Events & Retreats – 7.21.2021

Siena Retreat Center to Host Author on Public Trust

Racine, WI – Professor, researcher, and author William Keith will present “Rebuilding Public Trust” at Siena Retreat Center on Tuesday, September 14. The evening talk will be based on his recent book, co-authored with Robert Danisch, Beyond Civility: The Competing Obligations of Citizenship. 

Believing that democratic institutions are only as healthy as the discourse that animates them, Keith, a professor at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, will offer insights into effective public discourse.  

The event is scheduled to be held in person from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at Siena Retreat Center with public health safety measures in place. Social distancing may limit the spaces available; advanced registration is required through www.SienaRetreatCenter.org or by calling (262) 898-2590. Siena Retreat Center’s Bookstore will be open the evening of the presentation. The Retreat Center and its Bookstore are located at 5637 Erie Street in Racine, Wisconsin.

Siena Retreat Center is a ministry of the Racine Dominican Sisters and is celebrating its 55th year of operation. With a mission to renew lives and deepen holistic spirituality through retreats and programs, Siena Retreat Center seeks to be a catalyst for a more just and peaceful world.

Study of Mystics Helps Reveal Reality of Selves, Others

July 9, 2021, Adrian, MI – A three-day virtual retreat offered by Weber Retreat and Conference Center allows participants to explore – through the study of two remarkable mystics – the process in which we realize that God is the very reality of ourselves, others, and all things. The retreat is from 7:00 p.m. Sunday, August 1, 2021, through 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, August 4, 2021.

Gabrielle Earnshaw, founding archivist of the Henri J. M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, discusses the mysticism of Henri Nouwen (1932-1996). A Catholic priest born in Holland, Father Nouwen taught at the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard before joining L’Arche Daybreak, a community for people with intellectual disabilities. His honest exploration of his interior world is a model for those who yearn to create a space for God.

Margaret Winfrey leads retreatants in a discovery of Thomas Keating and Mary Mrozowski: Visionaries leading us in our spiritual journey. Father Thomas Keating, OSCO, a Trappist priest, created a new way for ordinary people to reach God and deepen their relationship with him through centering prayer. Mary Mrozowski, an early disciple of Father Thomas and a lay contemplative living in Chrysalis House in Warwick, New York, wrote the Welcoming Prayer.
The cost of the retreat is $140. Registration is required and is available at www.webercenter.org; click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by contacting Weber Center at 517-266-4000 or webercenter@adriandominicans.org. Limited scholarships are available.

Workshop Offers Fresh Look at Spirituality through the Lens of Cosmology

July 9, 2021, Adrian, Michigan – Sister Helen Cahill, OP, a Dominican Sister of Peace, offers A Fresh Look at Spirituality through the Lens of Cosmology during a live stream program, offered by Weber Retreat and Conference Center. The program is from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 28, 2021.

The workshop explores how our understanding of the universe, evolutionary consciousness, and images of God affect our self-understanding as we evolve into love. 

A resident of the St. Catharine Motherhouse in Kentucky, Sister Helen continues to offer spiritual direction and group supervision for formation personnel through Zoom for the Claret Center in Chicago, where she served for many years. She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in spirituality from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

The workshop is free, but donations are appreciated. Registration is required to receive the live stream link and is available at www.webercenter.org; click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by contacting Weber Center at 517-266-4000 or webercenter@adriandominicans.org. 

Kansas Organist Plays Debut Summer Organ Concert

SINSINAWA, WI – Jan Kraybill of Kansas City, KS, will be the first of three new organists in August to play the Summer Organ Concert series at Sinsinawa Mound. She will perform at 7 p.m. CDT Wednesday, Aug. 11. Concert guests will follow COVID-19 protocol, including wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and using hand sanitizer, and attendance will be limited to 125 people. Guests will have limited access to the main foyer and Queen of the Rosary Chapel. The concerts will also be available online at www.sinsinawa.org/live at the time of the concert or later in an archived format by tapping or clicking on “on demand.”

Kraybill is a Grammy-nominated concert artist, musical leader, speaker, and advocate for the power of music to change lives for the better. She has performed as a soloist, collaborative musician and hymn festival designer/leader across the United States and Canada and in Australia, Europe, Russia, South Korea and Tahiti. In Kansas City, Kraybill is organ conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, organist-in-residence at Community of Christ headquarters, and organist at Village on Antioch Presbyterian Church.

For more information, contact Arrangements at 608-748-4411 or visit our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter. Sinsinawa Mound, the motherhouse for the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, is located in southwest Wisconsin on County Road Z, off Highway 11, about five miles northeast of Dubuque.

Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World

SINSINAWA, WI – Sinsinawa Mound Center’s next virtual Native American Book Discussion will be held at 7 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Aug. 10. “Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World” by Linda Hogan is our featured book. Hogan, of the Chickasaw Nation, exquisitely examines both natural and internal landscapes in this nonfiction book of essays. Whether she is writing about bats, bees, porcupines, or wolves; contemplating the mysteries of caves; or delving into the traditions, beliefs, and myths of Native American cultures, she expresses a deep reverence for the dwelling we all share—Earth. “Booklist” magazine wrote, “Hogan brings her feeling for language and story to these quietly beautiful and provocative musings on the nature of nature.” Ecological Programming Coordinator Eric Anglada will lead the discussion. The fee is $10 per person, and the registration deadline is Aug. 9 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Arrangements at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.

Historian Gives Historical Perspective on Capitalism, Indigenous Dispossession

SINSINAWA, WI – Sinsinawa Mound Center is sponsoring a virtual workshop, Settler Capitalism and Indigenous Dispossession on the Upper Mississippi, at 7 p.m. CDT Tuesday, August 17. Joshua Wachuta, a public historian who holds his doctorate in U.S. and public history, will offer a historical perspective on how 19th-century businessmen extracted labor, debt, and land from the Ho-Chunk and Dakota nations to obtain the start-up capital for real estate, steamboat, and railroad companies in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Learn how Indigenous people lost their land in the Upper Mississippi region and how capitalism in the United States was founded in part on the transformation of Indigenous tribal wealth into private property for white settler colonists. The fee is $10 per person, and the registration deadline is Aug. 16 at 4 p.m. Please register by contacting Arrangements at 608-748-4411 or visiting our website at www.sinsinawa.org/moundcenter.