February 13, 2024

Events & Retreats – 2.14.24

Lenten Mornings with Mary Oliver (In Person)

Saturdays: Feb 24 & Mar 9 • 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –Come along, let us be companions on the journey as we anticipate the wonder and joy of spring and the world to come. Join Esther Yff-Prins for two Saturday mornings with Scripture and Mary Oliver’s poetry as our guides for these Lenten mornings. We will make the journey together toward Easter morning, anticipating and welcoming the light through the shadows. With wonder, we welcome the joy of resurrection and spring. The word “Lent” comes from an old English word for “lengthen,” and refers to the lengthening of those long-anticipated days of spring. With both the cross and the empty tomb approaching, we prepare ourselves with forty days of fasting and reflection to more fully celebrate Easter’s song of spring when it comes. If Lent is about lengthening light, it’s also about opening our hearts and preparing the way, making room for careful attention to what matters most. As Mary Oliver puts it, living well involves attention, astonishment, and testimony — and poetry itself can be a great help along the way. For more information call 616-514-3325 or visit dominicancenter.com. Dominican Center Marywood, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids, is located in West Michigan off Fulton Street East, on the campus of Aquinas College.

Details & Registration: https://dominicancenter.com/programs-and-retreats/lenten-mornings-with-mary-oliver/

Journey into Silence Retreat ~ Rising from Winter (In-Person)

Thursday, Mar 21, 5:30 pm – Sunday, Mar 24, 2:30 pm

CONWAY, MI –Silence the world around you. Silence the world within you. Silence the thoughts that shout out to you. In the stillness hear God’s voice. In the quiet, sense the Divine’s presence and the spiritual love that is waiting to embrace you. Gently enter into silence during this retreat experience. A spiritual director will be here to companion with you on this silent retreat. The Journey into Silence retreat is held at the Augustine Center Retreat House in Conway, MI. The center is a retreat house welcoming individuals and groups for ongoing formation, education, and spirituality. For more information call 616-514-3325 or visit dominicancenter.com. Dominican Center Marywood, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids, is located in West Michigan off Fulton Street East, on the campus of Aquinas College.

Details & Registration: https://dominicancenter.com/programs-and-retreats/journey-into-silence-retreat-rising-from-winter/

Experiential Enneagram & Levels of Consciousness (In Person)

Sundays: Apr 7 & Apr 14 • Noon – 4:00 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –Join Dr. Patrick Bishop and Sr. Ann Walters, OP, for two sessions of experiential exploration into some of the most powerful and interconnected frameworks for psychological-spiritual growth. The first session will begin with a light lunch and community discussion around the three centers of the Enneagram (gut, heart, head), followed by a brief refresher of core Enneagram concepts. Dr. Bishop will lead participants through experiential activities to tease out mental, emotional, and-or behavioral responses for each of the nine types. The second session also begins with light lunch and community discussion. Afterwards, Bishop will use a variety of instructional methods and experiential activities to guide participants through an exploration of lived perceptions as they relate various levels of consciousness. The session concludes with community discussion on practical applications for integrating healthy levels of the Enneagram with growing levels of consciousness. For more information call 616-514-3325 or visit dominicancenter.com. Dominican Center Marywood, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids, is located in West Michigan off Fulton Street East, on the campus of Aquinas College.

Details & Registration: https://dominicancenter.com/programs-and-retreats/experiential-enneagram/

Beyond Words – An Icon Workshop (In Person)

Monday, Apr 22 – Friday, Apr 26 • 9:00 am – 4:30 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –An icon in Christianity is a religious work of art, usually a flat panel painting depicting a holy being or sacred image. Icon means a symbol or image, even though an icon is an image created with paints, icons are written, not painted. The tradition of iconography has been handed down through the centuries from master iconographers to apprentices through a process of prayer, fasting and learning the skills and techniques necessary to create these images for sacred worship spaces, monasteries, and homes. To contemplate or gaze at an icon is to behold a beauty that is ‘beyond words”. Dominican Center is offering you a rare opportunity to create your own Christian icon during a weeklong icon workshop. Participants will learn about and complete an icon called “The Holy Face.” During this workshop, Diane will help you find your divine eyes, to see through the holy eyes of the icon, deeper into the beauty that surrounds you. She will gently guide students through a step-by-step process of creating their own icon using demonstration, instruction, and prayer. Participants will take home a completed icon by the end of the week. All supplies will be provided in the cost of the workshop. No previous experience is necessary. For more information call 616-514-3325 or visit dominicancenter.com. Dominican Center Marywood, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids, is located in West Michigan off Fulton Street East, on the campus of Aquinas College.

