Tending our Sorrows: Passion Week Consolations 2025.
Daily consolations to hold our sorrows and the sorrows of this world, to walk in communion of kindred spirits towards hope and new beginnings, soothed by the ethereal music of JS Bach's Passion.
Dear fellow pilgrim, and welcome all, who are new to our Cloister Notes.
Have you ever wondered what to do with passion week?
Our Passion Week Consolations, born at the onset of the pandemic invite you to a sacred time to tend to your sorrows and to be consoled by the Divine power of Bach’s Passion.
You can join any time.
This year’s Passion Week Consolation will be centered around our community of fellow travelers and the practice of lament.
We will invite you into holding your sorrow and the sorrow of this world by crafting your own Passion Lamentation.
Every day you will receive a brief consolation and practice to facilitate your journey through Passion Week.
Every day you can share your heart with your fellow pilgrims in our private comment section like in a cloistered gathering space. You can also walk silently along side.
How ever you do, we will walk right with you, and write for you while being on the same journey.
And as we have done so in the years before we will offer you some of Bach’s wonderful Passion music as a vessel for your sorrow and a balm for your soul throughout the week.
In order to journey with us through Passion Week and to receive your daily Consolations all you need to do is to become a paid subscribers to our Cloister Notes (beginning at $5 a month). The paywall will ensure just like the walls of a monastery that we can walk together in a private and intimate communion of fellow travelers. You can upgrade your subscription here or click below.
If you are already a paid subscriber, you are already on the list. If you are a member of a religious order please send me email and I can prompt you in.
Our Consolations will be no music lesson, but rather a way to face your own passion journey with all your senses, facilitated by lyrics and music which transcend place and time. Thus you can walk along in your own pace and time, just reading or listening, or being present, you can chose to walk quietly for yourself or to walk along side our communion of fellow pilgrims, e.g. by sharing your own thoughts or reading others.
For this we invite you to walk with us – at your own pace – from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, through the valley of your tears or loneliness or despair or sorrows, towards new life and the blossoming of Spring.
You can follow our Passion Consolations every day or reserve a day or two during Passion Week to contemplate them in a self-guided retreat.
We are looking forward to welcoming you on this journey,
Almut, with Chuck and little one
Praise for Passion Week Consolations
“I have been taking this journey with you and have loved it all. But today was even more meaningful. The practice of listening to a piece I thought I knew so well broke open my heart even more, and I thought it was pretty open. Thank you. Especially love this: "Loss and new beginnings are of the same journey. We are on our pilgrimage towards Easter. Through the tomb," as I sit and listen to people all week who are struggling with this Holy Week and their observance of it. Yours is an entering into, which is the best way altogether.”
—— Mary Taylor, spiritual director and participants of PWC since 2020
Presenters
Almut Furchert, PhD, is a German-American philosopher of religion, existential counselor, teacher, retreat leader and mother of a pre-schooler. She is also the woman behind cloisterseminars and the Cloister Notes Newsletter where she shares her passion for wisdom teachings in the intersection of psychology, philosophy and spirituality on both continents. She is also an amateur musician, and has sung for many years in the Bach Choir in Munich, Germany.
Almut will lead you into a depth experiences of your personal passion week in your own pace and time, helping you to find consolation, hope and new beginnings.
Almut is supported by her husband Chuck Huff, PhD, who will add some of his poetry, help with translations, content advice and sitting their little one.
How it works
To walk with us all you need to do is to subscribe to our daily email consolations by becoming a paid subscriber to our Cloister Notes. This allows for a private retreat experience where we can share deeper and more personal (no group pressure here, you can chose if you prefer to just read your emails or if you like to engage in the community of readers).
Each day, you will receive a brief meditation and practice, helping you to tend to your sorrows and to write your own Lament, soothed by a piece of music from Bach’s passion.
And as it is unique to our contemplative journeys we are journeying right beside you in spirit, writing for you while walking together through this sacred time.
Create your self paced Tridium or Silent Saturday Retreat
As you can follow our Consolations in your own pace and time you can also come late to the journey as your schedule permits.
Some reserve a half hour every morning, noon or evening to read and listen, some start as they would for Triduum, some save some time on Good Friday or Holy Saturday to create their own meditative retreat using our Consolations. How ever you do, you can walk in and out of this sacred movement as it works with your schedule and spiritual journey.
What CS participants say
"Do a cloister. It will enrich the rest of your days."
-- Ina Christopherson, participant
How to Subscribe
These Passion Contemplations are given from our hearts to yours for all who need it in troubled times.
All we ask is to become a sustaining member of this space for as little as 5$ a month or by becoming a founding member, choosing what ever support feels right to you. As a paid subscriber you will have access to our seasonal Contemplations and Consolations like our Passion Week Consolations as well as to seasonal zoom retreats.
*If you would like to send a check instead or request a full stipend please message me directly. Thank you.
15% off
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 your annual subscription :-)
(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!)
Some more about Bach’s Passion
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?
Here is a lovely documentary of how performing the Bach Passion brings together people and groups from diverse backgrounds who have had no experience with Bach before. An eye opening and beautiful 10 min documentary for all who long for a sense of communion in these days. Below is a lovely trailer to the same project, just 2 min. But it gives a good sense of the Bach Passion and how it can be performed in a community setting.
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In 2016 English Touring Opera teamed up with 30 choirs around the country to perform Bach's St John Passion.
This is the official video trailer for the SACD recording of Bach's St John Passion (in English) with the Crouch End Festival Chorus and Bach Camerata…
Like to listen into Bach’s Passion or read a previous Consolation? Visit our Passion Week Consolation Archive.
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.