Waiting at the Christmas door.
Getting ready for the pilgrimage with-in.
This is our first gathering note for this year’s 12 Days of Christmas Contemplations, a journey into the heart of Christmas for dancing monks and weary pilgrims. And a heartfelt welcome to every one who has arrived new at this cloistered space. To be part of this journey and to receive your daily Christmas gift in your email inbox you need to have or upgrade to a paid subscription (see button below).
If you are clergy, chaplain, or in any other ministry who serves during this Christmas, here is a special gift of appreciation for you. Or send me email and I will prompt you in :-)
Dear fellow traveler,
❡ grew up an East German pastor's daughter in the countryside. Our Christmas was always the busiest time of year. I often traveled with my father through the little villages of his parish to cold country churches to play the flute, since my father sang badly and there was no organist to be found.
At our home church's late service our whole family did the music, singing to the flock in that little village close to the Polish border. At the end of the day we were tired. And we had not even entered the Christmas Stube yet.
Oh, the Christmas Stube...
My mother would lock the sitting room door days in advance. There she prepared the tree and assigned a little place to each child (five of us) where we would find humble gifts at Christmas night.
And though those early Christmas memories are intermingled with a sense of religious business and exhaustion they also gave me the gift of anticipation, of anxiously waiting at the door before the light enters in.
My family was quite familiar with the Epiphany tradition and we happily enjoyed our Christmas tree and songs until January 6 and sometimes also beyond. Still, only much later and born from the utter need for solitude and quiet (and probably also being married to my husband, an introvert “inner monk”) I discovered the monastic tradition of walking contemplatively through the 12 Days of Christmas all the way to Epiphany.
It is like slowly walking into the Silent Night. Quietly. Mindfully. With a listening heart.
About Opening gifts
Last year I got myself this little booklet with German Advent readings from Hildegard of Bingen. For every day of December there is a brief reading placed in an envelope bound to the book. You can only read the daily meditation after you open the envelope, with the wooden knife attached.
I like to think about our 12 Days Contemplations this way. There is no tactile feel of thick paper or gentle tearing of the envelope. But there is the feel of your table or reading chair, the gentle envelopment of the opening picture, and the contemplative settling-in for a few minutes of reflection.
You are indeed welcome here. Be at peace, all will be well.
Below you find some more details for our journey, especially if you are new to it or still undecided.
Thank you so much for being with us on this journey. Make sure you leave a heart before you go. So I know you made it here :-)
And may Christmas find you where you are.
Almut
PS: Now it is your turn. As I write alongside you it so much helps me to know a little more about you. What are your hopes for this journey? Is there something special you are carrying on your heart this season?
PPS: If you are a paid subscriber but cannot journey with us this season please feel free to uncheck from the 12 Days list here.
About Almut
Almut Furchert, Dr. phil., Dipl. Psych. OblSB is a German American scholar and practitioner, a psychologist turned philosopher turned writer, traveler, photographer, retreat leader and mother of a kindergartener. She has taught and published on authors like Kierkegaard, Buber, Frankl, Yalom, Edith Stein, and Hildegard of Bingen. Almut is also a Benedictine Oblate and lives with her family in a little college town in MN.
Some more details about the journey
When and how to travel? What if I cannot make every day?
We will start the journey on Christmas Eve with a blessing to our whole Cloister family. Then starting with Christmas Day as a paid or gift subscribers you will receive your daily reflection each morning (I aim for 8 am CT) in your inbox. If you have enrolled but do not receive our email please check your spam. You can always find all entries online here.
Each post for the 12 Days will include a photo or image to ponder, some contemplation, followed by a question, practice, poem, prayer or blessing. The reading time should not be more than 5-10 min each day. We suggest to plan a time window of 20-30 min each day to unpack your day’s gift. If you have little time you can look through it first, ponder the theme and image and come back to it later.
But fear not, you can conduct this journey at your own pace and time, following every day or retreating with it later.
Many walk with us every day, waiting for the daily email. Others walk in and out of the journey as their schedule allows or plan for a retreat day or two at the end of the year. How ever it works for you, the most important thing is that you follow the pace of your heart and your soul’s longing. It will require some commitment from us pilgrims to come back to the journey when our feet start to ache and our mind is getting side tracked.
Those who have traveled with us before know this is not a prepackaged journey where we offer you a curated selection of texts. We do not know the words yet ourselves. Since we travel through the 12 Days just as you do, we will write for all of us as the spirit moves us. We hope this ensures that what we offer will be what you need.
If you miss some days, do come back. If you get behind, do begin again.
What do I need to bring?
Yourself! Your favorite cup. Some quiet time. A notebook for journaling. But most important: Do bring your heart.
How to travel in this group? Is this a silent retreat?
Not exactly. If you like to feel a sense of belonging through the 12 Days you can introduce yourself to your fellow travelers in the comments, leave comments or quote a line about what has especially moved your heart, or leave a question or a thought.
Just walk in the pace and the way which suits you best quietly watching or tenderly engaging.
Our comments section is private and thus only accessible for our paid subscribers and all who enrolled in a gift subscription. This will ensure we can gather in a safe and private space during our journey like in a monastery courtyard.
I do ask you to always click the heart when you have been reading along or to leave a word in the comment section so we know you have been here and we all feel a sense of togetherness even while walking in solitude.
Is there a fee to participate?
Yes and no. You do need to be a paid subscriber in order to get on our 12 Days List. This way we can assure each one’s commitment to this journey as well as the privacy of our comment section.
This gift is made possible by the kindness of our paid or founding subscribers. If you want to become a 12 Days of Christmas sustaining member you can do so by upgrading your subscription to founding member or by donating a subscription. And as always, share this email with another kindred spirit. Thank you, thank you.
Do you have more questions? Let me know!
From the archive
Thank you for reading, sharing and supporting Cloister Notes, a letter for dancing monks, weary pilgrims and wounded healers in the intersection of psychology, philosophy and spirituality.
Thank you for offering this time of reflection! I have been eager to begin ever since I learned of this gift. I am beginning "late" because I wanted to be sure to have quiet time to truly reflect and journal (perhaps I am "right on time"). Thank you again!
Back again to your lovely heartfelt meditations on the Christmas journey to Epiphany! Thank you!