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This week-long intensive course will provide a deeper foundation for understanding and engaging in the practice of spiritual direction in the Christian tradition. It is intended to enhance the students’ understanding of the spiritual life, with attention given to developing the basic skills required for this ministry. COURSE OBJECTIVES: - To have an understanding of the spiritual life, its breadth, depth, and language, in order to understand the context of spiritual direction ministry. - To examine and ... Continue reading...

Living Our Senior Years: Making the Most of this Chapter Are you in or approaching your senior years? Are you in or approaching retirement? During this retreat day, we will: Look at ways for appreciating and understanding this chapter of life. Identify unfinished life issues and discern what to do about them. Create a plan for what to do tomorrow. The purpose is to allow our relationship with God to help us to live our senior years fully. ... Continue reading...

"Fratelli Tutti": Blueprint for a Spiritual Life Pope Francis is a pope for our times. He’s taken on so many of the evils and pitfalls we face as a global village. In his recent encyclical he presents a path for how we might deepen our own spiritual life. It begins with our struggles of isolation and darkness and moves on to how we might open our hearts in relating to others. We will explore this theme together. ... Continue reading...

“Spirituality: Finding the Balance” This retreat will be a time when we invite one to look within to find harmony and direction. It will be a time to discover and give more time to that area of one’s life that may be deprived. Hopefully, it will be a time of achieving wholeness and balance: wholeness that opens one to a deeper and fuller life with God. Our Friends Day of Prayer retreats are held monthly on the ... Continue reading...

The Simple Care of a Hopeful Heart ~ Strengthening Your Inner Life in Challenging Times ~ One of the greatest gifts we can share with others is a sense of our own peace. However, we can’t share what we don’t have. By discussing psychological and spiritual approaches to maintaining a healthy perspective and enhancing resilience, Dr. Wicks, an expert on the prevention of secondary stress (the pressures experienced in reaching out to others) and author of Bounce: ... Continue reading...

Pope Francis proclaimed this year to be a “Year of Saint Joseph”, in his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde (“With a Father’s Heart”) recalling the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. This letter was written against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. He says the pandemic has helped us see more clearly the importance of “ordinary” people who, though far from the limelight, exercise patience and offer hope every ... Continue reading...

The whole world is facing global problems at this time in our history: Climate change, increasing economic poverty, pollution, violence and now a very frightening pandemic: Covid-19. Given so many challenges and fears, we are also struggling with our faith. Where is God? Where is hope in all of this? In this virtual presentation, we will explore our invitation to deepen our faith during these very painful and challenging times. There will be time for reflection, small group ... Continue reading...

Mary’s Magnificent Magnificat! This beautiful prayer, ascribed to Mary, is a clarion call to discipleship, contemplation and solidarity with those on the margins of society. In words and art, this prayer reflects Mary’s vulnerability, transparency and authenticity. It is as tender as it is passionate. What can it mean for our spirituality to pray it often and with intention? Our Friends Day of Prayer retreats are held monthly on the first Wednesday of the month. Everyone is ... Continue reading...

Dreams and Inner Healing: The Healing Power of Dreamwork and Prayer Dreams are a language of the heart, a way that our deeper self speaks to us.  They are a language of symbols and metaphors that help us to understand what lies beneath our fears and inner struggles.  Every dream is an attempt of our unconscious to center us, balance us, and heal us.  Dreams expand our capacity to experience God and our true self.    During ... Continue reading...

Opening to the Light: Drawing on themes from her newest book, Stars at Night: When Darkness Unfolds as Light (October 2016 release), Paula will explore how learning to move through and past life's inevitable disappointments and losses opens a door to new awareness. In the end, the darkness is recognized as the rich foundation for a larger life and the possibility of awakening to a new way of being here. This is a virtual retreat and will ... Continue reading...