Two 9-day online retreats for Lent: Dorothy Day, March 7-15; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, March 21-29

We are offering TWO Lenten retreats this year focusing on and inspired by  the life and writings of Christians devoted both to their faith and to radical resistance against societal evil:

DOROTHY DAY and DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

Join us for one or the other or both!

Simple and accessible:

one quotation or short excerpt per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
                                      
 on nine consecutive days

Dorothy Day retreat:

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 7 - SATURDAY, MARCH 15

 

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer retreat: 

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 21 - SATURDAY, MARCH 29

 

 

 

Dorothy Day (1897-1980): co-founder of the Catholic Worker, an anarchist, pacifist, lay Catholic Christian movement, and founder and editor of the newspaper by the same name, she was also a person of prayer whose Roman Catholic religious observance cannot be separated from her work for social and economic justice and peace or from what Christian tradition calls “the works of mercy.”

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945): pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi resister at a time when a great majority of the Protestant churches in Germany had allied themselves with the violent dictatorship in their nation. His short life and many writings have become known around the world, from South Africa to South Korea to the U.S and Canada.

  

For information about and registration for the Dorothy Day retreat, click here.

If you need to begin a day later than March 7, that's fine -- and you will still get the full benefit of the retreat.

For information about registration for the Dietrich Bonhoeffer retreat, click here.

 

 

Nine Days in Lent with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: An Online Retreat with Lessons from History

Join us for

Nine Days in Lent with Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

An Online Retreat with Lessons from History

Friday, March 21*
to
Saturday, March 29, 2025

* "soft opening" on Thursday, March 20

Please join us for learning, reflection, meditation, and (if you are a praying person) prayer inspired by the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi resister. DB's life and writings have become known around the world, from South Africa to South Korea to the U.S and Canada. Becoming acquainted with them is always timely -- and now more than ever, in tense and troubled days.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Tegel Prison, Berlin, 1944

 

What

* Spiritual challenge and nurture

* Simple and accessible:

one quotation or short excerpt per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
                                        on nine consecutive days

There will also be some historical posts to help you understand the historical and social context of the readings and of Bonhoeffer's life.

*  The writings, posted online, will be short enough to read in the midst of your busy life and long enough to offer a glimpse into Bonhoeffer's thought, faith, and life commitments. This is not a course with a long syllabus and whole books to read; nor is it an exhaustive examination of DB's work. Nevertheless, this offering is representative of some of the major themes in DB's life and work. It is an invitation to ponder deeply both the readings and their context and, if you wish, to pursue further reading, reflection, and engagement.

Where, when, and how

* This online retreat takes place on a members-only blog.

This means the blog is accessible only to people who have registered and signed onto the blog. It will be private and will not be searchable on the internet. Conversations (taking place in the comments section of the blog posts) will be among participants and closed to all other persons.

* You'll sign onto the blog just once (I will send easy directions once you have registered) and the blog will recognize you after that whenever you click its home page url. You do need to bookmark that home page once you have access to the blog, so that you can find it again easily.

* You will visit the blog daily for the nine days of the retreat but you can log into the retreat at any hour of the day or night that is convenient  for you.

* Have your retreat time at home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time (any time, day or night) and a computer or tablet with internet access. More than 20 minutes (say, 40 minutes) would be even more enriching, but 20 mns will be fine if that's what you've got!
 

Register and pay

Register and pay in a single transaction using the secure PayPal button below.

Note: You can use the PayPal button and its secure connection to pay with a credit or debit card even if you don't have a PayPal account. The button offers you a choice of payment modalities. The PayPal mechanism will record your name and e-mail address and serve as your registration. You will receive an automated acknowledgment from PayPal and a also personal e-mail acknowledgment from me.

 

Powered by

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

If you are in a situation of financial stress, please use the hardship rate on the menu above or write me so that we can arrange for a payment plan or a scholarship. Don't let your lack of money prevent you from seeking spiritual support and nourishment here. If on the other hand you wish to help make possible more scholarships and discounts, just check the benefactor rate.

More FAQ...

Do I have to talk to other people on this bloggy course-retreat? I'm a very private person.

See the answer to the next question.

