January Directed Retreat, spiritual direction offered via phone or computer

This retreat offers an opportunity to meet daily with a spiritual guide. The format of daily spiritual guidance (by phone, Skype, Zoom, etc.) will be arranged between the director and directee.  Directors are Fr. Ron Gramza, Sr. Nancy Sell, OSF; and retreat leader Kathie Tilot. For those who wish, virtual evening prayer will be offered via Zoom. 

The retreat will be offered Sunday, January 10, to Saturday, January 16, 2021, beginning at 3:30pm Central (4:30pm Eastern, 2:30pm Mountain, 1:30pm Pacific) on Sunday and concluding Saturday morning. The cost of $195 includes $55 non-refundable deposit and spiritual guidance. To register, visit www.SienaRetreatCenter.org.

That Divine Eccentric: Caryll Houselander, offered virtually via Zoom

As part of Siena Retreat Center’s Mystics and Prophets series, spiritual director Jim Gill will visit the life of Caryll Houselander. Born in England, Caryll Houselander began having mystical experiences at the age of ten. By her early 20s she believed strongly that Christ is to be found in all people. With no formal theological education, she became a prolific spiritual author of prose and poetry, a spiritual guide, and a religious artist.  She was also known for her zany wit, salty language, and love interest in a Russian spy. We will look at the overall messages of her mystic vision and how they continue to provide inspiration today.

This program is offered twice on Monday, January 11, 2021. Choose either10:00am—11:15am or 6:30pm—7:45pm Central. Freewill offering. To register, visit www.SienaRetreatCenter.org.

Transformative Power of Contemplation with Nancy Sylvester, IHM, offered virtually via Zoom.

Einstein said that we cannot address the problems of today out of the same consciousness that created them. What does that mean today? How does consciousness evolve? How does contemplation as a spiritual practice help us in that evolution?  

Explore these questions with Nancy Sylvester, IHM, founder of the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue. The time together will involve presentation, interaction and contemplative practice.  Siena Retreat Center is offering this reflection on Thursday, January 14, 2021 from 2:00-4:30pm Central (start time is 3:00pm Eastern, 1:00pm Mountain, 12:00pm Pacific). The cost of $30 includes a $15 non-refundable deposit. To register, visit www.SienaRetreatCenter.org.

Angelica’s virtual workshop offers Alzheimer’s support

SINSINAWA, WI—Caring for and working with people experiencing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia can present challenges in people’s lives. Join Dr. Rev. Jade Angelica for Meeting Alzheimer’s from 7 to 8:30 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 14. This virtual workshop sponsored by Sinsinawa Mound Center weaves together science specific to Alzheimer’s disease, spirituality, and the artful practice of improvisation. Participants will learn the most important technique for communicating with persons living with Alzheimer’s or dementia: accepting what is. Also known as saying “Yes!” research has shown that saying “Yes” in this context can reduce caregiver stress—so join us for this opportunity to learn and grow in ways that will help your loved ones and you. The fee is $20 per person, and the registration deadline is Jan. 13 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Learning to embrace the silence

SINSINAWA, WI— Sinsinawa Mound Center is sponsoring a virtual workshop to embrace the benefits of the winter months. Join Ecological Programming Coordinator Eric Anglada for Into the Silence from 7 to 8 p.m. CST Wednesday, Jan. 13. Participants will delve into the richness and importance of silence in this great, slow, dark and quiet time of the year. We’ll explore the role of silence and noise in our spiritual lives and with the wider community of creation. The fee is $10 per person, and the registration deadline is Jan. 12 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Start the New Year with A Mindful Pause

Adrian, MI – Begin the New Year with a healthy new practice: mindfulness. Participate in directed online mindfulness sessions that help you calm your mind and open your heart. 

Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, offers four half-hour virtual sessions of A Mindful Pause at 4:00 p.m. EST on Thursdays, January 7, 14, 21, and 28. A Dominican Sister of Adrian, retreat leader, and spiritual director, Sister Esther has facilitated monthly Mindfulness Days at Weber Center for years.

Sessions can be accessed through live stream, https://webercenter.org/mindful-pause/.

Recordings can be found at the same link on the day after each session.  
A Mindful Pause is open to all people free of charge; donations are appreciated.

Workshop Focuses on Incarnation as Christianity’s New Horizon

Adrian, MI – Noted writer, speaker, and workshop leader Diarmuid O’Murchu offers a virtual presentation, “Incarnation: Christianity’s New Horizon,” from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday, January 16, 2021, through Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

Diarmuid, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order and a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, presents incarnation as a celebration of God’s embodied presence – not only in the person of Jesus but in all forms of embodied presence that adorn creation. This newly expanded horizon carries several implications for how we are called to live out our faith today.

A social psychologist, Diarmuid counts among his recent books Incarnation: A New Evolutionary Threshold (2017); Beyond Original Sin: Recovering Humanity’s Creative Urge (2018); and When the Disciple Comes of Age (2019).

