (monastic) wisdom traditions (e.g. on Hildegard or Kierkegaard), and a community for people like us, who long for integrating mind and heart and spirit.
Others of you found us here on our new substack home, through re-stacks, recommendations, or just browsing around.
How ever you have found us, I am grateful you are now with us on the way.
What I like the most about this new space is that it offers us a sense of communion, of journeying alongside each other and a chance to encounter your fellow traveler if you wish to do so (e.g. you can become visible by creating a Substack profile, while commenting on our letters.) You still can respond to my letters personally as you have done before. But the commenting function now makes it so much easier to create a reader’s corner, where your words are heard and shared and where I can easily share them with all later.
Thus the greatest gift this venue offers is its community of kindred spirits. It is now very easy to like or comment on a letter and join the conversation in this cloistered space.
For example, see the lovely conversation which unfolded at one of my midweek blessings featuring the image of an old door with peeling layers of paint: “Cherishing what lies beneath.” Many of you have been taken by the image and the movement of deepening it entails.
Finally, our new newsletter venue allows us to merge blogging and newsletter writing at one place with you having access to all of our writings simply by managing your subscription here.
It is now also very easy to support our work simply by becoming a sustaining member via the subscription format this venue offers. As a paid subscriber (currently for as little as 5$ a month) you will gain access to our full archive and be automatically added to the list for both our signature retreats: The 12 Days of Christmas Contemplations and our upcoming Passion Week Consolations as well as some more extras I will add during the year. (As a paying subscriber you can easily chose to toggle off those extras you do not wish to receive by managing your subscription here)
With Cloister notes I envision a community of weary pilgrims bearing up each other, and a sacred space where heart and mind mingle. Where we allow ourselves to hold our being human, inspired by monastic wisdom, contemplative practice and the Benedictine motto to hold together the love of learning and the desire for the Divine.
It is anchored in, and drawn toward, the inward place I have come to call “The Cloister,” symbolizing the inner heart of the monastery, where every life path comes together and from which we again venture out.
So picture this (or see the picture above): a garden like courtyard surrounded by the cloister walk, a bench, trickling water, a place to sit and retreat and pause. Listen to the birds singing of Spring, watch sun rays nestling on bare yet pulsing branches, feel a tender breeze calling your attention inward.
In our recent Lenten series on Meister Eckhart we explored the inner person, as a process of “innering” and “deepening” by slowly peeling our outer layers back to reveal the innermost being.
This movement of inner deepening, of shedding our layers, of learning and relearning, of interior and exterior action is what I envision as the central movement of the interior Cloister, the place from which I am writing to you.
It is also the place I invite you to venture towards during our Passion Week Consolations 2024:
Tending our sorrows: Join our Passion Week Consolations 2024 (March 24-31).
If you have been wondering what to do with Passion Week, the week which stretches between Palm Sunday and Easter, join us for our upcoming Passion Week Consolations “Tending our sorrows.” It is a journey born in the depth of the pandemic to hold our sorrows and the sorrows of the world, walking towards hope and new beginnings, soothed by Johann Sebastian Bach’s ethereal Passion music.
These daily online Consolations from my heart to yours come free for all paid subscribers. This will ensure that we have a private space for journeying and sharing with each other which is only accessible by participants. If you have been on the edge of becoming a sustaining member of our Cloister Notes, this might be the nudge you have been looking for. And if it would help, here is a link which gives you 15% off when you subscribe in the next three days :-)
(If you cannot become a paid subscriber just yet or if you are a member of a religious order or if you would like to send a check instead just respond to this email so I can get in touch and comp you in!)
As a paid subscriber you will receive your Passion Week Consolation daily in your inbox. You can walk this journey at your own pace and time, in solitude or along side our fellow pilgrims. You can read every day or reserve Holy Saturday for your personal Passion Week retreat using our Consolations.
Here is what Kathleen wrote about this unique journey:
Almut, I am so grateful you will be offering Passion Week Consolations again this year. It is not an easy journey tending to the sadness and anguish of our hearts. Yet it is always a freeing experience as the music of Bach wraps around us and holds us as your writing tenderly guides us through the journey. We weep, we mourn, the sadness of our hearts flows out through our tears. And in the end what emerges is hope. Thank you, thank you for your offering of this journey.
Thank you, Kathleen, for having journeyed along side us from the very beginning and for so generously supporting our work. Thank you to all who have become sustaining members over the last three months already. I am grateful and I am hopeful this venue will allow me to use more and more of my work hours continuing to write for you.
Peace and blessings, Almut with Chuck and little one
PS: As always, and if you can, leave a heart or a comment to let us know you have been here :-)
“In us there is another human; it is the inner human. The one the holy text calls the new human, a young human, a friend and a noble being.”
— Meister Eckhart
(my translation from BgT 76-140)
What has been going on at The Cloister? Come on in and look around…
What I love about our new substack home is that it now merges our blog with the newsletter. This allows you to manage your relationship to the Cloister Notes community from one place. Plus I can now offer our annual online retreats right from here without the need to hunt for the audience every time anew, so you won’t you miss one again or need to struggle while figuring out payments again.
Benefits of the new place for you:
You can either chose to just go with the monthly cloister notes which will offer an overview of what is happening here at The Cloister or to read my bi-weekly essays and (mid)weekly blessings by toggling on or off the categories of your choice.
You might also participate actively in the community conversation in the lively comment sections on each post.
you can chose to become visible by creating a Substack profile and exploring the new space (just click on the title of this post or the like or comment links which will bring you online).
you can support this labor of love now with a monthly or yearly subscription or with a larger donation of your choice by becoming a founding member.
All sustaining members have access to our seasonal signature retreats, the full archive and some more.
Join us
Here is what Chuck says about the passion journey:
I have never really known what to do with Easter, though I liked the hymns on Sunday. And for most of my life Easter was a one day event. Passion week did not exist for me.
It was only when Almut started her Passion Week Consolations that I began to actually see the week. And to see it as a journey through my fears and sorrows to arrive at a space where I could hold them. I think it mostly was the beauty of Bach’s music that did this for me, but also Almut’s patient prodding and guidance on what to do with the deep currents of sorrow in my life. I actually like Passion Week more than the 12 Days of Christmas for this reason. Thank you for this.
Click above or here to learn more about this journey or enroll here. Looking forward having you with us on this journey 🥰
It is odd to say this, but I look forward to being sorrowful this coming Passion Week. I am an excellent avoider, and very skilled at turning my mind to more pleasant things. But in doing this, I miss seeing the truth about myself and about my world. Bach's music and Almut's contemplations offer me a gentle way to be open to my sorrow and the sorrow I cause. A gift at any price.
Yay for a (re)introduction! I've loved your words these past few months and am eager to meet your new to substack, but not new to you followers! Welcome to this community!