Can I get some support here? I want some company.

This online offering offers you a choice; it is up to you to find your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.

You can and may remain private and just read the blog and use the spiritual practices and meditations on your own. Nobody will force you to speak or disclose who you are.

Or you can and may take part in conversation with other participants. Conversation takes place in writing, through the comments feature on the blog posts. 

Please be prepared to observe confidentiality and to respect other participants' diverse experiences and outlooks.

Use the retreat according to your personality and your circumstances. The online retreat is like a room in which you are welcome to sit in the company of others and to be either visible or invisible.

What, no Zoom? 

Because this is a meditative experience and requires time for reading and pondering, and because participants will be from different time zones, the best format for this offering is a blog.

Questions? Concerns? Write me at readwithredmont@earthlink.net.

We are also offering a nine-day retreat inspired by the life, writings, and work of Dorothy Day. It begins on March 7. (You may begin a day later if you don't see the announcement soon enough to begin on March 7.) Click here for full information and registration. 

LEARNING AND SPIRITUAL REFRESHMENT, FEBRUARY TO JUNE 2023, online

Join us for one or more of these online offerings --some longer, some shorter-- for spiritual reflection, deep learning, prayer, and daily practice. 

Click on the links at the titles below (first line of each title) to learn more about each offering: three retreats, one course-retreat.

1. RE-MEMBERING OUR LIVES:

A Healing Lent 

February 26-April 1 

CANCELED DUE TO COVID - 

but we're on for the other retreats, which begin

 later in the season. See below!

   2. A GENTLE LENT: 

Living Ancient Practices Today 

March 8-25

3. NINE DAYS WITH DOROTHEE SOELLE

a retreat for 

marginal, committed, radical, and/or curious Christians

March 23-31

4.  SOELLE IN SPRINGTIME: 

Challenge and Wonder

 a course-retreat *

 April 19-June 23 

* Less reading and more spiritual practice than a course (class), more reading and critical thinking than a retreat. Open to persons of any (or no) religious background.

Click on the titles above for details and registration.

A GENTLE LENT: Living Ancient Practices Today (an 18-day retreat, online)

Do you want to observe Lent in some form, but can't make a five or six week commitment to a Lenten retreat, even an online one?

Did you get a late start on Lent?

Do you need a protected space with support and resources for observing Lent?

Not sure you know what Lent is about any more?

Wondering whether and how those three ancient Lenten practices of "prayer, fasting, and almsgiving" can have meaning in your life?

Join us for  

 

A Gentle Lent: 

Living Ancient Practices Today

Wednesday, March 8 

to Saturday, March 25

WHAT

 

A two and a half week online retreat for those who would like a shorter retreat time than the entire season of Lent or who just weren't able to "get started on Lent" at the beginning of the season.

The traditional practices of Lent are known as prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. What form can they take, and what sense do they make, in our 21st century lives?

 

How are they related to leading our lives with simplicity, mindfulness, and compassion?

In this season, can we learn anew to be gentle with ourselves as we discover --or remember-- that God is tender and merciful toward us?

WHEN 

 

Wednesday, March 8 to to Saturday, March 25

 

March 8 is the middle of the second full week in Lent. It is two weeks after Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

 

March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation, a day honoring invitation, surprise, and affirmation in the life of Mary the mother of Jesus, and inviting us to ponder where God is calling us.

 

Aloysius Hsu,  SJ, “Annunciation"
Journal of the Asian American Theological Forum (2019)

WHERE and HOW

 

Online (resources, conversation) and in your daily life (anywhere - home, work, outdoors, indoors).

Online:   

 

   1)  On the retreat blog. This is the primary resource for the retreat. All retreat materials (readings, meditations, spiritual exercises or invitations to practice, music, visual art) will be posted on this blog as the retreat proceeds. The initial, one-time-only sign-on to the retreat blog is easy.* Once you have signed up a first time, the retreat blog will recognize you and you can check in any time. Only retreatants with have access to the blog, which is private and not searchable on the internet.

