Benedictine Retreat & Conference Center
Ministry to Ministers

supporting ministers as they seek to be faithful to their ministerial vocations

For more information or to register

Email the Benedictine Center or call 651.777.7251

Registering last minute?

While we welcome walk-ins, it is always wise to call 651.777.8181

to insure that an event has not been filled or cancelled.

Personal Retreats, Self-Care Days

Plan a day of quiet reflection, an overnight stay, or a retreat of several days tailored to individual needs and interest. Spiritual direction available as desired. Call 651.777.7251 or email the Benedictine Center.

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iLLUMINARE Ministry Renewal Days

facilitated by Jackie Witter

9:30a-3p (includes lunch)

$30 per person for one session

$15 per person for group of three or more participants

$60 per person for three renewal days

$75 per person for four renewal days

(Note applicable discount during registration)

iLLUMINARE Ministry Renewal Days provide ongoing formation and spiritual renewal for ministers. Individual ministers and ministry staffs experience a time for prayer, theological reflection, conversation, and renewal. Each day includes private time, shared discussion, and presentations. (iLLUMINARE Ministry Renewal Days are subsidized by a Lilly Endowment grant). Group rates for parish staffs available. Learn more about iLLUMINARE.

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Teaching with Fire: A Retreat for Teachers

Vic Klimoski $65

Fri., Aug. 15, 7p thru Sat., Aug. 16, 1p

This retreat invites participants to explore how their commitment to teaching can be a source of energy and renewal from the first day of school until the last. Register online.

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Ministry and Budget: Partnership or Battle?

Jim Lamm Individuals $50; three or more staff members $25 each (includes lunch)

Thurs., Aug. 2, 9:30a-3p

Ministry is about serving others and building up the Kingdom of God. Whether we want to believe it, every ministry, whether conducted by paid staff or volunteer, is subject to monetary constraints imposed internally and externally of the ministry.

This workshop will deal with this reality on several levels. Through discussion, examples, role playing, and group work, we will examine what a budget is, why every ministry should have one, and how each ministry’s budget comes together to form the larger parish budget.

We will also examine different budgeting techniques parishes, schools, and ministries can use to formulate their budgets. In addition, we will examine how internal and external monetary constraints in a parish can affect a ministry’s budget and how one might re-work or seek ways to maintain their budget in times of financial crisis or concern. Register online.

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The Lessons of Change: The Journey of St. Paul's Monastery

S. Eleanor Wartman Freewill Offering

Tues., Sept. 16, 7-9p

The Sisters of St. Paul’s Monastery have spent over a decade in prayerful discernment about their future.  In this session, S. Eleanor reflects on the lessons the Sisters learned along the way and what they might teach others experiencing the challenges of change in their lives, families, or communities.

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Ministering With Your Whole Mind

Vic Klimoski $50 individuals or $25 each for three or more staff members

Fri., Sept. 19, 9:30-3p

Sometimes we imagine that people approach ministering either as something to be “thought through” or “deeply felt.”  It is a division that does not exist but still complicates conversations about best practice.  This session examines how heart and mind share a common passion for transforming ways of leading communities of faith.

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Thoughts Matter
a professional day with S. Meg Funk OSB

Tues., Oct. 21, 9:30a-3p

$65 includes lunch

The life of the mind is a powerful force in shaping one's view of the world, self, others, and God. In this day designed for teachers, counselors, lay and ordained ministers, spiritual directors, and students of Benedictine spirituality, S. Meg explores the deep insights of ancient spiritual masters about how thoughts can interfere with one's knowledge of God. "A mind at peace..." she writes, "is of major value for those of us who confront chaos, confusion, noise, and numbness as we move into the third millennium." Register online.

Learn more about Meg Funk and her public lecture and retreat

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Welcome the People

Jim Smith $50 per parish

Thurs., Nov. 13, 7-9p

• Is your adult formation spotty, inconsistent?
• Do you want to develop a more comprehensive approach to adult formation?
• Having trouble attracting new faces to adult formation?
• Feel like your catechetical content isn’t attracting many adults?
• Do you wish more parish staff shared the vision of life-long formation?

At a time when Church leaders are asking us to make adult formation a priority in parish pastoral life, we struggle to find the resources, strategies and catechetical content to sustain a transformative adult formation experience.

If you want adult formation to be the best it can be, this seminar will offer you some crucial, practical steps to bring adult Catholics to a faith with life!

This seminar is meant for entire pastoral staffs. Adult formation is most successful when a vision of life-long formation exists at the heart of parish life.

Jim Smith is a retreat and spiritual director, a consultant in parish visioning and life-long faith formation planning. He is the author of the new book Welcome the people! Ways to Gather and Nourish Adult Catholics, published by Twenty-Third Publications.

Register online.

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Building a Just World Retreat

Bernie Evans $160

Fri., Jan. 23, 7p thru Sat., Jan. 24, 4p

This retreat explores social justice as a vision for the world and a call to personal conversion of heart.  This time of reflection, discussion, and prayer creates a deeper appreciation for the Church’s assertion that justice is constitutive of all Christian life.

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Living with Dying: A Contemplative and Experiential Retreat

Mary Martin, Ann O’Fallon, Jean Haley $200 includes lodging and meals

Fri., Feb. 6, 2p thru Sun., Feb. 8, 11a

This retreat is for healthcare professionals, social workers, clergy and chaplains, hospice volunteers, family and interested community members who wish to grow in their capacity to offer compassionate care of the dying. It will explore contemplative and spiritual growth, personal and psychological issues, pain and suffering, self care of the caregiver, and community building as related to death and dying. The retreat is not appropriate for those actively grieving a loved one.

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Holy Youth: What We Don’t Know About Adolescent Spirituality

Jeff Kaster $25

Tues., Feb. 17, 7-9p

Young people are very serious about God.  We misunderstand their spirituality when we conclude that their dispositions and attitudes of feigned indifference means that they don’t think seriously about questions of faith.  Hear what Jeff Kaster has learned working with youth for over twenty-five years and what parents, teachers, ministers, and other adults can do to engage youth in theological conversations.

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Transforming the Heart of the World:
Living as a Contemplative Today
a public event with Fr. Thomas Keating

$40

location TBD

Fri., Feb. 27, 7-9p

Fr. Thomas Keating, himself a master and teacher of the contemplative journey, is world renowned for his work reviving contemplative practice from within the Christian tradition. He is the co-founder of the Centering Prayer movement and works tirelessly to help people “tune into a fuller level of reality that is always present.” Plan now to attend this rare opportunity with one of the spiritual giants of our time. He writes:

The modern world lies under a pervasive sense of anguish, of being abandoned, or at least experiencing God as absent. Yet events that seem to turn our lives upside down and inside out are part of God's redemptive plan, not only for us, but for the world in which we live. God may be preparing a great awakening for the world, if God can find enough people to cooperate in this mysterious plan.     

Register online.

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Christians at Midlife

Vic Klimoski $25

Tues., Mar. 10, 7-9p

Each phase of life poses new questions, new challenges.  Midlife, as a time of taking stock and making plans, has a unique place in how one interprets life experience as a way of choosing a more purposeful future.  The session looks at the influence of faith in enriching that interpretative process.

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Teachers' Retreat

Bill Hudson $75 includes lodging and meals

Fri., Jul. 31, 7p thru Sat., Aug. 1, 12p

An annual event inviting teachers into a time of reflection and prayer as they prepare for another year of forming the young for the future.

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For more information or to register

Email the Benedictine Center or call 651.777.7251