The contemplative life is not a set of practices to be added to an already full existence. It is a different orientation toward the existence one already has.

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The digital retreats take that orientation seriously and personally. Each is built around figures from the Western mystical tradition who refused to separate the interior life from full engagement with the world, mystics who lived through the fractures of the twentieth century and understood that contemplation without roots in the world risks becoming another form of withdrawal.

 

Writing from within the crises of their own time, their voices speak with a directness that makes the demands of the contemplative life unusually concrete and recognizable. Approached through close reading, guided practice, and live discussion, these retreats ask what their example means for how we actually live, and offer concrete practices for carrying that question into the week between sessions.

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They are designed as a serious but accessible entry point into the contemplative life, for those who are new to the tradition and for those who have circled it for years without finding a way in.

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The retreats are open to people of any religious background, or none. No prior knowledge or experience is assumed.