Events & Retreats – 1.3.24

Lunch & Learn Series

Weber Retreat and Conference Center continues its Lunch and Learn series in the new year with various topics, from herbs and gardening to the experience of teaching in a correctional facility.

Lunch and Learn is offered monthly on Wednesdays from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. at Weber Center. Bring your lunch or purchase a box lunch for $7. Drinks and dessert are provided for everyone. The box lunch options are egg salad, turkey salad, or chicken salad croissant sandwiches and includes chips. If purchasing lunch, registration is required at least two days before the event.

Upcoming dates and topics are as follows:

• January 10, 2024: The Secret Success of Herbs. Angie Pietraszewski, a registered nurse and the owner of the Lavender and Honey Apothecary, speaks about taking charge of your health with local herbs and the natural world.

• February 7, 2024: A View from Inside the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility. A panel of three guests will speak of their experience addressing criminal justice concerns and teaching inmates at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian.

• March 13, 2024: What’s New at Hidden Lake Gardens. Paul Pfeifer, Managing Director, shares the wonderful features of this 775-acre botanical garden in Tipton, Michigan.

• April 17, 2024: Let’s Get Ready for Spring. Mike Walters, Permaculture Specialist for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, shares tips on soil preparation, when to start planting, and secrets to a good harvest.

Registration for those ordering lunch is available at www.webercenter.org; click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by calling 517-266-4000 or emailing webercenter@adriandominicans.org. 

Light From The Cage

December 15, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – What is it like to teach high-school completion courses to inmates in a federal correctional facility? Judy Wenzel, author of the 2017 book Light from the Cage: 25 Years in a Prison Classroom, speaks of her experiences with the inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan. Her presentation, Light from the Cage, begins at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, January 11, 2024, at Weber Retreat and Conference Center. This program is also being live streamed at adriandominicans.org/Live-Stream.

The free program is sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion as part of the office’s series of presentations to expose Sisters, Associates, and the broader community to the experiences of people of different races, faith traditions, cultures, and sexual orientations. 

Kevin Hofmann, Director of the Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion, said Judy will address the issue of racism in the U.S. criminal justice system. “She has first-hand knowledge of the disproportionate number of Blacks in prison,” he said. “Blacks are over-represented.” 

Judy will also speak of her experience with the general population of prison inmates, who often face a stigma. “She will show the humanity of those who have ended up in prison,” Kevin said. “It’s a story you don’t often get to hear – and hopefully, she’ll change our viewpoint of those in the system.”  

The presentation is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. To watch via live stream, visit https://adriandominicans.org/Live-Stream.

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.

Workshop Focuses on Relating to People Most in Need of Compassion

December 29, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – How do Scriptures call us to relate to people in need of compassion? Sister Maribeth Howell, OP, PhD, STD, addresses that question in a workshop, The Poor, the Widow, the Orphan, and the Stranger in your Land, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday, January 20, 2024, at Weber Retreat and Conference Center and via live stream.

In the workshop, Sister Maribeth explores our call to relate to people in need by examining texts from the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly Exodus, Deuteronomy, and several books of the prophets; New Testament writings; and church teachings.

An Adrian Dominican Sister, Sister Maribeth is a member of the Congregation’s Vocations Team and a spiritual director. She taught at Aquinas Institute of Theology and Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis and St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio. She holds a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, and a PhD and Doctorate of Sacred Theology in Hebrew Scriptures from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

The cost is $45, including lunch, for those who are attending in person, and $35 for those participating via live stream. Registration is required. To register, visit www.webercenter.org and click “programs,” call 517-266-4000, or email webercenter@adriandominicans.org. Limited scholarships are available.

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.

Spiritual Director Retreat Practicum (In Person)

Mondays: Jan 8, Feb 12, Mar 11, Apr 8, May 13, 2024 • 6:00 – 9:00 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –The Spiritual Director Retreat Practicum is for experienced Spiritual Directors who feel a call to journey with directees in a silent retreat setting. In this practicum, we will explore the dynamics of daily prayer on retreat; understand the unique rhythm and movement on retreat; use the insights of Ignatius of Loyola, David Benner, and Shirley Sullivan to help us be ready and available to retreatants in the unique environment of a directed retreat. Participants will be given opportunities to provide supervised direction within Dominican Center Marywood retreats. 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/spiritual-director-retreat-practicum/

