Monday, June 16, 2014

"Hurry Up and Slow Down" online retreat begins Thursday!

The early summer "Hurry Up and Slow Down" online retreat begins this week, on Thursday, June 19. You can still take advantage of the early bird discount if you register today, Monday June 16, by midnight -- in whatever time zone you find yourself.  And if you're reading this on the day the retreat starts, it's not too late: you're welcome to sign up until Saturday, June 21.

The retreat is simple, accessible, and gently focused on practice -- the "how" of living every day mindfully and reverently, in a way that suits our own circumstances and takes into account how busy we are. Each week has a theme or anchor. The weekly themes are rich and basic:



* mindfulness * breath * place * time * community * earth *

These themes can be building blocks of spiritual practice whether or not we are religiously affiliated.

To learn more about this retreat, click here.

For a full listing of our summer online retreats (including some very short ones), see here.



Photo by Jane Redmont (c) 2014

Friday, June 13, 2014

9 days with William Stringfellow: online "novena retreat" begins July 7

(Reminder: full list of online retreats for summer 2014 here.)

Longing for some prayerful and reflective time in your busy life? 
Interested in a new perspective on the Bible in these United States?
Wondering about the relationship between Christian faith and social realities?
William Stringfellow: An Online Novena Retreat

 
William Stringfellow (1928-1985), was a lawyer by training and trade, not a professional theologian, though he wrote a dozen books and was one of most astute and insightful Christian thinkers of the 20th century. An Episcopal layman who understood himself very much as "Protestant" and engaged in open criticism of his own beloved church, he was grounded in the prayerful study of scripture. Stringfellow was also a radical social critic preoccupied with the powers of sin and death in the world and in the cosmos.

"My concern," Stringfellow wrote, "is to understand America biblically -- in contrast to the more common tendency, to understand the Bible 'Americanly.'" O
ne of the published  summaries of his work notes that his great theme "was the Constantinian compromise, the accommodation of Christianity to the values of the empire and the preservation of status quo."

Click here for an informative essay on William Stringfellow 
if you want to know more about his life, work, and significance.

Block Island, R.I., where Stringfellow shared a home with the poet Anthony Towne

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, July 7-15, 2014, with the help of the writings of William Stringfellow (1928-1985).

* Simple and accessible:
one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
* At home, in your daily life: read, meditate, and pray in a way that suits your schedule.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* $50 if you register (pay online or mail a check, see below) by Friday, June 27.

*
$60 if you register from June 27 to July 7.

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

"Novena retreat" ?

A novena is a sequence of nine successive days of prayer–usually prayers of either petition or thanksgiving. It is generally a public and popular spiritual practice and is found most often in the Roman Catholic religious tradition.

I am using the word “novena,” meaning nine days, as part of the description of this retreat to indicate that it is nine days long and involves daily meditation and prayer.


William Stringfellow was an Episcopalian, but the novena retreat is ecumenical, accessible to Christians of any background or affiliation, and open to all. It is a new twist on the traditional novena.


An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register for the retreat, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After that, the blog will always recognize you.

* Here's a recent article about online retreats in which I am quoted.

Registration

To register, write me, Jane Redmont. I will send you full registration instructions with payment address and online sign-up information. (Both of these are simple.)

Cost and payment

* $50 if you register by Friday, June 27.
You may also take advantage of this discount (even if you register after June 27) if you are unemployed or if you are a student or retiree on limited resources. If cost is still a hardship with this discount, please write me.
* $60 if you register between June 27 and July 7, the day the retreat begins. (It's best to register before the 7th, but you are still welcome if you sign up at the 11th hour!)

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration, by check or online electronic payment.

If you prefer paying by check, I will send you the mailing address when you write me to register.

If you prefer to pay online by credit card or PayPal, please click below to pay via the Redmont Retreats secure PayPal account.  (Note: you don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.)

Please choose the second option, using the little triangle arrow, since it is now after June 27.

Retreat fee (choose one)



Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain private and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

or

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can  share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

9 days with Dorothy Day: online "novena retreat" begins June 24

(Reminder: full list of online retreats for summer 2014 here.)


Longing for some prayerful and reflective time in your busy life?

Interested in radical Christian commitment, justice, and mercy?



