2010

Retreat Programs

Program descriptions follow schedule.

For a registration form for any of the following programs, click here.

Program Descriptions

Spiritual Guidance Training Program

Our 2009-2010 Spiritual Guidance Training Program will conclude in November 2010.

We are now accepting applications for the next program, to start in January 2011.

An ecumenical staff leads this two-year program, based on the Christian tradition and enriched by various faith perspectives. Permeating the process and content of the program is a belief in the sacredness of all creation and of human experience as the place of God's revelation. Belief in God's unconditional love for and presence in creation is foundational.

Candidates for this program will need some theological background. Training consists of eight annual three-day sessions, and utilizes several learning styles throughout the two years. Graduates will receive a certificate of completion. 

Staff:  Miriam Brown, OP; Sharon Gray, SCN; Colleen McGeady-Ambrose; and Rita Lui, OP 

For information or application, contact S. Rita Lui at 262-639-4100 x1230 or rlui@racinedominicans.org.

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Individual Basket Weaving Retreat

This retreat offers the opportunity to learn basket-making, an art, based upon a simple technique, weaving. It is a rhythmic kind of activity which lends itself to prayer and reflection. It can put us in touch with our own story and journey in life, as we create something that is beautiful and useful. Conversation with a spiritual guide is part of the retreat.

Ruthanne Reed, OP
Individual stays of one to five days, dates as requested and available.
$100 per day, includes room and board, daily spiritual guidance, basketry weaving instructions and materials. Commuter price is $70 per day (9 am – 4 pm). Includes weaving instructions and materials, spiritual guidance, and the noon meal.

                                                                                                  Registration form

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Threads of Life:  A Weaving Retreat

An Individual Retreat for Creativity, Contemplation and Conversation

"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle."     (Job 7:16)

This retreat offers the opportunity to learn the art of loom weaving as one experiences a silent retreat and a daily meeting with a spiritual guide. The creation of a weaving will be a process in which one is invited to reflect on the fabric of one's life. The participant will learn the essentials for continued weaving.

Contact:           Kathleen Bohn, OP

Dates:              Five day minimum, dates as requested and available.

Cost:                $500 for five days, $100 each additional day.  

Includes room and board, daily spiritual guidance, weaving classes and materials.

                                                                                                       Registration form

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Centering Prayer Group - Ongoing Thursdays 

Need a midweek refresher time? Start your day praying with others. 20 minutes of silent centering prayer followed by reading and brief discussion on prayer or spirituality.

Facilitators:      Rev. Michael Mueller and Pat Shutts

Dates:              Thursday mornings

Time:               7:00 - 8:00 a.m.

Cost:                Free-will offering

If questions, contact Pat Shutts at 262-639-4100 x1238 or pshutts@racinedominicans.org for more information. Come to the retreat entrance at the right/rear of Siena Center.

                                                                                       Registration form      

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Women for Women - Monthly Saturday Morning Circle

Come join in the circle of women’s wisdom and mutual support. At each Saturday gathering, we will include time in silent prayer and time sharing our lives and reflecting on themes from Midwives of an Unnamed Future, a book on women’s spirituality by Mary Ruth Broz, RSM, and Barbara Flynn. A midwife is a woman who helps another woman give birth to a new life. Each of us feels that desire for something MORE.  What new life is Spirit birthing in you? 

Each month, we'll explore and experience a different form of prayer--drumming, dance, walking the labyrinth, art, centering prayer, prayer in nature--as women seeking to be in tune with ourselves and the Divine.

Enjoy music, laughter, time to share with other great women; share support in a caring group where you can be yourself and ask the questions important in your life; and last but not least, enjoy Pat’s strong coffee.

Pat Shutts
Saturdays:  9:00 am  - Noon on January 16, February 20, March 20, April 17, May 15 and June 12, 2010.  $12.50 per session. Registration deadline is one week before the first session you attend.