 

    2) In live Zoom conversations.  You will also have three opportunities to meet in "real time" with other retreatants and with me on Zoom, for 90 minutes on a Thursday evening, with some quiet time, musical offering, and sharing about your Lenten journey and daily practice. (Note: it's not a competition! Come as you are, not as you think you "ought to be.") Your registration on PayPal includes options of meeting times from which you can choose.

    

For both of these online experiences, you will need a computer or tablet and a working internet connection. The bigger the screen, the better: while technically speaking you can view the retreat blog and use Zoom on your smartphone, I don't recommend it because you won't see as well as you would on a larger screen.

 

* Need technical help? Neither the retreat blog nor Zoom is complicated once you've done it once, and even the first time it's not hard. I send out detailed directions on how to sign on to the retreat blog and a link to hop onto Zoom. But if you need extra help and support, I'll be glad to walk you through your first time or to trouble-shoot with you should you run into a snag.

 

In daily life:

Your life, your location, your schedule: You can read --and gaze at, and listen to-- the retreat materials at any time of day or night, and you can pray and practice according to your schedule and lifestyle. It will be good for you to devote a little time every day to the retreat, but when and where you practice and pray is up to you. A regular time to check in to the retreat blog every day or two is best, even if it is short. Experiment and see what works, be gentle in setting the schedule that works for you, and don't hesitate to ask for help.

 

brush art by Thomas Merton

 

REGISTRATION AND COST

Registration and payment take place via PayPal secure link (below), which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal.

--You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.
--If you prefer making a donation via Venmo, please write me.
--A discount rate is available for those in financial hardship.
--Likewise, the benefactor rate, for those who have the means, helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.
--If the discount fee is too high for you, please write me and ask about the possibility of a scholarship.
--Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration. 

 

Please pick one

Regular rate $120.00 USD Benefactor rate $250.00 USD Discount rate $80.00 USD

Zoom or no Zoom?

Thursdays March 9, 16, & 23 at 7:00 pm Eastern (4 pm Pacific) No Zoom for me. I will participate only via the retreat blog.

QUESTIONS?

 

     Write me at readwithredmont@earthlink.net.

 

Click here 

to see other offerings from Redmont Retreats 

this winter and spring.

Lent with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: An Online Retreat

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian pastor in the Lutheran tradition, scholar, and resister against  the Nazi regime, was executed for his resistance activities in 1945, at the age of 39; his writings and life have become well known around the world, from South Africa to South Korea. 

Here in the U.S., many are reading his works again --or for the first time-- both because of the times in which we live and because of a couple of recently published biographies.

The Christian season of Lent begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, March 1, in the Western Christian churches. (The Eastern Orthodox season of Great Lent nearly coincides with Lent in the Western church this year and began on February 27.) Lent is in many ways a long retreat for the whole church, a six-week preparation for the celebration of Easter. It is a time of intensified or more intentional prayer, greater simplicity of life, and giving to others, especially those who are poor.

This year, we invite you to

Lent with Dietrich Bonhoeffer

An Online Retreat
 March 5-April 21, 2017

The first full week of the retreat begins this coming Sunday, March 5, but there will be a "soft opening" tomorrow, March 1, for those who want to jump right in and get started on Ash Wednesday.

This retreat will place us in conversation with the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is a retreat, not a class, though we will certainly learn from the retreat and from each other. Our lens will be a meditative one in which both prayer and critical thinking will be welcome and encouraged. There will be readings, but they will not be as long as they would be for a course. In addition to readings, the retreat will include some musical and visual resources.

The retreat will offer spiritual exercises based on Bonhoeffer's life and work and oriented toward the Christian season of Lent.

Read on for further details, 

registration information, 

and FAQ.

Focus and themes

Every week in the retreat will have an overarching theme or cluster of themes related to Bonhoeffer's life and work.

