2010

January 8-10: DISCERNING LIFE'S CHOICES FOR WOMEN Friday 7:15 PM - Sunday 1:30 PM. In silence and stillness within and without take time to ponder and discern what God is asking of you in your life now or in future. The opening session will involve prayer, relaxation and preparation for the retreat with some materials for possible use. On Saturday there will be a presentation: “Questions to Help Me In My Discernment,” and time for optional spiritual direction. The closing session on Sunday will have group sharing and a closing prayer/ritual.
Register by prior Friday - $150; with Spiritual Direction - $185.
Minimum 3, Maximum 10
Therese Gonneville, OSB is a gifted retreat leader and a member of St. Placid Priory.
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January 9: KNITTERS & SPINNERS RETREAT Saturday 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM. Spend a reflective day discovering the connection between music and making things. Be re-invigorated to create by focusing on the rhythm of your work and the reasons you love to express yourself with fiber. Learn a simple weaving technique with a hands-on project and bring along your current work in progress.
Register before January 4 - $50. Please bring a sack lunch (snacks and dinner and provided), fiber crafts to work on and your tools to work with, a writing tool, something you have made to which has special meaning to you--and the story behind it.
Nadine Sanders - Singing Weaver, Facilitator: As a church music director turned weaver, I strive to touch people’s creativity by incorporating all the senses in my presentations. The rhythm inherently linked to weaving and music is the touchstone to my creative energy. I want to inspire inventive use of materials and encourage designs from within.
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January 14: LECTIO DIVINA: CONTEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS OF LECTIO This group meets monthly through March 11, 2010. Thursdays 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon. Lectio periods will be a time to bask in God’s presence and to practice lectio in various ways. We will integrate lectio with dreams, music, images, icons and cinema. The sessions will involve presentations and experiences of lectio using Scripture as well as contemporary expressions of lectio. Dates are: 2010--January 14, February 11, and March 11.
$60 per session. Bring a bible and journal.
The book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness by Christine Valters Paintner and Lucy Wynkoop, OSB is available at The Priory Store.
Minimum 5
Lucy Wynkoop, OSB
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January 16: GOD IN PUBLIC: FINDING THE SACRED IN WHAT APPEARS TO BE SECULAR Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. "There is nothing so secular that it is not sacred." --Thomas Merton. In this workshop, we will engage a range of secular media: the day's or week's newspaper or web-page, a current popular magazine, e.g. Time or Newsweek, a TV program (via DVD), a movie (via DVD) (probably Dream Girls and the "lament" Jennifer Hudson sings), a play (probably via the script), perhaps a novel (via a short reading), and maybe a small clip of an Opera, e.g. Boris Gudenov (via DVD). In each case, we will explore where we find strong and clear examples of Christian faith at work in terms of theology, spirituality, and ethics.  We will do this by setting these "texts" next to bibical and liturgical texts and our own prayer lives so that we may recognize how it is that these things that we see as only secular, are  doing something that is also sacred.  For example, the  lament in Dream Girls is a lot like Psalm 13. The goal of "God in Public" would be to help us see that the Holy One does not live "in church," that the power of faith comes froms its connection to everyday, real life, and that our faith can be both shared and fed by our life "out there."
Register by prior Friday - $50. Please bring a sack lunch, as well as a Bible, a journal, and some example of “God in Public”
Minimum 5, Maximum 22
Kathryn Rickert has completed doctoral studies in practical theology connecting the laments of the Old Testament with a widely recognized desire to convey both sorrow and joy in public Christian worship. She is an Adjunct Faculty member at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University.
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January 23: RESTORING HOPE, FINDING FORGIVENESS Saturday 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. In this day-long experiential workshop participants will learn several powerful Appreciative Way-based strategies to help clients find forgiveness to resolve resentment and rediscover hope in the face of loss and grief. This program offered by the Clergy Leadership Institute will qualify as 6 hours of Continuing Education for psychologists, counselors and clergy. For more details see http://www.clergyleadership.com/training/ForgivenessGrief.html  The Clergy Leadership Institute, which is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists, maintains responsibility for this program and its content and is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. The Clergy Leadership Institute is a National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACCEPTTM) and may offer NBCC approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.
Register by prior Friday - $75. Please bring a sack lunch.
Robert J. Voyle, Director of the Clergy Leadership Institute is an Episcopal priest, executive coach, licensed psychologist, and mechanical engineer. He is the Director of the Clergy Leadership Institute and is an international leader in the area of Appreciative Inquiry-based training for clergy, coaches, and counselors.
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January 30: BEYOND LOSS: FINDING WISDOM, MEANING AND JOY Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. Loss shows up in our lives in so many ways—we lose loved ones, pets, physical abilities, mental acuity, jobs, relationships. This retreat is an opportunity to explore those losses, embrace them and find meaning. It’s a day to create a new paradigm…one that finds the gifts of Spirit in the midst of loss.
Register by prior Friday - $60. Please bring a sack lunch, journal, writing instrument, and wear comfortable clothes and shoes for walking outdoors.
Minimum 8, Maximum 20
Jane Fleming is a Hospice Chaplain and Grief Counselor with a Masters in Pastoral Ministry. Jane has spent the past 15 years in hospice work. She has been at Providence Hospice of Seattle for the past ten years, providing support to patients, caregivers and volunteers. Jane is an experienced facilitator of bereavement groups. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree and enjoys work with metals as an avocation.