Dorothy Day: An Online Novena Retreat 


Dorothy Day
   
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) is best known as the co-founder of the Catholic Worker, an anarchist, pacifist, lay Catholic Christian movement, and of the newspaper by the same name. Journalist, activist, mother, speaker, she was also a person of prayer whose Roman Catholic religious observance cannot be separated from her work for social and economic justice and peace and from what Christian tradition calls “the works of mercy.”




Click here for an informative essay on Dorothy Day if you want to know more.



What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, June 24 - July 2, 2014, with the help of the writings of Dorothy Day (Nov. 8, 1897 - Nov. 29, 1980).
Dorothy and daughter Tamar Theresa
* Simple and accessible:

one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day


* At home, in your daily life: read, meditate, and pray in a way that suits your schedule.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* $50 if you register (pay online or mail a check, see below) by Monday, June 16 .

* $60 if you register from June 17 to June 24.


Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.


"Novena retreat" ?

A novena is a sequence of nine successive days of prayer–usually prayers of either petition or thanksgiving. It is generally a public and popular spiritual practice and is found most often in the Roman Catholic religious tradition.

I am using the word “novena,” meaning nine days, as part of the description of this retreat to indicate that it is nine days long and involves daily meditation and prayer.


Dorothy Day was a Roman Catholic, but the novena retreat is ecumenical and open to all. It is a new twist on the traditional novena.


An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.


* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.


* Once you register for the retreat, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After that, the blog will always recognize you.

* Here's a recent article about online retreats in which I am quoted.


Registration

To register, write me, Jane Redmont. I will send you full registration instructions with payment address and online sign-up information. (Both of these are simple.)

Cost and payment

* $50 if you register by Monday, June 16.
You may also take advantage of this discount (even if you register after June 16) if you are unemployed or if you are a student or retiree on limited resources.
* $60 if you register between Tuesday, June 17 and Tuesday, June 24, the day the retreat begins. (It's best to register before the 24th, but you still welcome if you arrive at the 11th hour!)

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration, by check or online electronic payment.

If you prefer paying by check, I will send you the mailing address when you write me to register.


If you prefer to pay online by credit card or PayPal, please click below to pay via the Redmont Retreats secure PayPal account.  (Note: you don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.)



Retreat fee (choose one)



Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain private and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

or

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can  share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator.

Hurry Up and Slow Down -- twice!

(Reminder: full list of online retreats for summer 2014 here.)

We are offering 
our popular "Hurry Up and Slow Down" retreat 
twice this summer*
*or winter, if you are participating from the southern hemisphere


What, when, where

* A 6-week online retreat offered twice this summer: 
from June 19 to July 30
from August 3 to September 13
* At home, in your daily life, 15 minutes a day

* Simple, accessible, gently focused on practice, with spiritual exercises

* Each week of the retreat has an anchoring theme:

mindfulness
breath 
place 
time 
community
earth

* Suitable for those who are religiously affiliated as well as for those who consider themselves spiritual, but not religious.

* If you think you don't have time for "Hurry Up and Slow Down," you're exactly the person who will benefit from it.
You are, of course, most welcome if you do have time!
Cost
$105 if you register (pay online or mail a check, see below) by Monday, June 16 for the early summer retreat or Monday, July 21 for the late summer retreat.*** 

$125 if you register from June 17 on for the early summer retreat or July 22 on for the late summer retreat.

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.

***early bird deep discount  if you register 
for the early summer retreat by Wednesday, June 11 
or for the late summer retreat by Tuesday,  July 15: 

 Only $95!


See below for a more detailed description.



Details

Hurry Up and Slow Down is a spiritual retreat accompanying your daily life. It offers guidance, but it is not an academic class with a lot of reading. It is simple, accessible, and gently focused on practice -- the "how" of living every day mindfully and reverently, in a way that suits our own circumstances and takes into account how busy we are. Each week will have a theme or anchor. The weekly themes will be rich and basic:

* mindfulness  breath *   place  *   time  *   community  earth *

These themes can be building blocks of spiritual practice whether we are religiously affiliated or not. 


Every week, with the theme of the week, will include four components, offered each Sunday and accompanying you throughout the week:

1. Awareness of the week's theme:
Taking stock, naming, asking and answering questions, doing a little writing (or drawing if we are more visually inclined).

2. Inspiration:
A short reading, an image, an insight, a bit of wisdom about the theme for us to ponder during the week.

3. Practice:
An exercise related to the week's theme, a concrete how-to that we can incorporate into our daily life throughout the week.

