Retreat Info
Active Hope in a Changing World
Does the future put you in a state of fear? Do you feel hopeless with the state of our world? Sometimes it feels like it’s all falling apart, and we are no longer certain we will all make it.
That’s when we need hope. Not just any hope; active hope. We can act to change the circumstances we find ourselves in.
We will utilize the book Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone as a guide throughout the week.
“Hope is often thought of as the feeling that things are going to get better. When facing the mess we’re in, it is difficult for most of us to have that. Together we will explore how we can access unexpected resilience and creative power, not just to face the mess we’re in, but also to play our part in doing something about it.” (Active Hope)
Date: Sunday, August 24 - Friday, August 29
Time: 7:00 p.m. Sunday - 1:00 p.m. Friday
Location: Mercy Spirituality Center
Fee: $495 (includes a copy of the book)
Facilitators: Sue DiVita and Allison Murphy
Exploring the Healing Power of Expressive Writing - Weekend Retreat
Along with millennia of the anecdotal evidence, increasing numbers of clinical studies are showing that expressive writing is beneficial for both psychological and physical health. Expressive writing (a version of personal writing) can promote general well-being, mental health, resilience, trauma recovery, cognitive function and more.
Join us for a weekend exploring the power of writing for personal growth and healing. We will explore an array of practices and genres of writing from poetry to journaling to mini-memoir to working with family photographs to “writing the labyrinth.”
There will be group sessions with facilitation, time for personal writing, and a closing reading. Every participant will leave with some new writing, a wealth of resources, and a copy of the new edition of the poetry collection Giving Sorrow Words: Poems of Strength and Solace for Survivors.
Facilitator: Karen vanMeenen
Date: Friday, August 15 - Sunday, August 17
Time: 7:00 pm on Friday to 1:00 pm on Sunday
Location: Mercy Spirituality Center
Fee: $300
Facilitator Karen (Ren) vanMeenen, PhD/ABD, MA, CAPF, is a Principal Lecturer at Rochester Institute of Technology. Ren is an Executive Board member of the National Association for Poetry Therapy and the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Poetry Therapy. She is also the longtime editor of the scholarly journal Afterimage. She has taught workshops in the community for 30 years with populations including teens, seniors (including Holocaust survivors), and those on a cancer journey.
Silent Directed Weekend Retreat
Did you miss out on the directed retreat this summer? A full week too long? Join us for a weekend retreat where you will meet with your spiritual director and have time to reflect on where God is leading you.
Spiritual Directors:
Sr. Theresa Rutty, RSM
Sr. Elaine Englert, SSJ
Date:
Friday, October 10 - Sunday, October 12
Time: 5:30 pm on Friday until 2:00 pm on Sunday (time may vary slightly)
Location: Mercy Spirituality Center
Fee: $300
Retreats
Mercy Spirituality Center is a retreat center for people of all faiths. We believe that each of us, individuals and organizations alike, needs time apart to find,
deepen, or refresh our connection to what matters most in life.
We are deeply grateful to be able to offer our beautiful space
to the community for rest, reflection and spiritual growth.
Our facilitated retreats center around contemplative practice, Ignatian Spirituality and finding God in nature.
We also offer private retreats for groups and individuals.
A Day to Call Your Own opens with an optional communal prayer, then the rest of the day is yours. We provide a private room, a simple lunch, and our beautiful house and grounds for you to explore as you wish.
If you need a little more time in quiet, consider A Retreat to Call Your Own which includes all of the above plus an overnight and pick-up breakfast. Check our calendar for scheduled opportunities.
Located just one block from Highland Park, Mercy Spirituality Center offers 10 private guest rooms, meeting spaces for groups as small as 5 or as large as 35, kitchen and dining facilities along with various dining options dependent on the length and nature of your stay, a richly stocked library, spacious yard with gazebo, and plenty of off-street parking.
Quiet Retreats
Our day-long, mini-weekend and full weekend retreats provide opportunities for slowing down and making space for the more in your life. We offer practices designed to quiet busy minds in order to make room for a deeper and richer experience of the divine.
Mercy Spirituality Center is a retreat center for people of all faiths. We believe that each of us, individuals and organizations alike, needs time apart to find, deepen, or refresh our connection to what matters most in life. We are deeply grateful to be able to offer our beautiful space to the community for rest, reflection and spiritual growth.
Facilitated Retreats
Our facilitated retreats center around contemplative practice, Ignatian Spirituality and finding God in nature. Check our "Retreats" page to see what’s up next or call to arrange an experience tailored to the needs of your group.
Group Retreat Opportunities
We believe in the value of time apart from the routines of daily life. In our warm, inviting space, Mercy Spirituality Center is uniquely able to offer intimate, experiential, contemplative retreats for your small group.
Call us to find out more about our weekend (Friday evening – Sunday lunch) and mini-weekend (Friday evening - Saturday late afternoon) offerings. Call 585-473-6893. Or email us at: [email protected]. But contact us early! Available weekends fill quickly.