Sustaining the Practice Retreat (3 nights or more)
Flexible Dates
Benedictine Center
Often people who are feeling called to integrate the disciplines of silence and spiritual practice into their lives choose a retreat of three nights or more. A Sustaining the Practice Retreat invites a person to set aside a significant window of time (between 3 and 7 nights) for renewal and growth. One can explore the riches of […]
Peace Retreat (2 nights)
Package Dates
Benedictine Center
A Peace Retreat helps you settle in to the calm that greets you at the monastery doors. Day 1 helps you familiarize yourself with the beauty and resources. Day 2 allows you the freedom to linger without travel. Day 3 allows you to ease back into normal life. The Peace Retreat helps you begin to feel […]
Quiet Retreat (1 night)
Package Dates
Benedictine Center
A Quiet Retreat gives you one night away from responsibilities. The room and three home-cooked meals are prepared with a personal touch. You are welcome but not obligated to join the Sisters for prayer. Take in the art, read, or walk the labyrinth as you choose. The time is yours. Some guests find it helpful to […]
Day of Prayer (no overnight)
Package Dates
Benedictine Center
A Day of Prayer is a simple way to step into some quiet. Enjoy a private room and whatever degree of solitude you prefer. Some guests join the Sisters for midday prayer and visit with them at lunch. Others prefer to journal, read, pray and walk the grounds at their leisure. The monastic library, art […]
Guided Retreat for the Emerging Poet
With Victor Klimoski
Package Dates
Benedictine Center
Looking for a chance to spend time with your inner writer? This individualized retreat, guided by an experienced poet, provides space and support to explore ways of enriching your writing practice. Over the course of the 48 hours, you will have the opportunity to meet with writing coach Victor Klimoski to discuss your poems, the […]
Explore/Inquire About a Customized Personal Retreat
Open Dates
Benedictine Center
The experienced members of the Benedictine Center staff enjoy helping women and men like you find just the right blend of resources for their unique spiritual journeys. With a better sense of your preferences in terms of timing, special diets, accommodations and more, we will help you plan your retreat and gather any resources you might need, […]
Condensed School of Lectio Divina [Online]
With Samuel Rahberg, S. Virginia Matter OSB and Kiely Todd Roska
August 7 - 9, 2020
Online via Zoom
The Condensed School of Lectio Divina that is typically offered at the Benedictine Center is available now online. Participants in this weekend retreat will use Zoom for large group presentation, small group discussion, and times of prayer. They will also commit to sustain their practice of lectio divina by cultivating times to engage their sacred text offline and by exploring how they might integrate lectio divina into their lives in practical ways.
SoulCollage®: A Contemplative and Creative Expression of Self [Online Gathering]
With Barbara Sutton
August 16, 2020
Take some time to engage your creative spirit. SoulCollage® will provide some space to play with images and allow the intuitive part of your mind and heart to come alive and creates a space for your ever-present soul wisdom to be seen and heard. This is for anyone who has the urge to playfully explore the spacious, creative quality within yourself and experience the gentle guidance and wisdom that resides there for you. Learn more about SoulCollage® at www.soulcollage.com. This event will take place online via Zoom.
Writing In The Open
With Victor Klimoski
September 12, 2020
Silverwood Park, St Anthony, MN
One of the greatest sources of inspiration for writers is paying attention. Where better to do that than under an open sky and in a beautiful setting where our eyes discover beauty, mystery, and surprise. This workshop will be held at Silverwood Park in St Anthony, MN and involve several activities based on wandering aimlessly, recording what we see, and composing a response in whatever form it asks.
Writing Our Way to Understanding [Online]
With Victor Klimoski
September 21 - November 23, 2020
Online via Zoom
Mondays, 7-9p, Sept. 21, Oct. 19, Nov. 23: The writer, Joan Didion, says that she only recognizes what she is thinking when she finally puts it down in words. This series invites writers to deepen their skills of written expression by exploring several key Benedictine concepts: community, stewardship, and hospitality, drawing on their own experience and insights. This interactive class will take place online via Zoom.
Together in Contemplation: A Practice-Based Spiritual Formation Group [online]
With Jody Reis Johnson
September 22 - December 15, 2020
Online via Zoom
Tuesdays, 7-9p, Sept. 22, Oct. 13, Nov. 17, and Dec. 15: Writers in the Christian contemplative tradition have long upheld the practices of silence and community as invitations into holy mystery. The starting point for a life of prayer is seeking God, and the practice of silence can open the heart and grow our awareness of God's presence in daily life. Quiet down the noise and find companions along the spiritual path. Join Jody Reis Johnson for a 4-month spiritual growth group aimed at deepening your relationship with God through contemplative practice, spiritual readings, and discussion about the journey we…
SoulCollage® Sunday Circle [Online]
With Barbara Sutton
September 27 - December 13, 2020
Online via Zoom
SoulCollage® Sunday Circle will provide open space for creating and exploring your SoulCollage cards with facilitator Barbara Sutton. It is a casual afternoon for those new to and experienced with SoulCollage to bring their circle wisdom forward each month! Sessions will include a soulful reflection, card making, and gleaning wisdom from these exercises. No previous art experience is necessary! To learn more about SoulCollage, visit www.soulcollage.com. Please note: Sunday Circles will be offered online via Zoom.