Winter Wonderings SoulCollage® Workshop (In-Person)

Saturday, Feb 3 • 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –Come receive from the slowing that winter offers. Reflect and rest with us and take the opportunity to check in with how you are doing in the light of the Spirit. Perhaps you will want to tend New Year resolutions you made, or perhaps you desire to listen deeply to what is growing in you. Mid-winter allows time to consider our foundations and our movements forward. It is a good time to allow challenge for change, so that when spring arrives, we are ready to plant something new. Soul Collage® will give us a creative way to visualize our lives as we create collage cards¬¬—then letting the Divine guide us with them. All materials are provided. All you need is the desire to connect to your soul and to listen in deep ways. 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/winter-wonderings-soulcollage-workshop-in-person/

Compassionate Kinship Circle (In Person)

Tuesdays: Feb 6, 20, Mar 5, 19, Apr 9, 23, 2024 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –Compassion is a heart-to-heart encounter. Through compassion, we are immersed in the reality of life, suffering, and goodness. Our compassionate thoughts, words and actions ripple out as a balm of peace, joy, love bringing healing into the brokenness of our world. This retreat-style experience is open to people of all faith traditions and spiritualities. Over the six sessions we will explore the meaning of compassion and discover how we are like pebbles thrown into the pond of reality causing ripples of compassion to flow out into the world. Through reading, review, reflection, and response, experience this time as a catalyst for a renewed commitment in being a compassionate presence, both to yourself and to others who are amid pain and struggle. Our time together will include presentations, communal prayer, small group dialog, and quiet times for reflection. 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/compassionate-kinship-circle/

Tending the Call ~ Ongoing Formation for Spiritual Directors (Online)

Wednesdays: Feb 7, Mar 6, Mar 20, Apr 10, Apr 24, 2024 • 6:30 – 8:00 pm EST

Join a community of Spiritual Directors who feel called to revisit the teachings of foundational companions and re-imagine ways they can support present-day ministries. We invite you to share, study, and pray with a sacred community of practicing Spiritual Directors from the Dominican Center for Spirituality, as we seek a deepening relationship with God and are reminded of the journey of transformation that first called us to the practice of spiritual direction. For our spring ongoing formation we will study and discuss in community, “Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation”, by Cindy S. Lee. This book will both challenge and encourage spiritual directors to bring an awareness to their practices of curiosity and possibility regarding multi-cultural spiritual experiences. The author will join us during the April 10 session! The author proposes that the church (and spiritual directors!) need different ways to engage in spiritual formation. 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/tending-the-call-winter/

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/

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/

Renew Retreat ~ Schedule Yourself or a Group for an In-Person Retreat

Available for Individuals and Small Groups by Appointment

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –The Renew Retreat is an individual or group retreat that is a self-guided contemplative pilgrimage. The gentle Christian practice of using scripture and prayerful prompts aligned with the four elements — fire, water, earth, and air — will help guide your journey into and beyond the garden in ways that strengthen your awareness of creation as a renewable resource, energizing your beingness, and the world around you. We will begin at Dominican Center Marywood at Aquinas College, transition to the St. Francis of Assisi Sculpture Garden, and return to Dominican Center. As you walk the paths along the wooded trails, you are led into the pace and rhythms of the natural world. Water, earth, fire, and air greet you — each element of nature a reminder of the peaceful relationship between living organisms and their physical environment. 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/renew-retreat/

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/

How We See the World: Lessons from Birds through a Jewish Lens

Facilitator: “Avian Rebbe” Aaron Eisenstein

Tuesday, January 9, 2024
7:00pm – 8:00pm Offered via Zoom.
Cost: $15

A basic familiarity with Zoom is expected of participants.

 “Avian Rebbe” Aaron Eisenstein will lead this interactive session to explore how we see the world and what natural beauty can teach us about the Divine. We will look at birds, and ourselves, in three different ways: with different rubrics, with different contexts, and in different timescales. We will uncover joy and inspiration as we delve into deep questions of perspective and meaning.

How We See the World: Lessons from Birds Through a Jewish Lens | Siena Retreat Center

Finding Hope in Challenging Times

Facilitator: Bridget Purdome

Tuesdays, January 16, and 23, 2024
6:30pm – 8:00pm
Cost: $40 for both sessions Offered via Zoom

A basic familiarity with Zoom is expected of participants.