Prelude (Ash Wednesday and the next three days):

Why Bonhoeffer? Why this retreat?
With an introduction to Bonhoeffer's life and some Psalms

Week 1 (March 5): 

Bonhoeffer's context and ours (with an examination of the Nazification of Germany, but also of Bonhoeffer's family and formation)

Week 2 (March 12):

Jesus Christ, discipleship, and grace

Week 3 (March 19):

Life together: community, church, resistance

Week 4 (March 26):

Friendship, trust, commitment: Bonhoeffer and relationships

Week 5 (April 2):

Travel, ecumenism, inspiration: Bonhoeffer beyond German borders, from Rome to Harlem and Sweden to South Africa

Week 6 (April 9, Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion, and into Holy Week):

Suffering, sacrifice, and the cross

Week 7 (April 16, Easter):

Heirs to Bonhoeffer, friends of Christ: living Resurrection.

We will ponder each theme or cluster of themes through Bonhoeffer's writings and other resources and also reflect on and pray with these themes as they are manifest in our own lives.

To register

1) If you prefer to pay by check, write me, Jane Redmont, at readwithredmont@earthlink.net and I will acknowledge your registration and send you the mailing address. I will also notify you when I receive your check.

OR (quicker and easier)

2) If you wish to pay by credit or debit card or with a PayPal account, simply register and pay in a single transaction using the secure PayPal button below.

Note: You can use that PayPal button and its secure connection to pay with a credit or debit card even if you don't have a PayPal account. The PayPal mechanism will record your name and e-mail address and serve as your registration. You will also receive an automated acknowledgment from PayPal and a personal e-mail acknowledgment from me.

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

If you are in a situation of financial stress, please use the discount rates on the menu below or write me so that we can arrange for a payment plan.

If you wish to help make possible more scholarships and discounts, just check the benefactor rate.

Retreat fees (choose one)

Regular rate $135.00 USD Benefactor rate $200.00 USD Discount rate $100.00 USD Seriously broke rate $60.00 USD

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
 
An online retreat? What's that?

It's a retreat in daily life with resources and guidance online. You'll need a computer or tablet and an internet connection. You'll be using the computer to make the retreat, but you won't be spending the whole retreat staring at the computer.

The beauty of an online retreat is that you can check in with the retreat on your own schedule, at whatever hour of the night or day works for you. You do need to devote some time to it, but if you have 20-30 minutes two or three times a week, you can benefit from the retreat. You can also spend more time on the retreat if you wish, or check in daily. The retreat is structured to work for a two or three times a week check-in as well as for daily participation. It's up to you.

How does an online retreat work?

The retreat offers daily resources online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me, Jane, the retreat facilitator) has signed in.

In other words, the retreat blog is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Conversations among retreatants remain private.

Do I have to talk to other people on this retreat? I'm a very private person.

See the answer to the next question.

Can I get some support here? I want some company.

Jane's online retreats offer you a choice; it is up to you to find your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.

You can and may remain private and just read the blog and use the spiritual practices and meditations on your own. Nobody will force you to speak or disclose who you are.

Or you can and may take part in conversation with other retreatants. Conversation during the online retreat takes place in writing, through the comments feature on the blog posts of the retreat blog. Please be prepared to observe confidentiality and to respect other participants' diverse experiences and outlooks.

Use the retreat according to your personality and your circumstances. The online retreat is like a room in which you are welcome to sit in the company of others and to be either visible or invisible.

What's with the March 1 /March 5 double start date?

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which falls on March 1 this year. The first full week of Lent begins Sunday, March 5. We all get started on Lent in different ways despite (or because of) the calendar. Some of us are a little slower than others. Get started on the retreat any time from March 1 on. Try to be with us on retreat by March 5 at the latest. But if you're a day or two late, you can still join us.

And what about that theme for the first week of Easter? I thought this was a Lenten retreat.

It is. But the celebration of the Passion and Resurrection are one. Lent doesn't just lead to the Last Supper, the Cross, and the silent closed tomb. It leads to Easter, the open tomb, and the proclamation of enduring and risen life.

The retreat will continue into the first week of Easter for those who desire. This will give us an opportunity to celebrate Easter together and to reflect on the meaning of Bonhoeffer's life and writings in the context of Resurrection.

Also, it is likely that some of our participants will be clergy and lay leaders, for whom April 13-16 will be the most intense and demanding days of the church year. These ministers will need quiet and rest on Easter Monday (April 17) and some personal retreat time after.

What do you mean by "spiritual exercises"?

