The Fire of Hope 1 is the first in a three-part series of annual retreats led by the Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and his colleague Cami Twilling in which we seek to nurture the fire of love, the fire of desire and the fire of courage within us.

The teachings of this retreat are based on the book that John Philip is currently working on, drawing especially on the wisdom of Leo Tolstoy, Simone Weil and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Although the final text for this three-year series has not yet been written we recommend the following books by John Philip Newell as preparing the way: A New Ancient Harmony and the prayerbook Celtic Benediction.

The Fire of Hope 1 can be taken as a stand-alone retreat or in conjunction with The Fire of Hope 2 and The Fire of Hope 3, which can be attended in any order and at any of our retreat centers across the country or online.

For more information about John Philip Newell and Earth and Soul, visit https://www.earthandsoul.org.

For more information about the retreat at Holy Wisdom Monastery, contact Pam Shellberg at pshellberg@holywisdommonastery.org or 608-836-1631, x126.

Schedule

Thursday – April 30

Friday – May 1

Saturday – May 2

Leaders – John Philip Newell and Cami Twilling

John Philip Newell

John Philip Newell (b. 1953) is an internationally renowned Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.

Canadian by birth, and also Scottish, he resides with his wife Ali in the ecovillage of Findhorn in Scotland. In 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.

His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books, including his award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book, also with HarperOne, is The Great Search (August 2024), in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it.

John Philip speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic tradition, seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern.

Cami Twilling

Cami Twilling, based in Colorado, is the Director of Earth & Soul (a Celtic initiative of study, spiritual practice and compassionate action inspired by the teachings of John Philip Newell). As well as heading up the overall work of Earth & Soul, she facilitates the spiritual practice component of the Earth & Soul Retreats. Previously she was the Director of Contemplative Spirituality and Youth Ministry at Trinity UMC in downtown Denver. She has studied meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition of Shambhala and received Spiritual Direction certification from the Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction in Tucson, Arizona.

In addition to leading mountain and urban retreats, she has led international pilgrimage groups to Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland and work teams to Guatemala to build houses in communities that have suffered from political strife and economic hardship. Cami is passionate about the relationship between spirituality and action and believes that spiritual vision and practice can play a vital role in helping to heal and transform our lives both individually and together.

Dates/Times

4:00 pm, Thursday, April 30 – 1:00 pm, Saturday, May 2, 2026

Cost

$385/person, includes program and meals, Thurs. dinner, Fri. lunch and dinner, Fri. book signing and reception, Sat. lunch; does NOT include lodging.

Limited scholarships are available. Please contact Pam Shellberg at pshellberg@holywisdommonastery.org or 608-836-1631, x126.

Lodging

Lodging is NOT included in the price of the retreat.

• Lodging at Holy Wisdom Monastery during the retreat is full.

• We have reserved a block of rooms nearby at the Baymont hotel. Please call the hotel at 608-616-4527 to book your room. The block is under “Fire & Hope Holy Wisdom.” The block of rooms will be held until March 30, 2026. Location: Baymont by Wyndham Madison West/Middleton WI West, 8102 Excelsior Dr, Madison, WI 53717. 

Register

Please register with the button below by April 22, 2026.

Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until April 22, 2025. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.

The post The Fire of Hope 1 appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

–Catherine Maciariello, The Great Search 2, 2024 participant

The Great Search 3

We hope you can join us at Holy Wisdom Monastery for The Great Search 3 from May 1-3, 2025.

In 2022 John Philip Newell began a second series of annual retreats to address the deep spiritual yearnings of this moment in time and to help give birth to new beginnings in our lives and world. 

The Great Search 3 is the third of a three-part series of annual retreats led by the Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and his colleague Cami Twilling in which we explore the search for wisdom, the search for meaning, and the search for faith.

The teachings of this retreat are based on John Philip Newell’s new book The Great Search: Turning to Earth & Soul in the Quest for Healing & Home (especially Chapters 7, 8, and 9 drawing on the wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore, Etty Hillesum, and Edwin Muir). 

The text for this three-year program is John Philip Newell’s new book The Great Search (August 2024). The shared prayer book for this program is Praying with the Earth.

The Great Search 3 can be taken as a stand-alone retreat or in conjunction with The Great Search 1 and The Great Search 2 which can be attended in any order and at any of our retreat centers across the country or online.

For more information about John Philip Newell, Earth and Soul or The Great Search initiative, visit https://www.earthandsoul.org.

For more information about the retreat at Holy Wisdom Monastery, contact Pam Shellberg at pshellberg@holywisdommonastery.org or 608-836-1631, x126.

Schedule

Thursday – May 1

Friday – May 2

Saturday – May 3

Leaders – John Philip Newell and Cami Twilling

John Philip Newell

John Philip Newell is an internationally renowned Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.

Canadian by birth, and also Scottish, he resides with his wife Ali in the ecovillage of Findhorn in Scotland. In 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.

His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over 15 books, including his award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book, also with HarperOne, is The Great Search (August 2024), in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it. 

