Befriending Our Belovedness
Franciscan Renewal Center, Scottsdale, AZ
Saturday, February 15, 2025, 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.
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 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.
A Lenten Retreat Co-facilitated with Vic Klimoski, PhD
What I’ve Learned So Far: Claiming the Ways We See, Understand, and Interpret the World
St. Scholastica Monastery, Duluth, MN
Friday, April 4, 2025 - 7:00 p.m. to Sunday, April 6, 2025 - 10:30 a.m.
https://retreatduluth.org/what-ive-learned-so-far/
If there is any secret to a life well lived, it is attentiveness. Spiritual masters remind us that making time to consider what we are learning sharpens our attention. When we do so, we also deepen our reverence for who we have been, who we are becoming, and how we are being called to live out our destiny. This retreat, then, is designed for adults of all ages and at life stages who desire to more fully integrate the experiences of their lives with the inner meaning they hold. It comes in the midst of Lent, a time for taking stock and preparing for what lies ahead.
Through an array of activities, participants will be invited to pay attention to the full landscape of their lives, to notice how certain experiences have indelibly shaped their values, ideals, key questions, and insights to date. They will be encouraged to name the lessons they are learning through personal writing and the structured accompaniment of a small group.
Groundings: Professional Development Workshop
Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, Saint Paul, MN
Tuesday, April 15, 2025, 12:30 PM 2:30 PM https://www.sacredgroundspirit.org/events/april-groundings-befriending-our-belovedness
In this Groundings session for spiritual directors, we will explore two questions: (1) How might those of us who offer spiritual direction continue to claim more fully our identity as God’s beloved? (2) What are the specific approaches we can draw upon for helping our directees reconnect with those lost soul parts and pieces of themselves who long to know them once again?
SAVE THE DATE
Walking Each Other Home: The Art of Group Spiritual Accompaniment
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 6:30 p.m. to Saturday, October 25, 2025 - 3:30 p.m.
Franciscan Spirituality Center, La Crosse, WI
We yearn for deeper, authentic connections in our hyperconnected, wounded world. Our souls desire to see and be seen, to hear and be heard, to love and be loved.We seek spaces for belonging—small groups—where we can practice together the contemplative ways of being most needed in our current age.
Those of us trained as spiritual directors are well suited for forming and facilitating such groups. In this year’s continuing education session, participants will be introduced to the core capacities for hosting and holding space in a small group. They will have the opportunity to practice a model of group accompaniment that can be used in a variety of settings:
- Group Spiritual Direction
- Spiritual growth small groups
- Staff workshops
- Grief or recovery groups
- Shared-experience gatherings
- Retreats
They will be invited to engage the group process and reflect upon their experience of it. This continuing education session is designed for spiritual directors, spiritual directors in training, and any listening professional who is discerning a call to small group ministry. We hope you’ll join us!