                                                                                                                Registration form

  Situations of Substance Series in 2010

Lent:  Been There, Done That - Day of Enrichment

Once again Lent is upon us.  It always seems to come so fast after the Holidays.  Just when I was getting comfortable with the notion of the Incarnation and all that that implies, here I am being asked to let go of it all and enter a desert place, alone.  What's a Christian to do?  My alone time in the desert does not ask of me to be lonely.  Actually it empties me to be filled with the very fullness of God - GodWithUs.  It is a time for "less of me - more of God.”  I journey together with Church - we go together to meet the Risen Savior.

Byron Haaland, SCJ
Saturday, February 20  at 9 am - 3 pm (formerly scheduled on Feb 6)
$42.50, includes $10 n/r deposit and noon meal    

                                                                                             Registration form

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What Brings Me to Life?
Discernment: Learning to Make Good Choices

Making big and even small decisions can weigh heavy on us. We’ll implement the “tried and true” methods of Ignatius of Loyola and learn how to be more in tune with the Spirit’s guidance in our daily lives. The day includes presentation and discussion on various ways to hear the Spirit’s call, and personal time for quiet reflection. Discover how to get in touch with what your heart is truly drawn to right now.

Pat Shutts
Saturday, February 13, 2010.   Program 9 am - 3 pm.
$42.50, includes $10 n/r deposit and noon meal
Clock Hours:  3.0 Meth/Psy  B/I/M

                                                                                                 Registration form

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Breakthroughs That Liberate - Weekend Retreat
                                                                
The word breakthrough evokes images and thoughts of exuberance, power and movement into newness. Sometimes in a moment and suddenly, sometimes at the culmination of a gradual, possibly demanding, process an awakening occurs that liberates us. Jesus and spiritual leaders in other traditions were on a mission to set us free – free to trust, to sing, to be compassionate, and most of all to love and be loved.

What moves us along that path? It could be a blue iris, a sunrise, an earthquake, a political victory, an illness, a glorious affirmation, a new baby or a plane crash that upsets our virtual apple cart and invites or insists that we go deeper and become freer.  In this retreat we will look at significant breakthroughs in the lives of some writers and spiritual leaders, as well as reflect on our own journeys in faith. We will look toward developing trust and openness toward a hope-filled spiritual future. We will use scripture, poetry, our experience, prayer, and conversation to explore breakthroughs in the spiritual life.

Clare Wagner, OP
7:30 pm Friday, February 19, 2010 to noon meal on Sunday, February 21st
$190, includes $40 n/r deposit 
Clock Hours: 4.0 Meth/Psy  B/I/M
 

                                                                                                 Registration form

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 Beguines :  Daring, Dissident Soul Sisters

A Weekend Retreat

Eight hundred years ago, the creative mysticism, courage, and passion of women known as “Beguines” changed the church. Explore Beguine wisdom for today!

Who were the Beguines?  From about 1210 -1310, Christian Europe experienced the first significant emergence of women’s spirituality.  There were thousands of these women, called “Beguines,” who were not members of religious congregations but women dedicated to spiritual life gathering together in urban settings while supporting themselves with a variety of skills. Some took private vows, some did not.  Some lived in community;  others lived alone. Their experiences and writings radically changed the Church and the spirituality then available to women.  The Vatican curtailed the movement beginning with the execution of the radical visionary, Marguerite Porete, 700 years ago on June 1, 1310.
 
The weekend will include:
• presentations, discussion of works of Marguerite Porete, Mechtild of Madgeburg, and Hedwich of Brabant.
• meditations and dialogue to apply Beguine spirituality to our lives
• rituals to celebrate the power and creativity of women’s souls
• investigations of ways the Beguines prepared the way for Christian – Buddhist Interspirituality.

While academic research will support the retreat, emphasis will be on experiential engagement and mutual spiritual support.

Paula Hirschboeck, Ph.D.
7:30 pm Friday, February 26, 2010 to the noon meal on Sunday, February 28th 
$190, includes $40 n/r deposit
Clock Hours:  4.0 Theol  B/I/M

                                                                                            Registration form

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Crossing the Desert: Learning to Let Go and Live Simply 

Lenten Prayer Series

Today’s world situation asks all of us to evaluate what is really valuable and necessary for our lives. Throughout time, the desert has been the place where one stripped oneself of all that was unnecessary to come to what was necessary for real life. Using Robert Wick’s book, Crossing the Desert, we’ll ask: How can I learn to let go of that which keeps me from true happiness and real growth?