Attentive Companions: Spiritual Direction and the Journey with God [Online]
With Kami Pohl and Tod Twist
September 29, 2020
No one can walk our spiritual journey for us. We enter, one by one, into the presence of the mystery of God and listen wholeheartedly to what God asks of us. But that journey need not be made alone. There are times when having a companion who listens to us and who helps us to listen to ourselves sharpens our ability to listen to the voice of God. This workshop offers those new to spiritual direction a place to start and those experienced with spiritual direction insight into making the most of each session. Please note: this event will take…
Lean Times, Living Stories [Online]
With Diane Millis and Samuel Rahberg
October 8, 2020
Online via Zoom
When pressures and limitations seem to outweigh our sense of strength and possibility, how do leaders avoid becoming disheartened? By learning how to tell a more life-giving story. Narrative Theory suggests that the ongoing discipline of leadership requires crafting a more genuine story, one that is both rooted in the reality of the moment and expands our sense of mission. During tough times, our narratives often become rote. Therefore, it is all the more incumbent that we reflect upon the stories we are telling ourselves as our communities navigate the difficulties of transition, loss, and diminishment.This workshop will take place…
Praying With The Psalms: An Evening Of Reflection [Online]
With Susan Stabile
October 20, 2020
Online via Zoom
It has been suggested that the Book of Psalms is the prayer book of the church. With vivid imagery, the psalms express the full range of human emotions, and give us insights into God and ourselves. One commentator called the psalms "essentially a record of the human quest for God." The psalms are meant to be prayed, not simply read. We know from the Gospels that they were prayed by Jesus, and they remain essential to the prayer of Benedictine communities and the church at large. This evening of reflection encourages us to pray with the psalms in a way…
What Crisis Teaches: A Benedictine Perspective [Online]
With Victor Klimoski
October 22, 2020
Online via Zoom
In the middle of a crisis, we are wide awake. Aware of how our lives are being upended, we have a clarity of mind that does not sweat the small stuff and reprioritizes what is important. But then the crisis passes, its urgency fades, and we return to life as usual. This conversation explores what we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic through the prism of Saint Benedict’s call to attentiveness, listening, and conversion of life. This class will be offered online via Zoom..
Bouncing Back: A SoulCollage® Retreat On Resilience [Online]
With Barbara Sutton
October 23 - 25, 2020
Benedictine Center
Resilience is a necessary strength we all need to survival and to thrive. It is finding the will to try again despite the adversity and life’s downturns. It has been a difficult stretch. Are you ready to rediscover your joy, meaning and purpose in your life? Using SoulCollage, a creative, artistic process, we will explore what the Divine is inviting us to be or do in our situations. SoulCollage is an imaginative and intuitive collage process and a powerful medium for exploring one’s heart, gifts, passions and purpose through an expressive art process. To learn more about SoulCollage, visit www.soulcollage.com.…
Tell Me True: Speaking Truth with Robust Love [Online]
With Kiely Todd Roska and Eily Marlow
November 6, 2020
“God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in robust love” (Eph. 4: 15). We often struggle to have important conversations, not for lack of good intention, but because of imbalance. If we speak bluntly, we can be unnecessarily hurtful. If we speak indirectly, we avoid the heart of the matter. The most healthy and life-giving communication involves both candor and care. Join Kiely Todd Roska and Eily Marlow, sincere students and practitioners of trying to speak truth with love, for a day of practical insight and engaged learning. Explore tools and processes for…
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! – with Fr. Michael Joncas [Online]
With Fr. Michael Joncas
December 1, 2020
The liturgical season of Advent in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite has two distinct foci: the mystery of the coming of Christ at the end of history (Parousia) and the mystery of the coming of Christ in history (Christmas). We will explore how these foci are expressed in the lectionary readings and hymns of the day for the Sundays of Advent of Year B as well as Advent texts, ceremonies and customs from Advent in other rites. Immersion in these texts and rites should help us develop Advental spirituality, living in the tension between already and not yet.…
School of Discernment [Online]
With Kathleen Cahalan, Samuel Rahberg and S. Virginia Matter OSB
December 4 - 6, 2020
The School of Discernment is an opportunity to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit under the guidance of skilled teachers and listeners and with the benefit of wisdom from the monastic tradition, now available online. The framework includes a daily rhythm of prayer with the monastic community, sessions on the practice of discernment, reflection questions for quiet time, and one-on-one meetings, all via Zoom. No one will be obligated to share publicly about the particulars of their own stories, but each will have the opportunity to do so as they choose. Spiritual directors will be available to assist with…
Advent Women In Song And Scripture [Online]
With Katy Wehr
December 14, 2020
Spend an evening with the women of the Gospels. The Virgin Mary, Elizabeth, the Prophetess Anna and other women healed by Christ have much to teach us about Advent waiting, hope, and joy. Musician and speaker Katy Wehr will draw from a variety of sources to give a presentation that is part-Bible study and part-concert. Using Scripture, fine art for visio divina, and songs from her album - And All the Marys - Katy will help participants hear Advent stories afresh through an interdisciplinary approach. You can preview the music at www.katywehrmusic.com or search on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc. This…
School of Lectio Divina
With Kathleen Cahalan, S. Virginia Matter OSB, Kami Pohl, Tod Twist and Samuel Rahberg
March 19 - 24, 2021
Benedictine Center
The Benedictine Center of St. Paul’s Monastery is offering the School of Lectio Divina to adapt the ancient monastic riches of sustained lectio divina to contemporary people. Through an intensive retreat experience set in the rhythm of life at St. Paul’s Monastery, participants receive teaching about lectio, spend time meditating on a sacred text significant for them, have the opportunity for individual spiritual direction, and participate in reflective conversation with other participants. In addition, the Benedictine Center will provide a variety of on-going support activities and resources after the retreat to help participants make sustained lectio a central aspect of…