4. Tradition(s):
Some insights into the week's theme from the experience and wisdom of religious traditions. We are not the first to grapple with the themes of our retreat and we are not alone.




Registration
 
"Hurry Up and Slow Down" is offered twice this summer! (or winter, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere)

The early summer retreat begins Thursday, June 19.

The late summer retreat begins Sunday, August 3.

Registration will remain open till Tuesday of the first week of each retreat, but please note that cost is lower if you register early!

To register, please e-mail your intention to take the retreat to Jane Redmont.


Payment

As I noted above, the cost for this six-week retreat is $125 for the full six weeks (a little over $20 per week).

Cost is only $105 if you register and pay (via PayPal or mailing a check) by Monday, June 16 for the early summer retreat or Monday, July 21 for the late summer retreat.

A few discounted places are available for the financially strained; you are on your honor to decide whether this applies to you. Please write me and ask about this if you are in a situation of financial hardship.

 There is also an early bird deep discount for those who register by Wednesday, June 11 for the early summer retreat or by Tuesday,  July 15 for the late summer retreat: Only $95!
 
Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration, by check or online electronic payment.

If you prefer paying by check, I will send you the mailing address when you write me to register. 


If you prefer to pay online by credit card or PayPal, please click the appropriate button below (early summer or late summer)  to pay via the Redmont Retreats secure PayPal account.  (Note: you don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.)


EARLY SUMMER HUASD RETREAT (begins June 19)


Retreat fee (choose one)



LATE SUMMER HUASD RETREAT (begins August 3)


Retreat fee (choose one)





How can you have an *online* retreat?
 
By offering the retreat resources (themes, quotes, images, videos, guidelines for spiritual exercises, and more) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) allows in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not searchable on the web. Random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Once you register for the course, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After that, the blog will always recognize you.  


Jane Redmont was quoted and featured in an article on online retreats. See here.


Privacy and community

Do I have to talk to other people on the retreat? I'm a very private person.
 
and/or
 
Can I get some support here? I'm not sure I can stick to this all by myself.

The retreat will offer you a choice in finding your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.

1) You can be private and just read the blog and use the exercises, practices, and quotes on your own.  

or

2) If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can  share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator.

Either way, in your participation on the blog, silent or speaking, you must respond respectfully to others and observe basic confidentiality about participants sharing of experiences and opinions: it's fine for you to say to people outside the retreat "someone in a group I'm in mentioned [issue, insight, dilemma]" but not the name or identifying characteristics of the person or the story.


  

This online retreat is meant to help you find time and opportunity
 to breathe and pause in your busy life,
but not to make you feel guilty when you struggle to do so.
Begin where you are, not where you "ought to be."


Photos (c) Jane Redmont 2013, 2014

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Summer session 2014: online retreats!

Online retreats are back... with a whole season full of choices!


Details and registration instructions at the links highlighted in bright yellow below. Registration is now open for the first two retreats of the summer.

Here is a quick look at the summer offerings (June 19 to September 15):

Hurry Up and Slow Down: 
Spiritual Practices for Daily Life

A six week online retreat
offering
techniques and inspiration
for slowing down
in this busy world
and for living more mindfully --
wherever you are,
whoever you are,
whatever your schedule.
offered twice!
early summer:  June 19 - July 30
late summer: August 3 - September 13


see here for full details/registration
about "Hurry Up and Slow Down" 


Novena Retreats

For some, it is easier to commit to a short time (in this case, nine days) during which there is focused reflection, meditation, and prayer each day. You may, of course, take more than one of these short online retreats.


Each retreat uses as its inspiration the writings and the life of one person:


June 24 - July 2 - Dorothy Day      details/registration info here

July 7-15 - William Stringfellow    details/registration info here

July 21-29 - Dorothee Soelle             details/registration info here

August 4-12 - Howard Thurman    details/registration info here

August 18-26 - Ada María Isasi-Díaz   rescheduled for winter!

September 8-15 - Thomas Merton    details/ registration info here

These are retreats, not classes. There are readings, but they are very short and meant to be pondered and used as a springboard for prayer and action.

Do you have questions or concerns after reading the retreat descriptions, here and on the linked pages? E-mail me.

Top two photos (c) Jane Redmont (2013, 2014)