NINE DAYS with HOWARD THURMAN: an online retreat

Note: We offer TWO kinds of online retreats:

 

 1. on a blog (as we have offered in the past):

No appointment needed: read, gaze, listen, and practice on your own time; resources are posted regularly to mark a rhythm and offer progression and order, but you may pick the hour of day or night and the pace at which you participate; any conversation is in writing -- or you may remain anonymous.

 

 2. on Zoom (as we began offering last year)

Weekly (or in some cases, one-time-only) gathering on Zoom, at an appointed date and time; in real time; any conversation is in person and with your face (or Zoom profile) showing.

                                              The full list of our Lent 2022 online offerings is here.

 

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

Interested in (re-)discovering the work of a wise guide?  

Want a short and more intense retreat rather than a longer retreat?

Need spiritual support?

Not a Zoom person?

                                                                    please join us

Wednesday, March 9 - Thursday, March 17, 2022

Howard Thurman:

Nine Days in Lent

an online blog-based retreat

Howard Thurman (1899-1981), a philosopher, educator, theologian, and pastor, was an African American born in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era. Nourished by the rich traditions of the Black Church and ordained as a Baptist minister, he was deeply influenced by Quaker thought, especially the mysticism and nonviolence of Rufus Jones. He was also a pioneer in interreligious understanding. His writings --books, prayers, meditations, and sermons-- are rooted in Christianity yet accessible and pertinent to people whose wisdom path is "spiritual but not religious."

Howard Thurman exercised a deep influence on some of the Civil Rights Movement's leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He traveled to India to meet Gandhi in the 1930s with the first group of African Americans to do so. Thurman served as the first Black Dean of Marsh Chapel, the university chapel at Boston University, and founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, a multicultural, multiracial, and interfaith congregation in San Francisco which is still in existence today. Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) predated Black liberation theology by a generation.

What, when, where, how
 
* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Wednesday, March 9, 2022.

* The life and writings of  Howard Thurman serve as a focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:

one quote or short excerpt per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
                                        on nine consecutive days

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

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

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. 

 

--You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer to pay by Venmo or check, please e-mail me.)

--Discounts are available for those in financial hardship. (If even the "hardship rate" is too high for you, please e-mail me about scholarship need.)

--The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

--Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration. 

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $95.00 USD Benefactor rate $150.00 USD Hardship rate $60.00 USD

An online blog-based 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, and sometimes a piece of music too) 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 has restricted access and is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me, Jane) 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 you first sign in to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, images, music, 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. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

 Reminder: The full list of our Lent 2022 online offerings 

(both blog-based offerings and Zoom offerings) is here.

All of the blog-based retreats have a structure and a schedule, but they are flexible enough to integrate into your daily life: you are the one who decides when and where to read and pray with the materials in the retreat (day or night, at home or elsewhere) and how to apply the invitations to practice.

NINE DAYS with WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW: a Lenten online retreat

Note: We offer TWO kinds of online retreats:

 

 1. on a blog (as we have offered in the past):

No appointment needed: read, gaze, listen, and practice on your own time; resources are posted regularly to mark a rhythm and offer progression and order, but you may pick the hour of day or night and the pace at which you participate; any conversation is in writing -- or you may remain anonymous.

 

 2. on Zoom (as we began offering last year):

Weekly (or in some cases, one-time-only) gathering on Zoom, at an appointed date and time; in real time; any conversation is in person and with your face (or Zoom profile) showing.

                                                       The full list of our Lent 2022 online retreats is here.

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

Interested in a new perspective on the Bible in these United States? 

Pondering the relationship between Christian faith and social realities?  

 

Join us for

Nine Days with William Stringfellow
 

an online blog-based retreat

 
Tuesday, March 22 - Wednesday, March 30, 2022

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.'" One 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.

What, when, where, how

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Tuesday, March 22, 2022.

 

* The life and writings of William Stringfellow serve as a focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:

one quote or short excerpt per day (Note: The excerpts in this Stringfellow retreat are             somewhat longer than the quotations in other online retreats.)
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
                                               on nine consecutive days

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

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

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. 

--You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer to pay by Venmo or check, please e-mail me.)

--Discounts are available for those in financial hardship. (If even the "hardship rate" is too high for you, please e-mail me about scholarship need.)

--The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

--Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

 Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $95.00 USD Benefactor rate $150.00 USD Hardship rate $60.00 USD

An online blog-based 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, and sometimes a piece of music too) 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 you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community 

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent 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. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

 Reminder: The full list of our Lent 2022 online offerings 

(both blog-based offerings and Zoom offerings) is here.

All of the blog-based retreats have a structure and a schedule, but they are flexible enough to integrate into your daily life: you are the one who decides when and where to read and pray with the materials in the retreat (day or night, at home or elsewhere) and how to apply the invitations to practice.