Carol Spangler, M.A., MPH, is experienced in leading spiritual direction groups and retreats and offers contemplative retreats at her home on Vashon Island. She is a graduate of the Shalem Institute's Spiritual Formation Program and the Anam Cara Project at the Sacred Art of Living Center in Bend, Oregon. She is an active Hospice volunteer and a practicing Quaker.
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February 6: STUMBLING TOWARD GOD Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. We are each living the universal human story--a story of love, loss, and redemption. We all feel like heretics, and we wonder if we're the only heretic in the pews. Healing comes when we know we are not alone. Using simple memory exercises, contemplation, and journaling, retreat participants will tap into pivotal moments in their own stumbling path toward God. In sharing these moments, we'll find companionship on the road.
Register by prior Friday - $50 Bring a sack lunch, paper and pencil for writing.
Minimum 5, Maximum 20
Margaret D. McGee, a writer and leader of spiritual workshops and retreats, is author of Stumbling Toward God: A Prodigal's Return, and Sacred Attention: A Spiritual Practice for Finding God in the Moment (SkyLight Paths Publishing).
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February 13: CREATIVE AND ACTIVE PRAYING: FINDING GOD IN MOVEMENT, WRITING AND DRAWING Saturday 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM. “Let the children come to me,” said Jesus. So with a child’s open and loving heart, we will seek union with God through various activities: moving in prayer, composing prayer poems, sketching, drawing, and photographing the Divine in its infinite manifestations.
Register by prior Friday - $50.Please bring a sack lunch, journal, favorite art materials, blanket, pillows, sticky mat, Bible.
Minimum 8
Roy DeLeon is an Oblate of St Benedict at St Placid Priory. He trained as a spiritual director with the Priory Spirituality Center. A certified yoga instructor, he teaches Blessed Movements regularly at the Priory.
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February 19-21: THE LENTEN JOURNEY: GOD'S TIME Friday 7:15 PM - Sunday 1:30 PM. Follow Jesus into the wilderness for greater solitude. Take time to deepen your spiritual journey in silence during Lent. The opening session will involve prayer, relaxation and preparation for the retreat with some materials for possible use during the retreat. The retreat will close with group prayer and sharing. A spiritual director will be available, for those who wish, to listen with you as you discern the actions of God in your life. You are also welcome to join the Benedictine Sisters for Liturgy of the Hours and the Eucharist.
Register by prior Friday - $130;     with spiritual direction - $165
Minimum 3, Maximum 10
Therese Gonneville OSB, spiritual director and gifted retreat leader.
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February 20: JOURNALING AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. Helen Cepero believes we encounter God through attentive writing. Using her book, Journaling as a Spiritual Practice, as our guide, we will pay attention to our lives, honor our stories, mine below the surface, bless our bodies, reflect on our past and see where our journaling leads us. We will notice God in the everyday through our writing.
Register by prior Friday - $50. Bring a sack lunch and a journal
Minimum 5, Maximum 25
Dee McDonald, M.A., has lived and worked on the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. As a Teacher, she presents workshops on Communication and Diversity to agencies worldwide. With a wealth of personal life experiences to draw from, every evening in front of the fireplace, she turns adventures of the outer world into reflective story/poems/art of the inner world.
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February 27: INTRODUCTION TO WELCOMING PRAYER PRACTICE Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. Welcoming Prayer is a companion practice to Centering Prayer. It teaches a prayerful way of letting go of upsetting emotions, feelings, thoughts, and commentaries that arise in our daily lives. Welcoming allows us to open ourselves to God and allows God to assist us in letting go of the personality defenses we’ve developed. In this daily practice of transformation we take on the mind of Christ. Previous instruction on centering prayer or other meditation practice highly recommended.
Register by prior Friday - $50. Please bring a sack lunch.
Minimum 8, Maximum 25
Cherry Haisten, Paul Fiorni and other presenters are certified by Father Thomas Keating’s Contemplative Outreach to teach Centering Prayer.
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March 13: LECTIO WITH A DREAM Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. Dreams are about moving toward wholeness. We will do Lectio: reading, meditating and praying with the dream, contemplating the dream and journaling about it. Please bring a dream with you if possible.
Register by prior Friday - $50. Bring a sack lunch, a journal and a Bible
Marian Maynard is an Oblate of St. Placid Priory and a psychotherapist.
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March 20-21: WOMEN IN MIDLIFE: A TIME OF SPIRITUAL DEEPENING Saturday 9:00 AM - Sunday 3:00 PM. Midlife is a journey reclaiming the authentic self. As a child and young adult, a woman creates identities that enable her to survive and to fit into family and culture. The midlife passage between the late 30's and early 60's calls her to release versions of self that she has outgrown and to reclaim her authentic self. Come gather with other women to explore, honor and celebrate this tumultuous and potent life phase. This workshop will include conversation and experiences around the following topics:

• Changes in the body, mind, emotions, and energy
• Yearning
• Discerning one's authentic path
• Soul Emergence

Register by prior Friday - $170 (Workshop and overnight stay)
Minimum 8, Maximum 15 (sharing rooms)
Rev. Suzanne Seaton, MSW, is ordained in the United Methodist Church. She is a spiritual director and a spiritual formation retreat leader.
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March 27: THE CHALLENGE OF FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION TODAY Saturday 9:15 AM - 3:00 PM. Forgiveness and Reconciliation are two endeavors that present real challenges when it comes to both big and small issues in our lives and world.  We will look at what forgiveness and reconciliation are in light of Scripture; and at both of these in light of Benedict’s Rule and focuses on how both are part of an experiential, a “lived out,” spirituality central to relationship and community-building.
Register by prior Friday - $50. Bring a sack lunch, Bible and a Rule of Benedict
Minimum 5
Phyllis Thompson is an Oblate of Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck, ND. She has been giving retreats, days of recollection, and workshops on the Rule and aspects of Benedictine spirituality since 1997.  She has also published in these areas.
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