Pat Shutts
Mondays, March 1, 8 and 15, 2010
Offered twice, 10-11 a.m and again 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Free-will offering
                                                                                                  Registration form

Change and Renewal - Couples’ Retreat

“See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light; can you not see it?”    Isaiah 43:19

Through the many changes we experience, God is constantly calling us to reNew, reFresh and reEnergize our lives by tapping into the wellspring of love that flows from the depths of our being.

While changes are real and often painful, they offer great opportunities for growth and transformation.  This retreat is a blessed opportunity for couples to review and deepen their love for God, for life and for each other through reflection, meditation, dialogue with their spouse and sharing with other couples. 

Paul and Paula Voelkel
Friday – Sunday, March 5-7, 2010
$310 per couple, incl. $50 n/r deposit. 

                                                                                           Registration form

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The Paradox of Power:

Moving from Control to Compassion in a Violent World

How does violence undermine the possibility of compassion in our lives? During this day program we’ll look at the causes and consequences of conflict and violence in our lives at the personal, relational, and social levels, as well as how life might be lived more caringly and nonviolently in a way that leads to compassion. We’ll examine the causes of conflict, conflict resolution, reconciliation, and peacemaking. Michael will also address obstacles and opportunities to loving God and ourselves, choosing control or care in relationships, reconciliation and jubilee. We’ll conclude with Eucharist as the bond of compassion linking us to God, each other, and the universe.

Michael Crosby, OFM Cap
Saturday, March 6, 2010
9:30 am – 3:45 pm, followed by Eucharist at 4:00 pm
$45 includes $10 n/r deposit.  
Clock Hours:  3.5 Theol  B/I/A/M

                                                                                             Registration form

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Haunted by God - A One-Woman Performance on the Life of Dorothy Day

Haunted By God: The Life of Dorothy Day is an acclaimed play about the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, who spent 47 years caring for poor people and leading the Catholic Church to a more active concern for needy persons in U.S. society.

Hailed as "a moving, magnificent one-woman show," this dramatic portrait, featuring Still Point founder and director Lisa Wagner, follows Dorothy from her days as a 17 year-old Greenwich Village Bohemian, through her middle years as a social activist and journalist to her later years as an elderly, wise leader. Since 1990, Haunted By God has been performed all over the US, Canada, and Guam, and has toured Europe twice.  Advance registration requested.

Presented by Lisa Wagner-Carollo
Sunday, March 7, 2010  at  2:00 pm

Arch. of Milw. clock hours offered:   1.5 Theol. B/I/M.

Please join us for this unique fundraising event. Suggested donation is $10-$40, but we appreciate contributions in any amount. All donations will go toward supporting the ministry of the Racine Dominican Retreat Program.

                                                                                        Registration form

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 A Circle of Giftedness - Women’s Weekend Retreat
 
As a circle of women, we will pause in our busy lives of giving, to receive, relish, and be enriched by God’s graciousness. We will reflect on our inner gifts, power, worth, and wealth, and will be nourished through prayer, Scripture, and community. There will be time for leisure, quiet, refreshment, and sharing. 

Kathleen Bohn, OP
7:30 pm Friday, March 19, 2010 to the noon meal on Sunday, March 21 
$185, includes $40 n/r deposit

                                                                                          Registration form

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Making Mosaics from Broken Pieces - Weekend Retreat

In a recent book, Terry Tempest Williams writes of “making beauty in a broken world.” Disturbed by 9-11 and its aftermath, she apprenticed to learn about mosaics—the putting together of broken pieces, a way to create something new and beautiful from fragments. Surely that was the work of the followers of Jesus after his death and ascension.

Perhaps there are some broken pieces in your life you would like to work with prayerfully—scattered pieces from your zigzag journey; personal sorrow or vocational loss; splinters in your faith or hope; a weakening in once strong relationships. Perhaps it is the brokenness in society, the “Kindom not  yet come,” that leaves you yearning for a beauty and wholeness.