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

NINE DAYS with DOROTHY DAY: an online Lenten retreat

Longing for reflective and prayerful time in your busy life?

    Need some support and inspiration?

Hungry for justice and mercy?

    Wondering about models of Christian commitment

    other than the ones making the most noise these days?

Hoping for a life-giving Lent?

Join us (late in Lent) for

Nine Days with Dorothy Day
 

an online retreat
 

Friday, April 1 - Saturday, April 9, 2022

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) is best known as the co-founder of the Catholic Worker, an anarchist, pacifist, lay Catholic Christian movement, and founder and editor 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 or 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, how
 
* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning April 1, 2022.

* The life and writings of Dorothy Day serve as a focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:

one quote or short excerpt per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
                                        on nine consecutive days

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

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

 * Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal.

--You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer to pay by Venmo or check, please e-mail me.)

--Discounts are available for those in financial hardship. (If even the "hardship rate" is too high for you, please e-mail me about scholarship need.)

--The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

--Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $95.00 USD Benefactor rate $150.00 USD Hardship rate $60.00 USD

 

An online blog-based 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, and sometimes a piece of music too) 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 you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent 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. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

The full list of our Lent 2022 online offerings is here.

Blog-based retreats like this one have a structure and a schedule, but they are flexible enough to integrate into your daily life: you are the one who decides when and where to read and pray with the materials in the retreat (day or night, at home or elsewhere) and how to apply the invitations to practice.

Note: We offer TWO kinds of online retreats:

 

 1. on a blog (as we have offered in the past):

No appointment needed: read, gaze, listen, and practice on your own time; resources are posted regularly to mark a rhythm and offer progression and order, but you may pick the hour of day or night and the pace at which you participate; any conversation is in writing -- or you may remain anonymous.

 

 2. on Zoom (as we began offering last year)

Weekly (or in some cases, one-time-only) gathering on Zoom, at an appointed date and time; in real time; any conversation is in person and with your face (or Zoom profile) showing.

  

 Reminder: The full list of our Lent 2022 online offerings 

(both blog-based offerings and Zoom offerings) is here.

 

Three EVENING RETREATS in Lent, on ZOOM, inspired by 1) Howard THURMAN; 2) William STRINGFELLLOW; 3) Dorothy DAY

This Lent, we're offering three short Zoom-based retreats.

inspired by three faithful, radical, wise Christians.

(Also several other retreats on other topics in various formats. See here.)

Pick one retreat, or two of them, or all three.

You may register until the day before each retreat. 

Each retreat will be  

on a Thursday evening in Lent, 

beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time 

 

Each will last for at least 90 minutes, 

up to a maximum of 120 minutes (two hours) long.

 

Each retreat is a shorter, in-real-time version 

of the nine-day ("novena") retreats 

inspired by the same three people.

 

Thursday, March 10: Meditations with Howard Thurman

 More about Howard Thurman here.

Thursday, March 24: Encountering William Stringfellow

More about William Stringfellow here.

Thursday, April 7: Walking with Dorothy Day

More about Dorothy Day here.

There is a sliding scale of fees, as you will see below. If the "hardship rate" is too high for you, write me and we will arrange for a partial or full scholarship. If you can afford the "benefactor rate," your fees will help make scholarships possible.

Register for the March 10 Howard Thurman retreat 

(by the morning of March 9)  

here:
(And please note that we may offer it again on March 17 

if there is interest, so let me know if you prefer that date.)

 

Thurman Zoom retreat - pick one rate

Regular rate $30.00 USD Benefactor rate $55.00 USD Hardship rate $15.00 USD

Register for the March 24 William Stringfellow retreat 

(by the morning of March 23) 

here:

Stringfellow Zoom retreat: pick one rate

Regular rate $30.00 USD Benefactor rate $55.00 USD Hardship rate $15.00 USD

 

Register for the April 7 Dorothy Day retreat 

(by the morning of April 6) 

here: 

Dorothy Day Zoom retreat; pick one rate

Regular rate $30.00 USD Benefactor rate $55.00 USD Hardship rate $15.00 USD

 Reminder: The full list of our Lent 2022 online offerings 

(both blog-based and Zoom ) is here.

Twilight Retreat Thurs. 12/23: VISIO DIVINA: IMAGES OF ADVENT

Sadao Watanabe, "The Visitation"

 Visio Divina: Images of Advent

A Twilight Retreat

 

Thursday, December 23, 7:00-9:30 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time

                                                                                    4:00-5:30 p.m. Pacific Time

You know about lectio divina (the ancient method of “holy reading,” see above) but there is also such a thing as visio divina -- holy gazing or sacred gazing. We will view, learn about, and meditate on selected Advent images -- from images of Mary and Elizabeth to visions of the messianic era from a variety of cultural contexts.  

Take a break from the pre-Christmas rush to linger in Advent with these visual reminders of creation, incarnation, and salvation.

