St. Francis
Retreat Center
Contemplative
Connect
September Offerings
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"The spiritual life does not remove us from the world
but leads us deeper into it." Henri J.M. Nouwen
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Online Retreats
Suggested donation is listed on retreat description;
Don't let financial hardship keep you from participating.
If you need a partial or full scholarship,
please email mepkinguestmaster@gmail.com to register.
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Mepkin Speaker Series
Mondays, Sept. 14, 21, & 28
7:00-8:30 PM Eastern Time Zone
Suggested Donation: $45
includes all speakers' presentations
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Session One: Sept. 14
"Impasse and the Dark Night"
with Dr. Keith Barron
Keith Reeves Barron, PhD, EdS, LPC-S, NBCC, is a licensed professional counselor supervisor (board certified), author, public speaker, educator, spiritual director, and a specialist in retirement planning, insurance and financial services (Barron Financial Group, LLC). Keith is married to Laura, who is his business partner. They live in Columbia, SC and have three sons, three granddaughters and a grandson. Keith’s professional background includes being a professor in Religious Studies, Ministry and Spirituality at the university level (14 years) and a pastoral counselor / psychotherapist at Palmetto Health (now Prisma, 14 years). He is the Disaster Mental Health Lead for Central South Carolina Red Cross, volunteering in 7 national disasters, including 9/11. Keith provides spiritual direction to both individuals and groups, delivers talks and directs retreats in a variety of university, church, community and academic settings.
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Session Two: Sept. 21
"Angels and Demons:
What do Scripture and Tradition Say about Them?"
with Fr. Michael Patella
Professor of New Testament at Saint John’s University and its School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Fr. Michael Patella served as the chair of the Committee on Illumination and Text for The Saint John’s Bible. He has written in the area of Luke-Acts, Paul, Mark, and angels and demons. His work, Word and Image: The Hermeneutics of The Saint John’s Bible (Liturgical Press, 2013), addresses the theology, art, and interpretation of The Saint John’s Bible. He has also completed the Gospel of Luke for the
Jerome Biblical Commentary, Fully Revised Edition (2021).
Fr. Michael is a member of the Catholic Biblical Association
and the Society of Biblical Literature.
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Session Three: Sept. 28
"From Victim to Witness:
The Graced Ordeal
of Afflictive Thoughts"
With Martin Laird, OSA
Martin Laird, O.S.A. is Professor of Early Christian Studies at Villanova University. Laird is the author of several books on early Christian thought and Christian contemplative life. He lectures widely through the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
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Directed Online
Ignatian Retreat
with Kathy Tosney
& Fr. Jim Bowler
Sept. 7-11 , 2020
Suggested Donation $125
(Space is limited, but please join our waiting list if retreat is full; we may add another director if needed.)
Respond to God’s invitation
to refresh, renew, and deepen your relationship
with God through an Ignatian Retreat…
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Kathy Tosney is an Interfaith Spiritual Director in Portland, Maine. She teaches Contemplative Prayer Practices for Mepkin Abbey‘s “Institute for Contemplative Eldering Retreats” and has been a retreat team member at Mepkin for the past 8 years. Kathy also directs Ignatian Retreats at Mepkin Abbey and Eastern Point Jesuit Retreat House in Gloucester, MA. Kathy lives in Portland, Maine and is the proud mother of two adult sons and four young grandchildren.
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James M. Bowler, S.J. is currently stationed at Campion Center in Weston, MA. For over thirty years he has been involved in the ministries of spiritual direction, training thereof, directed retreats and workshops promoting Ignatian spirituality. He enjoys extensive experience with the analytical psychology of Carl Jung and the faith development theory of James Fowler which he incorporates into his ministry of Ignatian spirituality. He has served on the staffs of Campion Renewal Center, The Guelph Center for Spirituality and founded the Murphy Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Fairfield University.
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Dialoguing with God
in Silence:
Thomas Merton’s Teaching on Contemplative Prayer in a Pandemic
A Contemplative Retreat
presented by Jonathan Montaldo
September 11-13
Friday: 7:00-8:30 pm Eastern Time
Saturday: 11:00 am-1:00 pm & 3:00-5:00pm ET
Optional Sunday Discussion: 2:30-4:00 pm ET
Suggested Donation: $70
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Jonathan Montaldo served as director of the Thomas Merton Center and as president of the International Thomas Merton Society. As associate director for the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living, he directed its retreat center near Gethsemani. He co-created Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton and co-edited The Intimate Merton. His other renditions of Merton’s writing include A Year with Thomas Merton, Dialogues with Silence, and Choosing to Love the World. He narrated five Merton audiobooks. The co-general editor for Fons Vitae’s Thomas Merton & series, he presents retreats based upon Merton’s legacy for mentoring our spiritual formations.
jonathan.montaldo@gmail.com
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THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY:
A Process of Transformation
With Albert Haase, OFM
September 18-19, 2020
suggested donation $60
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The spiritual journey is the communal process
of being conformed by the Spirit of God
to the image of Christ for the sake of others.
In this retreat, we’ll explore the stages and dynamics of the spiritual journey, its challenges for
21st century Christians, and see how
ordinary people were transformed by their
willingness to surrender to God’s grace.
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Ordained a Franciscan priest in 1983, Albert Haase, OFM, is a popular preacher, teacher, spiritual director, and guest on Catholic talk radio shows. A former missionary to mainland China for over eleven years, he is the award-winning author of twelve books on popular spirituality and the presenter on five bestselling DVDs. He has trained spiritual directors for ten years. He is currently chaplain at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in the diocese of Austin, Texas. Visit his website at www.AlbertOFM.org
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Seeing Things Whole
with
Julian of Norwich
Online Retreat
with Marjory Zoet Bankson
September 22-24, 2020
10 am-noon Eastern Time
10:00
Suggested donation $60
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YJulian of Norwich (1342-1416)
created the first known literature in English
written by a woman: Revelations of Divine Love -
her evocative reflections on God, love, sin, and suffering.
The cat is a clue to her life.
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Marjory Zoet Bankson is an author, working potter, and seasoned spiritual guide from the Church of the Saviour (CoS) community in Washington, DC. Her books, Call to the Soul and Creative Aging present a spiral template for discerning call at every stage of life.
Marjory chairs the CoS Council, publishes their quarterly newsletter, Callings, and curates the CoS website inwardoutward.org.
Her sermons are available at seekerschurch.org.Marjory was President of Faith At Work, a nation-wide relational ministry, from 1985 to 2001, and she continued as editor/publisher of Faith@Work magazine until 2008. Now she writes, speaks, and facilitates group discernment events around issues of call and transition.
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7 Honorings That Free Our Authenticity
An online retreat led by
Chris Saade
Fri, Sept. 25, 7:00 – 8:30 PM Eastern Time
Saturday, Sept 26
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET &
3:00 – 4:30 PM ET
Suggested Donation $60
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Chris Saade is an author, life coach, and psychological and spiritual teacher. He has also directed three nonprofit humanitarian organizations and a for profit business. After years serving as a psychotherapist in private practice, Saade spent two decades training therapists, coaches, and ministers in the model he developed: Engaged Authenticity, also referred to as Individual Authenticity and Global Solidarity.
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