Associate Summer Retreat

Heartland Center for Spirituality would like to extend an invitation to the Associates to join us, during our Summer Retreat on Living and Loving Laudato Si for a gathering with each other on Thursday evening and to spend the day with all the Sisters on Friday! We always close the retreat with a party immediately following supper.

Thursday June 22 – Friday June 23

Presenters: Barbara Kane, OP, Jane Belanger, OP and Pat Connick, OP
Fees: Thursday Evening and Friday $60 (includes lunch and supper on Friday)
Rooms: $35.00 (Thursday and or Friday night)
Meals: Supper Thursday – $8.00, Breakfast Friday – $6.00, Breakfast Saturday – $6.00

The Sisters will give insight on how to restore humanity’s connection to the natural world through faith, education, stewardship, and recreation.  These insights will help participants embark in this journey of “ecological conversion,” to transform the way we relate to our Creator, all creation and our most vulnerable sisters and brothers. There will be times for communal prayer, daily Mass, and silence.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain says this regarding Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato Si (Praise Be):

“In his encyclical letter, Laudato Si, Pope Francis has put a human face on the issue of ecology and caring for creation. This teaching document, which is consistent with the teaching of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI and other recent popes, is an urgent call to Christians, people of other faith traditions and those of no faith to protect our earthly home and our brothers and sisters who inhabit it.

As the title makes clear, the pope’s letter praises God for the gift of creation and reminds us that every human person is a part of creation, with inherent dignity and deserving of our respect and care. To understand this better we need, as Pope Francis states, an “integral ecology” that recognizes the relationship not only between human beings and nature, but also with God, with ourselves and other human beings.

We live in an area of incredible natural diversity and beauty, so we are especially grateful to the Holy Father for raising awareness about the need to “care for our common home.” We should also be mindful that his encyclical letter challenges us to recognize that our individual decisions often have far-reaching consequences for the natural world and for other people, most especially the poor. As we answer the pope’s call to action, I urge everyone to join with him in giving grateful praise to our loving God for the great gift of creation.”