Living Pilgrimage

Being the Beloved

Women's Weekend Retreat

Friday, February 21 - Sunday, February 23, 2024

at the Foehliage Retreat Center in Galena, MD

REGISTRATION OPENING SOON!

Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.

This is the most important, the first on the list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

~Matthew 22:34-40 (The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language)

Praying with the greatest commandments, we often focus on the love of God and neighbor. Despite our best intentions, we can easily overlook that Jesus included us in this equation of love. Loving ourselves requires that we remember that we are the beloved children of God. We may have been programmed to judge ourselves harshly and to downplay our worth. These standards, designed to keep us humble, also undermine accepting our divine goodness. How on earth can we truly extend love to others if we do not stand on a firm foundation of love for ourselves?

In his classic book, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest, professor, psychologist, and prolific writer, says, “As long as ‘being the Beloved’ is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence, and bit by bit to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless realities of everyday life. Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am thinking of, talking about, and doing from hour to hour.”

In this retreat, we will explore what it means to embrace our Belovedness. Together we will reconsider self-care as an act of love that can transform our relationships in all domains of life. The retreat will include time for silent rest and reflection, heart-enriching conversation, and mindful prayer and movement. You will take home practices that will inspire you to live each day more fully into your one, precious life.

Come rest, reflect, and reconsider self-care as an act of love.

Image: Catrin Welz-Stein

Re-imagining Prayer

Women’s Weekend Retreat

Next retreat dates to be announced...

“These are some of the things that prayer is. Prayer is rhythm. Prayer is comfort. Prayer is disappointment. Prayer is words and shape and art around desperation, and delight and disappointment and desire. Prayer can be the art that helps you name your desire.”

~ Padraig O Tuama

In this weekend retreat we will explore prayer practices that invite us to a new relationship with God, with ourselves, and with the people in our lives. Our time together will include conversation, silence, movement, and contemplation, all of which create an environment for deep listening and heartfelt response.

The retreat begins on Friday evening and concludes on Sunday afternoon. Activities will include body prayer, journaling, lectio divina, walking meditation, and other experiences that bring our bodies, minds, and spirits into the act of authentic prayer.

Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart

A weekend retreat for women

Next retreat to be announced!

This retreat is an invitation to pay attention to how a New Year is calling you to respond to the questions, desires, and inspirations arising from within. In addition to heart-opening conversations we will use poetry, prayer, music, silence, movement, journaling, and other contemplative practices to learn more about our relationship to God, to ourselves, and to the world around us.

All that you need to bring is your self, your senses, and a willingness to see where God may be leading you. Women of all faith traditions are welcome. You will go home from the retreat with insights and practices to continue the art of spiritual attentiveness.

“Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart” is inspired by the book Lost in Wonder: Rediscovering the Spiritual Art of Attentiveness by Esther De Waal.

The retreat begins with dinner on Friday and a short gathering to set the tone for the weekend. Participants will be encouraged to spend the evening in silence.

Saturday’s program will flow in and out of silence, with plenty of time for journaling, walking on the grounds, reflection, and conversation. The retreat will be completed on Sunday morning with a closing celebration.

Blessing the Ordinary: A Women's Weekend Retreat

Next retreat date to be announced

“What is a blessing? A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. Life is a constant flow of emergence. The beauty of blessings is its belief that it can affect what unfolds.”

John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings.

This retreat is an opportunity to remember that every day is holy and that, when we pay attention, we can be blessed by the ordinary of our relationships, environments, and work. Blessing is a form of prayer that draws our attention to the people, places, and activities that open our hearts, bring us joy, and connect us to what often goes unnoticed. We will use scripture and poetry as models for how to receive and give blessings, a prayer process that can set the tone for the upcoming holy seasons. Activities will include group discussion, silent time for reflection, practicing the art form of blessings through writing, music and movement.