Can we enter into the mystery of mosaic and put these pieces of our lives and times into new designs? This is a weekend to try—with the God who says, “I make all things new.” 

Miriam Brown, OP
Friday, March 26, 2010 to the noon meal on Sunday, March 28
$185, includes $40 n/r deposit        
                                                                                                 Registration form

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Liturgy of the Hours - Holy Week Retreat

Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

We will reflect on the Liturgy of the Hours for Holy Week. The texts long associated with this sacred week incorporate many of the most beautiful and powerful passages in Holy Scripture and in writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.  They provide many rich images and perspectives regarding the great mystery of our redemption in Jesus Christ.  They summon us to identify more closely with our dying and rising Lord, and to recognize the tragedy of human sinfulness, the grandeur of God’s love, and the continuing illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within the living Church.  We will seek to align with all the Christians who have been praying and pondering these texts through the centuries. Fr. Nelson will provide selected texts for reflection.

Fr. Andrew Nelson
Sunday – Thursday, March 28 – April 1, 2010
Check in after 6 pm.  Retreat begins at 7 pm and ends with the Thursday noon meal.
$290 includes $50 n/r deposit.  Special Price: Holy Week and Triduum $410
Clock Hours:  6.0 Theol.  B/I/A/M

                                                                                    Registration form

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The Triduum - Community Liturgy
   
Make your own private retreat during these most holy days of the liturgical year. Participate with the community at Siena Center in the rich liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.

Fr. Andrew Nelson, Presider
Thursday B Sunday, April 1-4, 2010
Check-in 3:30-4:30 pm. Retreat begins with supper on Holy Thursday and ends with noon meal on Easter.
$190 includes $50 n/r deposit.   Special Price: Holy Week and Triduum $410

                                                                                           Registration form

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 Poetry as Prayer - Day of Enrichment

We’ll explore poetry as prayer, drawing from the poems of George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Denise Levertov, and others. The day will include brief notes about the poets and their poems, silent time, and sharing. We will not analyze the poems; we will experience them.

Pat Chaffee, OP
Saturday, April 10, 2010.  Program 9 am - 3 pm.
$42.50, includes $10 n/r deposit and noon meal

                                                                                     Registration form

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 The Liberated Heart: Becoming Who We Truly Are

  Presented by Joyce Rupp, OSM on Friday, April 16

Each person is called to be in the process of spiritual transformation, which leads to the freedom of being one’s most authentic self.  Embracing this liberation requires a grace-filled, life-long endeavor. This journey includes an exploration of the unavoidable difficulties and unwanted barriers on the road of life. When we give ourselves to this process, we open the door to deepening faith and greater trust in the Holy One.

It is easy to get caught in over-activity and non-awareness, to stumble over doubts and get lost in confusion. Our full attention to the deeper things of life is required. As we discover our goodness (our God-ness), we are led toward compassion and fuller connection with the world beyond self. 

Joyce Rupp invites participants into the inner terrain of their lives. She provides both theory and practical suggestions from a variety of spiritual traditions in order to explore the process of becoming a more liberated and whole human being.

Presentation at 7:30-9:00 p.m. on Friday, April 16, 2010. 

Come to the auditorium at the building's main entrance. Cost is $35.  Please register in advance.

Joyce's weekend retreat, which continues until Sunday, is filled.

                                                                                                      Registration form

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Be Here, Now - Centering Prayer Retreat

Looking for quiet?   Wish you had time just to BE?  Centering is a method of prayer in which one lets go of thoughts to come to “rest in God.” This weekend retreat is a mostly silent retreat with several periods of practicing centering prayer as a group.  There will be times for questions and discussion.  Beginners are welcomed.  We will review the method of Centering Prayer on Friday evening.

This year’s focus will be on the connection of Centering Prayer with the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and The New Earth. 

Pat Shutts
7:30 pm Friday, April 23, 2010 – noon meal on Sunday, April 25.  
$185, includes $40 n/r deposit

                                                                                           Registration form

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Writing and Sharing Family Stories - Day Program

Do you like to tell stories about yourself and your family, stories that begin with words like, “I wish you could have known grandma”? To make these stories more available to your loved ones, come and spend time writing them down. Join us for a day of sharing and writing little stories from your big story. During this day you will learn simple strategies for writing stories and small poems and bless these memories with quiet prayer. Plan to leave with some written-down memories and/or plans for writing a collection in the future.  Limited to 15 persons.

