Mercy Center Schedule of Retreats:

2010 Schedule

download printable version >

►Yoga Series
Tuesday evenings, 5:30—6:30 p.m.
2010 Winter Series (8 sessions)
            January 5—February 23
Click here to register online for this series
2010 Spring I Series (6 sessions)
            March 2—April 6
Click here to register online for this series
2010 Spring II Series (6 sessions)
            April 13—May 25
Click here to register online for this series
This yoga class will build flexibility, strength, and balance. Learn stress management techniques to quiet the mind, increase concentration, and build body confidence.
Instructor: Barb Michael is the owner of Optimal Lifestyles, Inc., a health and fitness company specializing in general fitness and yoga.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost for 8 sessions, including registration: $80
Total cost for 6 sessions, including registration: $60
Single session: $12.00
Contact: Alice Kehm

►Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton Series
    Volume 8: Seeing That Paradise Begins Now
Wednesday evenings, 7:00—8:30 p.m.
February 3—March 24, 2010
These sessions are guided by the series Bridges to Contemplative Living. Merton believed that the gates of paradise are all around us. Participants will discover where those gates are and how to open them.
Facilitator: Betty Leiwe, CSJ is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet with a background in theology, liturgy, and spirituality.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost, including registration: $80
Contact: Alice Kehm
Click here to register online

►Awakening Earth’s Energy through Creating with Clay (6 Sessions)
Tuesday afternoons, 1:00—3:00 p.m.
February 16—March 23, 2010
These creative sessions with clay will focus on hand-building techniques of shaping clay (pinchpot, slab, coil). Participants will be guided in a meditative process that draws on themes from nature, one’s inner landscape, myth, and scripture.
Fee includes all materials and firing costs.
Facilitator: Corlita Bonnarens, RSM heads Mercy Center’s Creative Spirituality Program.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost, including registration: $125.00
Contact: Corlita Bonnarens, RSM
Click here to register online

►Wayfaring: A Gospel Journey in Everyday Life— A Lenten Series of Reflections
    Guided by Margaret Silf’s Book (5 Sessions)
Thursday mornings, 10:00 a.m.—11:30 a.m.
February 25—March 25, 2010
Wayfaring combines the author’s nuanced understanding of Ignatian spirituality with personal anecdotes, charming candor, and elegant metaphors. Participants will use the reflections in the book for daily prayer, then gather weekly for sharing and integration. The book will be available for purchase at Mercy Center prior to the first session.
Facilitator: Rita O’Dea is a member of the Mercy Center Spirituality Team.
Non-refundable registration: $25 due Feb.17
Total cost, including registration: $65
Contact: Rita O’Dea
Click here to register online

►Turn Our Hearts, O God
     A Guided Retreat by Marian Love
February 26—27, 2010
The season of Lent invites us to remember and reclaim our baptismal identity. Through presentations, quiet reflection, and creative prayer expression, you will be called to live that identity more deeply. This quiet retreat begins with 5:30 p.m. supper on Friday and closes at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Presenter: Marian Love is Director of Lay Spiritual Formation at Aquinas Institute of Theology. She has a background in adult faith formation and spiritual direction.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost, including registration:
            Residents: $110
            Commuters: $70
For an extra night, add: $55.00
Contact: Rita O’Dea
Click here to register online

►Paschal Mystery: 8 Sessions
Tuesday Evenings, 7:00—8:30 p.m.
March 2—April 20, 2010
Participants will explore images of God through daily Scripture reading and prayer, sharing of insights from prayer, background on upcoming passages, and group prayer. These sessions will explore the Paschal mystery through the experiences of various scriptural figures.
Presenter: Joseph Milner is Pastoral Associate at St. Francis Xavier College Church, Co-Director of Formative Spirituality at Aquinas Institute of Theology, and the 2009 Recipient of the Catherine of Siena Award for excellence in ministry.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost, including registration: $80
Contact: Alice Kehm
Click here to register online

►Taize Prayer for Lent
Sunday evening, March 14, 2010
7:00—8:00 p.m.,
This is an ecumenical service of song, silence, and scripture. That Little Springtime—an introductory video about the history, spirit, and prayer style of the Taize community in France—will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Reservations not required. Donations welcomed.
Contact: Rita O’Dea

►The Sacred Romance of God and Us: A Guided Retreat by Rev. Don Wester
May 16—22, 2010
Walking a journey of love, celebrating seduction, surrender, embrace, obedience, defiance, and healing.  Through prayer, scripture, sharing of life stories and times of silence, we reverence all the ways that God is loving us and we are loving God.
Presenter: Don Wester is pastor of All Saints Parish in St. Peters, MO. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Great Preacher Award from Aquinas Institute of Theology.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost, including registration:
            Residents: $360
            Commuters: $255
Contact: Rita O’Dea
Click here to register online

►Living in Abundance: A Guided Retreat by Janet Lander, CSJ
July 23—30, 2010
Our loving God pours gifts of life, love, and beauty upon us. This quiet retreat will explore how we might live in God and in community more abundantly, developing a contemplative life stance in our relationship to self, others, and creation.
Presenter: Janet Lander, CSJ has served in retreat, education, vocation, formation, and peace and justice ministries. She has also worked as a missionary in Brazil.
Non-refundable registration: $25.00
Total cost, including registration:
            Residents: $420
            Commuters: $280
Contact: Agnes Brueggen, RSM
Click here to register online

ALSO AT MERCY CENTER

►To Love and be Loved: Exploring Life’s Greatest Gift, Thursdays, 7:00—9:30 p.m.
October 1—29, 2009 (5 sessions).
This program will help us discover how all our relational problems arise out of a universal core wounding around love that affects not only our personal relationships, but the quality of life in our world as a whole.
Presenters: Maury and Genny Boehmer are members of New Awakenings Community. Maury facilitates workshops, seminars, and adult education programs on spirituality and relationships. Genny is a spiritual director and gives workshops and days of reflection on women’s spirituality and inner healing. Cost: $60.00

►A Workshop with John Shelby Spong, Saturday, June 12, 2010, 8:30 a.m.—4:00 p.m.
Bishop John Shelby Spong, whose books have sold more than a million copies, is a committed Christian who has spent a lifetime studying the Bible and whose life has been deeply shaped by it. He makes contemporary theology accessible to the layperson and is considered by many the champion of an inclusive faith. This visionary thinker is a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at universities and churches worldwide and delivers more than 200 public lectures each year to standing-room-only crowds. His best selling books include Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, A New Christianity for a New World, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and Here I Stand.

Sponsored by New Awakenings Community  For information or registration, contact:
 Janet Nimer at nimjan@sbcglobal.net or Ron Nimer at nimron@sbcglobal.net
                  Phone Janet or Ron at (636) 227-0772