The cost to attend is $30 and registration is required to receive the live stream link. Limited scholarships are available. Register at www.webercenter.org and click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing webercenter@adriandominicans.org. 

Voices of Hope from the Holocaust

SINSINAWA, WI—Confucius said, “Study the past if you would define the future.” Sister Mary Ellen Green, OP, is leading Voices of Hope from the Holocaust via Zoom from 10 a.m. to noon CST Saturday, Jan. 23. Sponsored by Sinsinawa Mound Center, this workshop acknowledges the challenging times in which we live and looks back to another extremely challenging time to hear the voices of those who found meaning in their suffering. We will be looking at the lives and words of women such as Edith Stein, Anne Frank, Etty Hillesum, and Corrie ten Boom. Sister Mary Ellen has done retreat work throughout the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and France. The fee is $20 per person, and the registration deadline is Jan. 21 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Historian examines Native Nations and Treaties of the Tri State Region

SINSINAWA, WI—Native Nations and Treaties of the Tristate Region will be presented via Zoom from 10 to 11 a.m. CST Saturday, Jan. 30. Sponsored by Sinsinawa Mound Center, this workshop will feature Joshua Wachuta, a public historian based in southwestern Wisconsin who has a doctorate in U.S. and public history. He’ll be sharing the history of the tristate region of southwestern Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois, and eastern Iowa that occupies the ancestral lands of the Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomi and Ho-Chuck nations. The United States acquired this mineral-rich region in a series of treaties with indigenous nations signed from 1804 to 1832. Learn about the circumstances and terms of these fraught treaty negotiations, their connection to violence in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War, and their lasting significance for both indigenous people and white settlers. The fee is $10 per person, and the registration deadline is Jan. 28 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Workshop Series Explores Connections Between Food, Faith, Farming 

SINSINAWA, WI— Sinsinawa Mound Center is sponsoring an online, eight-week program, JustFaith Series—Sacred Land: Food and Farming. Participants will explore our connection with and our responsibility the land. Beginning Monday, Feb. 1, sessions will be held via Zoom every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. through March 22. A commitment of attending at least seven of the eight sessions is required to register for this series, and space is limited to 10 people.

Participants will learn how food and farming practices affect the climate, marginalized communities and our own health and spiritual well-being. Through prayer, discussion and presentation, we will explore practical ways to support, advocate for and implement sustainable food and farming practices in the communities and the institutions of which we’re a part—whether it’s in our workplace, congregation, apartment complex or neighborhood. Each participant will work toward a plan of action: for example, this could be starting a composting program with our next-door neighbors, building a community garden with our congregation or advocating for local and national policies that support sustainable food and farming practices. Three books will be used for the series: “Braiding Sweetgrass,” “Laudato Si,” and “Earth Prayers.” All are available for purchase from Sinsinawa Book & Gift Gallery (www.sinsinawa.org/giftgallery).

Presenters include Sinsinawa Mound Center’s Ecological Programming Coordinator Eric Anglada and Linda Sheridan, a Milwaukee-area food and farming advocate who works to bring together Earth stewardship, spirituality, and economic justice.

The fee is $100 per person, and the registration deadline is Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Workshop Embraces the Chaos

SINSINAWA, WI— Tom Roberts, a licensed psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist, will lead Embracing the Chaos: Learning to Love the Difficult, an online workshop sponsored by Sinsinawa Mound Center from 10 a.m. to noon CST Saturday, Feb. 6. Roberts specializes in hypnotherapy and mindfulness therapy. He asks, how often do we feel at the mercy of the events of our lives? Does it seem like the chaos is what is running the show? So much of our emotional; physical; and, especially, spiritual energies are spent trying to limit and control chaos. Participants will explore how what we refer to as chaos is really the substance of our spiritual growth. The fee is $30 per person, and the registration deadline is Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Julian of Norwich: God as Mother

SINSINAWA, WI—Historian and Loras College Professor John Eby will lead Womb of Mercy: God as Mother in Julian of Norwich, an online lecture and discussion sponsored by Sinsinawa Mound Center from 7-8 p.m. CST Wednesday, Jan. 27. Julian of Norwich, a 14^th-century woman recluse, has become increasingly popular in recent years because her ideas about the pervasive meaning of God’s love seem especially pertinent and needed here in the 21^st century. A famous and significant part of her teaching was her assertion, repeated often in her “showings,” that God is our mother, that Jesus is our mother. This language, certainly unconventional in its time, speaks powerfully to many in the Christian tradition today. We will explore her notion of God’s motherhood. What did she mean by it? How could it belong to the context of medieval spirituality? How does her expression relate to the power of metaphors and to the social construction of gender? What does her imagery, taken in its own context, mean for us today? Eby has his doctorate in medieval history, coauthored “The Collapse of Apartheid, South Africa 1993” and leads the Children of Abraham interfaith movement in Dubuque. The fee is $10 per person, and the registration deadline is Jan. 26 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Guest Services at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Weber Center Programs

Click here to view a brochure on the Weber Retreat and Conference Centers program offerings for January through April.