Newell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic tradition, seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern.

Cami Twilling

Cami Twilling, based in Colorado, is the Director of Earth & Soul (a Celtic initiative of study, spiritual practice and compassionate action inspired by the teachings of John Philip Newell). As well as heading up the overall work of Earth & Soul, she facilitates the spiritual practice component of the Earth & Soul Retreats. In addition to leading mountain and urban retreats, she has led international pilgrimage groups to Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland and work teams to Guatemala to build houses in communities that have suffered from political strife and economic hardship. Cami is passionate about the relationship between spirituality and action and believes that spiritual vision and practice can play a vital role in helping to heal and transform our lives both individually and together.

Dates/Times

4:00 pm, Thursday, May 1 – 1:00 pm, Saturday, May 3, 2025

Cost

$360/person, includes program and meals, Thurs. dinner, Fri. lunch and dinner, Fri. book signing and reception, Sat. lunch; does NOT include lodging.

Limited scholarships are available. Please contact Pam Shellberg at pshellberg@holywisdommonastery.org or 608-836-1631, x126.

Lodging

Lodging is NOT included in the price of the retreat.

• Lodging at Holy Wisdom Monastery is now full.
• We have a block of hotel rooms at Baymont Inn & Suites, 8102 Excelsior Dr, Madison, WI 53717, for $72 per night. Please contact the hotel directly to reserve your room at 608-831-7711. The block is under: Holy Wisdom – The Great Search. 

View photos from 2023 and 2024

Register

Please register with the button below by April 24, 2025.

Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until Apr. 24, 2025. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.

The post The Great Search 3 appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

We hope you can join us at Holy Wisdom Monastery for The Quest for Healing and Home – The Great Search 2 from May 9-11, 2024.

In 2022 John Philip Newell began a second series of annual retreats to address the deep spiritual yearnings of this moment in time and to help give birth to new beginnings in our lives and world. 

The Great Search 2 is the second of a three-part series of annual retreats led by the Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and his colleague Cami Twilling in which we explore the search for awareness, the search for spiritual and physical wellness and the search for love.

The teachings of this retreat are based on John’s forthcoming book The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home, especially Chapters 4, 5, and 6, drawing on the wisdom of Carl Jung, Julian of Norwich and Jelalludin Rumi. Until the book is published, The Rebirthing of God is the recommended reading and Praying with the Earth is the shared prayer book for this retreat.

The Great Search 2 can be taken as a stand-alone retreat or in conjunction with The Great Search 1 and The Great Search 3 which can be attended in any order and at any of the participating retreat centers across the country or online.

For more information about John Philip Newell, Earth and Soul or The Great Search initiative, visit https://www.earthandsoul.org.

For more information about the retreat at Holy Wisdom Monastery, contact Pam Shellberg at pshellberg@holywisdommonastery.org or 608-836-1631, x126.

Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Dates/Times

4:00 pm, May 9 – 1:00 pm May 11, 2024

Cost

$340/person, includes program and meals, Thurs. dinner, Fri. lunch and dinner, Fri. book signing and reception, Sat. lunch; does NOT include lodging.

Limited scholarships are available. Please contact Pam Shellberg at pshellberg@holywisdommonastery.org or 608-836-1631, x126.

Lodging

Lodging is NOT included in the price of the retreat.

• Lodging at Holy Wisdom Monastery during the retreat is now full.
• We have a block of rooms for the retreat reserved at the Baymont Inn, 8102 Excelsior Dr, Madison, WI, seven miles away from the monastery. The rooms will be held until Apr. 9, 2024.
  • $199/night + tax, includes continental breakfast (it is graduation weekend at UW Madison, so rates are high, and many hotels are full this weekend).
  • To reserve your room at the Baymont Inn, call 608-831-7711 and ask for the Holy Wisdom – The Great Search block.

Leaders

John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.

Canadian by birth, and a citizen also of Scotland, he resides with his family in Edinburgh and works on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.

His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over 15 books, including his latest award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His forthcoming book (August 2024), also with Harper One, is The Great Search, in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it. 

Newell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic tradition, seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern.

Cami Twilling, based in Colorado, is the Director of Earth & Soul (a Celtic initiative of study, spiritual practice and compassionate action inspired by the teachings of John Philip Newell). As well as heading up the overall work of Earth & Soul, she facilitates the spiritual practice component of the Earth & Soul Annual Retreats. In addition to leading mountain and urban retreats, she has led international pilgrimage groups to Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland and work teams to Guatemala to build houses in communities that have suffered from political strife and economic hardship. Cami is passionate about the relationship between spirituality and action and believes that spiritual vision and practice can play a vital role in helping to heal and transform our lives both individually and together.

View 2023 Photos

Register

Please register by May 1, 2024.

There is a 75% refund for cancellations until May 1, and a 50% refund for cancellations after May 1 until May 9, 2024.

The post The Quest for Healing and Home – The Great Search 2 appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.