Details & Registration: https://dominicancenter.com/programs-and-retreats/icon-workshop/

Deepening the Call of Spiritual Direction: Self-Awareness in the Supervisory Process (In Person)

Saturday, May 4 • 9:15 am – 4:00 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –Spiritual directors not only listen to the Spirit and directees, but also to themselves. It is in this place of awareness that we are invited to be converted towards God. As we notice our ways of listening, our patterns of interaction, our discomforts and ease, and how we carry these into our environments we can tend our inner dynamics with God and others in supervision. This in-person retreat day is a place for active spiritual directors to hone our skills at self-awareness, develop healthy practices for peer supervision, and nourish our sacred call to listening. Sister Janice Bachman, OP, will lay a foundation of noticing the movements in the conversion process toward God within directors and their directees, then guide us through teaching and roleplays as to how these dynamics can play out in peer supervision. For more information call 616-514-3325 or visit dominicancenter.com. Dominican Center Marywood, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids, is located in West Michigan off Fulton Street East, on the campus of Aquinas College.

Details & Registration: https://dominicancenter.com/programs-and-retreats/deepening-the-call-of-spiritual-direction-self-awareness-in-the-supervisory-process/

Centering Prayer (Online)

Tuesdays • Noon

Centering Prayer is a modernized prayer method based on the intuitive prayer rooted in Lectio Divina. It is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience the Divine’s immanent presence with us. Centering Prayer is grounded in relationship with God, through Christ, and is a practice to nurture that relationship. This method of prayer complements and supports other modes of prayer — verbal, mental, or affective prayer — and facilitates resting in the Divine Presence. Centering Prayer offers a way to grow in intimacy with God, moving beyond conversation to communion. For more information call 616-514-3325 or visit dominicancenter.com. Dominican Center Marywood, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids, is located in West Michigan off Fulton Street East, on the campus of Aquinas College.

Details & Registration: https://dominicancenter.com/programs-and-retreats/centering-prayer/

Days of Mindfulness

The Saturday, March 2, 2024, Day of Mindfulness at Weber Retreat and Conference Center has been canceled. You are invited to join the mindfulness community at Weber Retreat and Conference Center for the next scheduled session, Saturday, April 6, 2024.

The Mindfulness community gathers monthly to deepen their understanding and commitment to mindfulness. Sessions are held on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at Weber Center and are facilitated by Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, a Dominican Sister of Adrian, retreat leader, and spiritual director.

The theme for the April session is “Trust in Your Goodness.” Sometimes, you might judge yourself endlessly and even harshly. Are you open to considering that within you lies all the creativity, possibility, forgiveness, and understanding you need to live well?

The session is limited to 30 participants. The cost is $35, which includes lunch. Registration is required and available at www.webercenter.org; click “programs.” Registration may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing webercenter@adriandominicans.org.

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. Traveling east on Siena Heights Drive, pass the Adrian Rea Literacy Center and turn left just before the solar panel-covered parking lot. Follow the signs to Weber

Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.

Winter Writing Workshops

For many, winter is a time to be drawn inside and inwards and to rest and rejuvenate. Weber Retreat and Conference Center offers two writing workshops in the winter months to help new and experienced writers enjoy this time of regeneration as they work on their craft. Adrian Dominican Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, MSW, an Amherst Writers and Artist-certified workshop leader, facilitates both workshops.

Winter Draws Us Inside, a workshop on Zoom, is offered from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 22, 2024. This virtual gathering allows writers to express on paper the ideas swirling inside them and to find support in their efforts from other group members.

At Work Underground: A Hybrid Workshop is from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST Saturday, March 9, 2024. Participants may attend in person at Weber Retreat and Conference Center or on Zoom. You are invited to join other writers for an afternoon to pay attention to writing you’re working on or to create something new.

The cost for each workshop is $35, and registration is required. Zoom links will be sent a few days before the workshops to those choosing this option. To register, visit www.webercenter.org and click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing webercenter@adriandominicans.org. Limited scholarships are available.

Talk Focuses on Rapid Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Computer technology and artificial intelligence are the fastest evolvers in our society today. How are we to look at technology in today’s world?

Sister Ilia Delio, OSF, addresses that question and more in her live-streamed presentation, Deep Artificial Intelligence (AI): Mind, Matter, and Planetary Life. Sister Ilia will explore the rapid rise of technology, the impact of techno-culture on human life, and the ideas of theologian Teilhard de Chardin on religion, technology, and evolution. The workshop, offered through Weber Retreat and Conference Center, is from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. EST on Monday, February 26, 2024.

A Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, Sister Ilia focuses her writing and research on systematic-constructive theology, particularly the integration of science, religion, and culture.

The cost is $45, and registration is required to receive the live stream link. Registration is available at www.webercenter.org; click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing webercenter@adriandominicans.org. Limited scholarships are available.