Carol Elsholz
Saturday, April 24, 2010
$42.50, includes $10 n/r deposit

                                                                                            Registration form 

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GOD’S ABUNDANT LOVE 

Extended Weekend for Women Survivors of Sexual Abuse
 
We offer this retreat for those women who continue to heal from sexual abuse. Retreatants will have the opportunity to move deeper into their own healing within a circle of kindred spirits on a similar healing journey. Spiritual explorations will include relationship with God, trust in self and others, the necessity of compassion in one’s life, and experiences of prayer. Our presenters, a man and a woman, intend for the retreat to complement the psychotherapy process and to hold within it God’s promise of healing transformation.

Sharon Thyne and Terence Gunville
7:30 pm Thursday, April 29, 2010 – noon meal on Sunday, May 2 
$255, includes $40 n/r deposit. 

                                                                                      Registration form

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Compassion: Oneness for All - Weekend Retreat

“You may call God love; you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is Compassion.”
     —Meister Eckhart, 14th c. Dominican and mystic.

We are called to a new way of seeing, a new way of being. In this moment in history as we gain new realizations about our universe and recognize our place in creation, we are called to greater compassion toward ourselves and all that lives. In his book, Beauty, John O’Donahue says, “The greatest evil and destruction arises when people are unable to feel compassion. The beauty of compassion continues to shelter and save our world.” As our Earth again faithfully bursts forth in compassionate giving, we will rejoice in gratitude, and commit ourselves to compassionate living and oneness with all.

“In compassion, Justice and Peace kiss.” — Meister Eckhart

Kathleen Bohn, OP
7:30 pm Friday, April 30, 2010 – noon meal on Sunday, May 2. 
$185, includes $40 n/r deposit

                                                                                         Registration form

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Transformed by God, Compelled to Justice

The word of God in Scripture offers power to transform one’s life into being. Participants will explore the relationship between that power and working for Justice as our mission from Jesus. As stated by Fr. Don Goergen, OP, “When we are grounded in the Word of God, in the love of God, our lives will boil over into love of neighbour and works of justice and peace.”

Presenter TBA
Saturday, May 8, 2010. Program 8:30 – 11:30 am, held in the auditorium, lower level.
Free-will offering
Clock Hours: 2.0 Theol.  B/I/A/M

For more information or to register, call S. Mary Michna at (262) 639-4100. This program is organized and presented by the Racine Dominican Preaching Committee, the Justice and Rights Council, and the Racine Dominican Retreat Program.

                                                                                          Registration form

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Listening and Speaking from the Heart

Teens and Parents/Guardians Overnight Retreat

This retreat is for teens and their parent(s) or guardian(s).  The retreat will be a mix of presentations, readings, discussions, activities and reflection time to provide teens and their parents/guardians with opportunities to share what is most important to them. This gathering of young people with their parents will focus on open communication and respect for others’ opinions, beliefs and questions.  Limited to 30 persons, minimum age is 13 years.

Lynda Jackson, John Kidd and Janet Payne
9:30 am Saturday, May 29 to 11:30 am Sunday, May 30, 2010
$75 per person, includes $15 n/r deposit. A few partial scholarships are available.

                                                                                          Registration form

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We Are Made from Radiance - A Day Dedicated to the Wonder of God

Fifteen billion years ago the power of the universe burst forth. We were there, says the mystic, we were made from Radiance!

What if we walked around like that, all day, every day, feeling the divine glow in every cell of our body and in every atom of the universe?  We might actually spring alive, and “the world” transform itself with this divine potency. If you are living each day routinely or with anxious spirit, come to this day to be recharged with the glory of God.
       
Miriam Brown, OP
Saturday, June 12, 2010.   Program 9 am - 3 pm.
$42.50, includes $10 n/r deposit and noon meal.
Clock Hours:  3.0 Theol  B/I/M

                                                                                       Registration form

Directed Retreat - Weeklong Retreat

The directed retreat provides an opportunity to meet daily with one’s director, thus tailoring the retreat to the individual. Each day there will be time to share in the Eucharistic liturgy and common prayer. Solitude, nature, and silence enhance these sacred days. 

