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 online retreats are built around that conviction. Each focuses on a figure from the Western mystical tradition whose work emerged not in isolation from the world, but in direct response to it. Many lived through the upheavals of the twentieth century and understood that spirituality detached from ordinary reality easily becomes another form of escape. Their writings remain compelling because they ask what spiritual practice means under actual conditions: work, uncertainty, suffering, responsibility, and community.

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These retreats approach their lives and writings through close reading, guided contemplative practice, and live discussion. Rather than treating their work as historical material, we ask what it reveals about the demands of the contemplative life in our own time. Between sessions, participants are given practices and reflections intended to carry that inquiry into daily life, where the contemplative tradition has always insisted it belongs.

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The figures we study differ considerably from one another, but they share a common conviction: that contemplation is not a withdrawal from the world but a transformation of how one meets it. Their writings offer not techniques for self-improvement, but a disciplined education in what it means to live spiritually in the modern world.

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