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
“Passion Week Consolations ”
“Tending Our Sorrows”
Together we will walk from Palm Sunday to Easter morning, through the valley of our tears or loneliness or sorrows, towards new life and the blossoming of spring, sustained and consoled by music of JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion.
Gathering Hall at St Benedict’s Monastery, MN.
You can now enroll for our Passion Week Consolations 2024 by becoming a sustaining member of our Cloister Notes here. Hope to see you there!
We are glad to journey with you through this sacred time,
Almut & Chuck
Passion Week Consolations 2023
When singing the St. Matthew Passion with the Munich Bach choir one moment stood out: silence. The silence entered when our conductor intentionally held onto the rest after Jesus bowed his head and died. He stood still, with his arms in suspension, cradling the time. It was as though the whole audience sighed together, like our hearts stood still for a moment, pausing in unison. Since then I have known that conducting the pause is as important as conducting the whole Passion...
One can hardly say anything more meaningful than is already said in this ethereal Aria of JS Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and the angelic earnestness of the interpretation by the male Alto Tim Mead and the Netherlands Bach Society. May you find comfort and healing in it and may it move you to shared compassion with those who suffer in these troubled times.
Today we walk with Peter through his courage, betrayal, and desolation at the cock crow. The music is frenetic and the themes are challenging. But Bach has strategically placed soothing moments that show empathy for the sufferer and offer consolation. We will look together at both the difficulties and the consolations, and then suggest a process and practice to bind them together.
On this Holy Tuesday I want to invite you into a holy pause to cradle your heart. The Aria I have chosen from the Matthew Passion offers you an invitation to self-compassion. To be compassionate even with your “bleeding heart.”
The arias in Bach’s Passions are wells of deep emotion. Time stands still, while we follow a movement of heart to the depth of our soul. Bach’s aria “Have mercy, my God”, invites us almost to dance through our bitter weeping, to resist our resistance, and to open the heart to graceful mourning and the gentle desire for mercy.
With his Passion JS Bach has created a grand lamentation. His music gives us a container for our sorrows and seduces us into the beauty of lamentation. Joining in this orchestrated experience of mourning can actually be self-soothing and a strategy for resilience in the face of tragedy.
With his Passion JS Bach has created a grand lamentation. He does not to believe that coping with our fears and sorrows means to keep them in check in order to quickly get over them. Instead his music gives us a container for our sorrows and seduces us into the beauty of lamentation. Joining in this orchestrated experience of mourning can actually be self-soothing and a strategy for resilience in the face of tragedy.
JS Bach’s Passion is not just a musical masterpiece which has moved our heart countless times. It also holds the potential to console us in times of trouble. Bach’s music has the potential to not only comfort the listener but to strengthen our self healing potential and resilience.
In these challenging times exhausted by a world altering pandemic and a raging war in Europe we will enter this year’s passion week in a cloud of fear and uncertainty while clinging to hope. But the mystery of inwardly walking through passion week has also always been an invitation to tend to our sorrows, revisit our fears and ponder our shadows. Thus, though it seems contradictory for many, it is not the avoidance but the tender care for our sorrows which will lead us to Easter, the revival of what has been dead to new life.
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“The wound is where the light enters.”
Below you will find a beautiful recording by the Netherlands Bach society. It is the whole piece (>2h)! We will refer to this recording often during this retreat, choosing several pieces from it.
The St Matthew Passion performed by the Netherlands Bach Society for All of Bach.
> When you open the video in youtube you will find a clickable list of all pieces below the description and above the comment section.
Bach’s two Passion works (St. John and St. Matthew) were written in the early 1700’s and were designed to be performed at the long vesper service on Good Friday evening in Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church. The St. Matthew Passion is the larger and more monumental piece, but both have deep subtleties in the music and the psychological portrayal of the characters. National Public Radio provides this introduction to the St. Matthew Passion that concentrates on the psychological and spiritual movement in the piece.
If you would like to listen more profoundly into the Passion here is a link to a wonderful translation of the whole piece, listing all pieces and offering a line by line translation of German to English. Very helpful and very easy to follow along.
I just found on the website of the Netherland Bach Association another translation of all texts (side by side). I do prefer this translation and have used it already on our first consolation. Also their website is a wonderful place for more background information on their recording, to walk through the Matthew Passion piece by piece or to watch the whole piece while heaving the translation right at hand.
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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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…
“Time’s violence rends the soul; by the rent eternity enters.”
