Befriending Our Belovedness

Franciscan Renewal Center, Scottsdale, AZ

Saturday, February 15, 2025, 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

To register, https://frc.retreatportal.com

It’s easy to forget who we are and who we were created to be. We live in a world that keeps telling us who we should be rather than imploring us to remember who we are. We are lovely and we are beloved.

This retreat is designed for all those who are seeking to claim their identity as God’s beloved. During our time together, participants will be introduced to specific approaches for reconnecting with the parts of themselves and their life experiences that yearn to be tended, befriended, and healed.

Through time in prayer, presentations by Diane Millis, guided reflection and writing, and contemplative conversations in small groups, we will explore practices for reclaiming who we are and who we are called to become—both personally and in community.

What participants say about Diane’s retreat offerings . . .

Honored to be a part of this unfolding and sacred mystery of our time together. There is nothing more profound than recognizing the pain and the love that is shared in the heart of our humanity.

Surprised by God, life, and pain, it is not either/or, it is both/and, and the sacred Mystery holds us in all of that.

Leaving lighter, more sense of awareness of my body, carrying joy with a new depth, through the process of befriending brokenness and knowing the belovedness is fully there.

I am amazed that God brought me to here at just the right time with at the right people. I am leaving very encouraged.

I am leaving with gratitude and joy, I want to take better care of myself and quit running from feelings. I want to befriend me.

Amazed at the power of the horizontal—the sense of being together is so powerful.

Grateful that the whole process has helped make connections with the horizontal, and the vertical, upward and downward, increased my commitment to mend and sit with broken relationships, with myself. I am grateful for being seen, heard, and encouraged to keep on.

Being heard changes the world, and this has been affirmed this weekend.

I see how I tell myself a story about a story, a beautiful challenge. I dig ruts in my brain. I am stepping back and asking: how would I look at this differently?

Paying attention to the story I am telling myself--what is my deeper belief and need?

Grateful, fuller person. This retreat offered me a road map to keep on the path.

Inspired by wisdom and caring words, it has been a true gift.