We bring retreats to you!
For more information about any of these retreats, please contact us at retreatcenter@mannahouse.org or 785/243-4428.
The guided retreats at your location are designed specifically for the needs of your participants. Each day of the weeklong retreat generally includes:
- One session of input
- Morning and evening prayer
- A creative or contemplative activity
- Availability of the director for consultation
- A reflection guide on the theme of each day
ELDER RETREATS: Sister Janet is available to give any of these guided retreat topics in a three-day format at assisted care facilities of retirement centers for religious communities. The shortened retreat may include pastoral visits, morning and/or evening prayer and reflection guides.
Weaving with Threads of Love
This retreat, rooted in a spirituality of unioning love and reconciliation, is designed to give participants the opportunity to integrate the spirituality and practice of making bobbin lace in a contemplative setting. Instruction in the craft as well as retreat input and times of prayer combine to create in us heart-space where connections with God and the dear neighbor may be woven in prayer, as surely as the design of threads evolves on the lace pillow before our eyes. No previous experience in lacemaking is required. (Co-presented with Sister Ramona Medina)
Making Lace, Making Peace:
The Healing Contemplative Practice of Making Bobbin Lace
This is a retreat designed to give individuals an experience of the practice of making bobbin lace in a contemplative setting. Lacemaking, as contemplative practice, opens us to communion with God and neighbor. We are healed as we encounter beauty, on our lace pillows, in our lives and in our spirits. Daily, we will gather to reflect on lacemaking as contemplation that fosters peace and healing for ourselves and our world. Most of the day will be given to the prayer and the art of lacemaking. Hands-on instruction is part of the retreat offering. No previous experience in lacemaking is required.
Nonviolence of Heart
This retreat invites participants to move in prayer to conversion, and in practice to witness. It is for all who lament the violence against earth, among nations, in society, in relationships and especially in their own hearts. Participants will ponder God’s vision of peace and right relationship in Scripture, listen to the lived testimony of the prophets of nonviolence, and explore postures and practices for growing in nonviolence.
Creation as Revelation
“We live to give God glory by loving the world and everything that is in it.” (Sallie McFague, Life Abundant)
Drawing on the insights of mystics, scientists and theologians, past and present, we will ponder God’s design in creation, in order to respond to our human vocation within it. The retreat integrates the Book of our Scriptures with the Book of Creation, as St. Bonaventure called God’s creation. Through lectio divina, we encounter God’s word spoken in creation, ponder it, respond to it, rest in it, and allow ourselves to be transformed by this grace that we may live out of it.
Universe, Embodiment and Eucharist
“Over every living thing which is to spring up, to grow to flower, to ripen during this day, say again the words: This is my Body.” (Teilhard de Chardin, “Mass on the World”)
This retreat invites participants to ponder the implications of the Universe Story for our faith. It presents to us the self-revelation of an immanent God: God embodied and revealed in creation, the same God who is enfleshed and revealed in Jesus the Christ, who remains present in the Body of Christ, both sacrament and human members, drawing the universe towards its fulfillment. The Christian story and Universe Story will be interwoven to invite us to encounter the God of Creation anew.
Our Sisters in Faith
“… the nearer we draw to God in love, the more we are united together by love …” St. Dorotheus of Gaza
During this retreat we will gather twice a day to reflect on the lives of holy women of our Scriptures, saints of long ago, and not so long ago! In relationship with our sisters in faith, we will be invited to deepen our vision of and our participation in the Communion of Saints. Saints walk with us as we journey into God, and as we strive to transform our world in grace. Each input begins in the format of Reader’s Theater, which is followed by a brief reflection.
Living in Abundance
Our loving God profusely pours the gifts of life, love and beauty upon us. Awareness of God’s extravagant generosity gifts us with new vision, renewed energy, deepened passion for living life to the full. In this retreat, we will explore how we might live in God and in community more abundantly. A contemplative life stance in our relationships to self, others and creation, in God, beckons us toward living in abundance.
Let the Little Children Come to Me
Unless one becomes as a little child, that one shall not enter the Reign of God. (Matthew 18:3)
Participants in this retreat will be praying with a right-brain approach. Conferences weave children’s literature and Scriptural themes. Integration and prayer will include creative writing, right-brain journaling and contemplative practices.