Directors:  Mary Anne Albert, SSSF; Byron Haaland, SCJ; Jean Hinderer, CSA, and Sharon Thyne  
3:30 pm Sunday, June 20, 2010 – noon meal on Saturday, June 26.  
$435,  includes $50 n/r deposit

                                                                    Registration form

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 What Hue Are You?  Prayer in Living Color

Sometimes words are not enough to express our souls. Spend a week experimenting with various methods of creative, colorful prayer: painting, mandalas, soul collage, and “Praying in Color” (a method of doodling one’s prayer). Each day will include morning prayer and a teaching on a creative method of prayer. In the afternoon, there will be an optional opportunity for spiritual guidance with Pat and Miriam, and liturgy with the Dominican community. We’ll gather every evening to celebrate a specific gift of creativity. This is primarily a silent retreat. 

Pat Shutts and Miriam Brown, OP
3:30 pm Sunday, June 20, 2010 – noon meal on Saturday, June 26.  
$445 includes art supplies and $50 n/r deposit. 

                                                                    Registration form

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Mystics, Rebels and Prophets:
Women Who Went Before Us and Walk With Us Today

 A Retreat with Edwina Gateley

 During this week we’ll explore the lives of a few valiant women: Hildegard of Bingen, Brigid of Kildare, Julian of Norwich, and those amazing women, the Beguines of the Middle Ages. Their stories will impact our lives today as we draw on their witness and courage. We will also look at contemporary rebels and prophets whose lives give witness to the perennial presence and love of God in our struggling world. In the process we’ll discover something of our own mystical power and potential! This is not a silent retreat.

3:30 pm Sunday, June 27, 2010 – Saturday, July 3
$450, includes $50 n/r deposit. 
Clock Hours:  6.0 Theol.  B/I/A/M

                                                                   Registration form

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Silent Directed Retreat
 
Silence…because God whispers, because the soul craves it.
“Be still and know that I am God.” Ps. 46

This retreat will focus on silence as a way to inner stillness, to listening attentively to the music of life, the still small voice of the Holy One. Spiritual guidance and centering prayer will be a part of each day. Come to this retreat if quiet and peace are your longing. Come to listen, to live in the awareness that we dwell in Holy Presence.

Directors:  Claudia Greco; Maureen McDonnell; Kay Shackelford; and Clare Wagner, OP
Sunday – Saturday, June 27 – July 3, 2010. Retreat begins at 3:30 pm and ends with Saturday noon meal. 

                                                                          Registration form

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Woman Spirit: Thirst, Engagement, Pluck and Call
Retreat Time with the Woman at the Well

We are as deep as the wells we draw from.  We think of the Samaritan Woman at  the Well as alone and in need—and she was. We think of her as feisty and a challenger—she was that too. We think of her as deeply engaging with Jesus—yes, she opened her heart to love. We think of her as changing—her spirit erupted in newly freed grace. This was a woman of innerness, courage and spirit. And So Are We.

Come to your well and let the waters refresh you. We will call on the Woman at the Well, unusual announcer of the Good News, to accompany us as we come to the well for guided reflections each day in this silent retreat. We will savor the grace of our many-faceted selves open to the inner depth of woman spirit. The schedule will make room for Eucharist, group sharing, and/or an individual guidance session, as you choose.
 

Miriam Brown, OP
Tuesday - Saturday, July 6-10, 2010. Retreat begins at 3:30 pm and ends with Saturday noon meal.
$310 includes $50 n/r deposit. 
Clock Hours:  3.0 Scr  and 3.0 Theol  B/I/A/M

                                                                   Registration form

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Contemplative Retreat for Women - Weeklong Directed

The week offers a blend of daily individual direction, feminine energy, and ritual. The morning contemplative prayer and the evening ritual focus on aspects of women’s experience, with The Universe Story always serving as Sacred Source. The retreat theme is Heart Peace. The Sacred Universe calls us to love and be loved, to surrender moment by moment and create life anew.  While this is primarily a silent retreat, women also seek to strengthen their spirits and build community by sharing, optional holistic prayer (T’ai Chi and yoga) and at times in conversation.  