What does it mean to have hope? Where do we see signs of hope during these challenging times? How do we practice hope? Please join us as we connect with hope around us and hope within us. This two-part program will include facilitator reflections, guided meditation, self-reflection, group discussion and more. Participants are asked to register for both sessions together.

Finding Hope in Challenging Times | Siena Retreat Center

Wisdom From Generation to Generation

Facilitator: Andrea Sawyer-Kirksey

Thursday, January 18, 2024
This retreat begins at 6:30 pm and concludes at 8:00 pm. Offered via Zoom.
Cost: $20 per session. Offered via Zoom

A basic familiarity with Zoom is expected of participants.

Each generation is called to guide the next generation. In this six-session Zoom series, justice advocate Andrea Sawyer-Kirksey will facilitate meaningful conversations about the books in this series, most of which have been written by Black or Indigenous authors who share their wisdom with the next generations. Join us for the whole series or as many sessions as your schedule allows. January’s session will focus on My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resma Menakem, explores how the black-white dynamic is held in our bodies and how to have healing.

Wisdom from Generation to Generation – January Session | Siena Retreat Center

Fan the Flames in the Cold of Winter

Facilitator: Miriam Brown, OP

Friday, January 19, to Saturday, January 20, 2024
The retreat begins on Friday at 7:00pm and concludes at 3:30pm on Saturday.
Cost: $225 (includes overnight accommodations and meals)

The spiritual quest never loses its savor when we are with good companions around the fire. Come in to warm yourselves with prayerful people and good talk—about “the world,” about what is stirring in our lives of faith, about those we love and care for near and far. We all need warmth and light. Let us come together and stir the embers for our hope and spirit in the challenging journey we and the world are on. Let’s share what keeps our fires going.

Fan the Flames in the Cold of Winter | Siena Retreat Center

Perspectives and Projections with John Nichols: Democracy in Robert M. La Follette’s Wisconsin… and in the U.S.

Offered in person at Siena Retreat Center
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
This retreat begins at 6:30pm and concludes at 8:30pm
Cost: $20

One hundred years after Robert M. La Follette mounted his 1924 presidential campaign based on the premise that “the will of the people may be the law of the land,” what is the tate of democracy in the U.S. today? What must we do to renew La Follette’s vision? Journalist and commentator John Nichols will offer enlightened perspectives and sage analysis of the current political landscape. His fresh, lively way of pinpointing issues and belief in the power of people is inspiring.

Perspectives and Projections with John Nichols | Siena Retreat Center

The Evolution of Divine Ecstasy

Facilitator: Paula Hirschboeck

Friday, January 26, to Sunday, 28, 2024
The retreat begins on Friday at 7:30pm and concludes with the noon meal on Sunday.
Cost: $345 (includes overnight accommodations and meals)

Each of us is a unique way for the Cosmos to see and know itself—to be, as St. Irenaeus says, “the glory of God fully alive.” An ecstatic evolutionary Cosmos calls us to be at home in the hearts of everyone, everywhere, all at once and realize there is no single privileged point of view. In this retreat we explore contemplation’s transformative power in an evolving Universe. The cosmic contemplative discovers the whole Universe arising within. Contemplative cosmology aligns with both Christian and Buddhist teachings. It offers Christians universal incarnational vision. Deep, wide incarnation is the whole Mystical Body of reality. The Christian “magnifies” the cosmos. In Zen Buddhism the Cosmos is awakening; it is Buddha. All beings are potentially realized Buddha’s. The Buddhist “Bodhisattva” serves all beings with wise compassion.  Presentations will include dialogue, meditation and practices such as art making and journaling. Silence will be honored. The retreat concludes with a “Council of All Beings,” a ritual celebrating the myriad expressions of the Cosmos who share the Earth.

The Evolution of Divine Ecstasy | Siena Retreat Center

The Merton Prayer

Facilitator: Steve Denny

Wednesday, January 31, 2024
6:30pm – 8:00pm
Cost: $15 via Zoom

A basic familiarity with Zoom is expected of participants 

On the birthday of Thomas Merton, we will dig deeply into the Merton Prayer, which is a gut-wrenchingly honest reaching out to God and looking inward to view our true and false selves. Each phrase of the prayer will be examined and reflections shared.

The Merton Prayer | Siena Retreat Center