Cynthia Bourgeault

Cynthia Bourgeault is an Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She is the original creator of the Wisdom School and has been organizing and teaching schools since 1999. Founding director of the British Columbia-based Contemplative Society and the Aspen Wisdom School, she has now returned home to the East Coast to divide her time between Wisdom teaching, writing, and solitude at her small hermitage on Eagle Island in Maine. To find out what Cynthia's up to, you can view her master teaching calendar.

Maundy Thursday: A Journey Through Holy Week

Cynthia Bourgeault | April 6, 2023

Passion Libretto Part III: The Prince of this World This is day four of a six day free Holy Week offering. On this Maundy Thursday and beginning of the Easter Triduum, […]

Holy Wednesday: A Journey Through Holy Week

Cynthia Bourgeault | April 5, 2023

Passion Libretto Part II: Gethsemane This is day three of a six day free Holy Week offering. On this Holy Wednesday, in the Passion Libretto Part II: Gethsemane, Cynthia brings us to […]

Holy Tuesday: A Journey Through Holy Week

Cynthia Bourgeault | April 4, 2023

Passion Libretto Part I: The Farewell Discourse This is day two of a six day free Holy Week offering. On this Holy Tuesday, in the Passion Libretto Part I: The Farewell […]

Holy Monday: A Journey Through Holy Week

Cynthia Bourgeault | April 3, 2023

Welcome, this Holy Monday to the first of six emails you will receive, one per day from today through Holy Saturday. Every day will offer an invitation to each of us for reflection, prayer and meditation individually yet together in the heart of God. These daily emails will include written text, music, and a video commentary by our teacher Cynthia Bourgeault focusing on a five part libretto she put together back in 2004.

Farewell, beloved Snowmass…Adiós, Amado Snowmass

Cynthia Bourgeault | March 26, 2023

If I have not yet publicly commented on the apparently now-imminent closing of St. Benedict’s Monastery, it is not because I have no feelings on the matter. Quite the contrary, it’s because my heart is so flooded with feelings that I find myself really, for once, at loss for words. What can be said, except in the language of tears?

Cynthia’s Eastertide Message and Invitation

Cynthia Bourgeault | April 18, 2022

To all my beloveds, He is Risen! And has invited us now, in the spirit of St. Peter (“where I am going you cannot follow me now, but soon…”) to […]

My Sojourn with the Episcopal House of Bishops

Cynthia Bourgeault | April 5, 2022

In this very heartening account, Cynthia Bourgeault shares her personal experience having presented her teaching on “radical kenosis” at the annual meeting of the Episcopal House of Bishops in March […]

Balancing Centers, Integrating Structures, Lesson XVI

Cynthia Bourgeault | January 20, 2022

Yet another connecting link between the Gebserian and Gurdjieffian systems lies in the fruitful interplay between Gurdjieff’s three centers and their respective counterparts in the Gebserian structures of consciousness.

Three Centered Awareness: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson XV

Cynthia Bourgeault | January 7, 2022

Cynthia Bourgeault continues her series of reflections upon Integral structures of consciousness and ideas brought forth in Jean Gebser’s book, Ever Present Origin (EPO). See below for related resources and […]

Rain down gently upon us: an Advent reflection by Cynthia Bourgeault

Cynthia Bourgeault | December 31, 2021

I am working strongly with two items: the “Rorate Coeli,” that ancient Gregorian Advent chant, plus the Gurdjieff Movement 39. Together they circumscribe a space whose qualities are repentance, comfort, and simple, unwavering presence. There is a distinctly feminine quality to the presence, which began with the surprise “guest appearance” of Mary at our Advent retreat last week, her tenderness palpable.