Directors:  Kathleen Bohn, OP; Judy Chiodo, OSF; Judith Christopher; Paula Hirschboeck; Gail Ross; Pat Shutts; and Linda Wieser, OSF. 
Sunday – Saturday, July 18-24, 2010. Retreat begins at 3:30 pm and ends with Saturday noon meal.   
$450   
 
                                                                    Registration form

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Waking Up To This Day - Presented by Paula D'Arcy

Sunday to Saturday, July 11-17, 2010

This week will be about waking up to the day that is right before us, and the practices that help us experience a deeper intimacy with ourselves, with others and with all that is.  Our guideposts will be nine keys that summon us to live in the present moment and accept the perfection of life as it unfolds.
 
The week will be one of silence (silent meals, silence in between our meeting times) in order to let the outer structure of silence help us gain access to the deeper force and greater purpose that lie just beneath our daily activities.
 
The daily schedule will include one session in the morning and another in the late afternoon. During these times there will be input from the retreat leader, ample opportunity for discussion/questions and answers, as well as instruction about how best to structure and use the gift of a silent retreat. Pat Shutts from the Retreat Staff will provide opportunities to express your experiences throughout the week by using the medium of art. 
 

Cost:  $500 (includes $50 n/r deposit)

                                                                                                  Registration form

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Nurturing Life's Blessings - Weeklong Directed Retreat

Embrace and nurture life’s blessings, all of them, in a retreat tailored to your individual encounter with the Holy. This retreat includes a daily meeting with a director, time for solitude, and the opportunity to gather with others for prayer. The theme, Women Seeking Wisdom: Encountering the Sacred, will be the focus of the morning and evening prayers. Honor the Holy in mind, body and spirit while we move through our daily lives. While this is a silent retreat, there will be designated optional times for retreatants to share with each other.

Directors:  Miriam Brown, OP; Claudia Greco; Mary Therese Johnson, OP; Diane Poplawski, OP; Lorrita Verhey; SSND; Linda  Wieser, OSF; and Jan Zeller 
Sunday – Saturday, July 25-31, 2010. Retreat begins at 3:30 pm and ends with Saturday noon meal. 
$450                                                                                 Registration form

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Discovering a God Rich in Mercy - Retreat with Dan Crosby

Scripture often tells us our “God is rich in mercy.” And the prayer, “Lord, have mercy” is daily on our lips. But what is mercy? When was the last time it entered your speech or life (apart from church)? When our world constantly cries out for justice, who cares about mercy? We’ll explore all these areas during our days together and discover for ourselves this marvelous gift of God and what it can mean for us and ask of us in our tension-filled 21st century. This is a silent retreat. 

Sunday – Friday, August 1-6, 2010.   Retreat begins at 3:30 pm and ends with Friday noon meal.
$375, includes $50 n/r deposit   
Clock Hours:  8.0 Theol  B/I/A/M                                              Registration form

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Nurture Your Mystical Nature - Body-Mind-Spirit Healing

Chakras are first and foremost centers of spirituality. The opening of each chakra offers the potential for its own step into mysticism. From the root chakra, which offers nature mysticism, to the crown chakra, which offers Unity-Oneness mysticism, each chakra is a potential source of spirituality. The opening of each chakra can be a developmental, spiritual steppingstone to integrate thoughts, emotions, body , and spirit into the Source of Being.

Experience spiritual practices and meditations to open yourself to the flow of Divine Love Energy which, over time, may heal and transform your life. Since guidance through spiritual and contemplative practices will be the primary focus, some knowledge of the chakras would be helpful. Simple body movement and sound therapy for each chakra will be a participatory choice, as well. While there will be periods and places of silence, this is not a totally silent retreat. Limited to 16 persons.

Jacquelyn Titus
Sunday – Saturday, August 1-7, 2010.   Retreat begins at 3:30 pm and ends with Saturday noon meal.
$445  

                                                                                                Registration form