 For registration and payment, click the button below. You don't have to have a PayPal account: you can pay with a card. Note the sliding scale. I will e-mail you the Zoom link once you have registered.

RETREAT FEES

Regular fee $25.00 USD Benefactor $50.00 USD Hardship fee $15.00 USD

John August Swanson, "Isaiah 11" (The Peaceable Kingdom)

Twilight Retreat Thurs. 12/16/21: WHAT ABOUT JOSEPH?

What about Joseph? A Twilight Retreat

        Thursday, December 16, 7:00-9:30 p.m. Eastern Time

                                                                                        4:00-6:30 p.m. Pacific Time

Joseph, Mary’s partner, rarely gets much consideration. He doesn't appear at all in this year's Advent Sunday lectionary (Year C), which has readings from the Gospels of Luke and John, but he's there in the Gospel of Matthew and we hear about him in Year A. He is thus among what I call “the people of Advent,” and it's not just Mary who says "yes" in the stories of Jesus's beginnings: Joseph has his own encounter with an angel. We will read from the first and second chapters of the Gospel of Matthew using lectio divina (slow, meditative reading that moves us into prayer and silence) but also explore some images of and devotions to St. Joseph.

For registration and payment, click the button below. You don't have to have a PayPal account: you can pay with a card. Note the sliding scale. I will e-mail you the Zoom link once you have registered.

RETREAT FEES

Regular fee $25.00 USD Benefactor $50.00 USD Hardship fee $15.00 USD

Georges de La Tour, "Joseph the Carpenter" (oil on canvas, ~1642)
Musée du Louvre, Paris

 

Online Advent retreats for you

Peace to you in this second week of Advent.

You are very welcome to our Advent online retreats, some on Zoom (just one block of time) and some on a retreat blog (two and three weeks respectively, with a lot of flexibility).

See below for brief descriptions of these and other retreats, and please e-mail me with any questions and concerns. All are welcome, and as always, we have a sliding scale for retreat fees.

Strength for the Weary: A Restorative Advent

A three-week retreat, December 4-24, from Saturday in the first week of Advent to Thursday in the fourth week of Advent.

 Feeling weary and dry in this second pandemic winter? This gentle retreat will offer written meditations, visual art, links to music, and guidance in spiritual practice, including prayer. Details and registration here. Late starters welcome!  This retreat will take place, as our online retreats have done in the past, on a blog. (Only retreatants will have access to that blog.) You can check in with the regularly posted retreat resources privately, at any time that is convenient for you

The Joyful Revolution: Mary's Magnificat in Advent

Sadao Watanabe, "The Visitation"

A two-week retreat, December 8-24, on a blog (accessible only to retreatants), with regular postings you can tap into privately, at any time of the day or night.

The song of Mary, also known as the Magnificat, is a song of remembrance and gratitude, but also an invitation into the future, a vision of the world turned upside down: the hungry fed, the powerful gone from their thrones, the lowly lifted up –by the power of God. We will take some time to reflect on the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and on its predecessor in the First Testament, the Song of Hannah 1 Samuel 2:1-10) and on their meanings for us today. For details and registration, click here.

 Annunciations in Advent: A Twilight Retreat

           Thursday, December 9, 7:00-9:30 p.m. Eastern (4-6:30 Pacific) on Zoom

This meditative retreat will involve a period of lectio divina (a form of the ancient method of meditative "holy reading") using selected readings from the Rev. Dr. Wilda C. Gafney’s A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church. (Note: all genders are welcome to this retreat!) It will also include some text study and some time for silence and prayer. Dr. Gafney, scholar, teacher, and priest, reconfigures Advent as a season of Annunciations (in the plural). For details and registration, click here.

What about Joseph? A Twilight Retreat

Thursday, December 16, 7:00-9:30 p.m. Eastern (4-6:30 Pacific) on Zoom

Joseph, Mary’s partner, rarely gets much consideration. He doesn't appear at all in this year's Advent Sunday lectionary (Year C), which has readings from the Gospels of Luke and John, but he's there in the Gospel of Matthew and we hear about him in Year A. He is thus among what I call “the people of Advent,” and it's not just Mary who says "yes" in the stories of Jesus's beginnings: Joseph has his own encounter with an angel. We will read from the first and second chapters of the Gospel of Matthew using lectio divina, but also explore some images of and devotions to St. Joseph. For details and registration, click here.

(c) Jane Redmont

Visio Divina: Images of Advent - A Twilight Retreat

Thursday, December 23, 7:00-9:30 p.m. Eastern (4-6:30 Pacific) on Zoom

You know about lectio divina (the ancient method of “holy reading,” see above) but there is also such a thing as visio divina -- holy gazing or sacred gazing. We will view, learn about, and meditate on selected Advent images -- from images of Mary and Elizabeth to visions of the messianic era from a variety of cultural contexts. For details and registration, click here.