Spirituality --including Christian spirituality-- involves our entire life. It is bodily as well as mental. It involves our imagination and also our actions. It is about practice, not just thinking.

A spiritual exercise, therefore, may be a prayer or meditation, or a reading assignment or way of reading; but it may also be a piece of writing in a journal, a new or repeated way of interacting with others, a way of gazing or focusing, a practice of fasting or mindful eating, a new way of creating, a daily habit.

Retreat designer and facilitator

Jane Redmont is a retreat leader, spiritual director, pastoral worker, writer, and theologian who has worked in campus, urban, and parish ministries. An Episcopal Christian, she was also formed in the Catholic tradition and has Jewish and Unitarian Universalist family roots. She has been involved in work for justice and in ecumenical and interreligious relations all her life. She has read and taught the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for many years, including in a college course called "Radical Theologians of Europe and North America" and an online course called "Radical Hope in Hard Times." She began her academic study of Bonhoeffer in her first semester of Ph.D studies with a paper entitled "Preaching in the Storm: The Word from the Pulpit and the Word in the World in the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer." She serves as a Congregational Consultant for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and is the author of When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life.

Questions? Concerns? Write Jane here.

Nine days with William Stringfellow: online retreat begins August 3

Longing for some prayerful and reflective time in your busy life?
 Thinking about the relationship between Christian faith and social realities?
Interested in a renewed perspective on the Bible in these United States?

 
William Stringfellow

An Online Novena Retreat
August 3-11 , 2015

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, August 3-11, 2015, with the help of the writings of William Stringfellow (1928-85).

* Simple and accessible:

one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day

* At home, in your daily life: read, meditate, and pray in a way that suits your schedule.

* You'll need just 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

William Stringfellow (1928-1985), was a lawyer by training and trade, not a professional theologian, though he wrote a dozen books and was one of most astute and insightful Christian thinkers of the 20th century. An Episcopal layman who understood himself very much as "Protestant" and who engaged in open criticism of his own beloved church, he was grounded in the prayerful study of scripture. Stringfellow was also a radical social critic preoccupied with the powers of sin and death in the world and in the cosmos.

"My concern," Stringfellow wrote, "is to understand America biblically -- in contrast to the more common tendency, to understand the Bible 'Americanly.'" One of the published summaries of his work notes that his great theme "was the Constantinian compromise, the accommodation of Christianity to the values of the empire and the preservation of status quo."

Click here for an informative essay on William Stringfellow 

if you want to know more about his life, work, and significance.

Details about the retreat below the picture.

Block Island, R.I., where Stringfellow shared a home with the poet Anthony Towne

"Novena retreat" ?

A novena is a sequence of nine successive days of prayer–usually prayers of either petition or thanksgiving. It is generally a public and popular spiritual practice and is found most often in the Roman Catholic religious tradition.

This novena retreat is ecumenical, accessible to Christians of any background or affiliation, and open to all. It is a new twist on the traditional novena.

I am using the word “novena,” meaning nine days, as part of the description of this retreat to indicate that it is nine days long and involves daily meditation and prayer.
 

An online retreat? How does that work?
 
* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register for the retreat by e-mailing me your intention to participate, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After that, the blog will always recognize you.

Registration

To register, write me, Jane Redmont, stating your intention to take the retreat, and make your payment. 

Cost and payment

* $60 if you register by Monday, July 26.

* $75 if you register between Tuesday, July 26 and Tuesday, August 3, the day the retreat begins.

It's best to register before August 3, but you are still welcome if you sign up at the 11th hour!

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.

 

* Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration, by check or online electronic payment.
 
If you prefer to pay by check, I will send you the mailing address when you write me to register.

If you prefer to pay online by credit card or PayPal, please click below to pay via the Redmont Retreats secure PayPal account. (Note: you don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this secure online payment method.)

Retreat fee (choose one)

July 27 - Aug. 3 - regular rate $75.00 USD through July 26 - early bird rate $60.00 USD benefactor rate - $85.00 USD hardship rate - $50.00 USD

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain private and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

or
   
If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can  share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other participants and with the retreat facilitator.

A full list of online retreats for summer 2015 is here.

 [Originally posted July 3, 2015.]