retreats

retreat offerings 2020-2021

COVID-19 has ruled out usual ways parish missions and weekend retreats can be offered by a team of presenters or one speaker in communal gatherings. I’m grateful to my friend and colleague, Dan Schutte, for his innovative approach for retreats, Walking the Sacred Path. A truly revolutionary initiative for our times.

Following his lead, I propose the following online retreats and missions for prayerful reflection among groups or individuals. And will soon set dates and times.

Retreats

advent 2020

A curiously paradoxical season shaped by selections from Mark’s gospel and the Cycle B scriptures.

Night deepens -playful Xmas lights everywhere. Plans to be quiet & prayerful – craziest & most frantic time of the year. How does the end of the church year – End of Days in Matthew’s gospel inform Advent? How does Advent with Mark’s gospel influence our celebration of the Incarnation during Christmas season?

lent 2021

Broadly speaking, the gospel of Mark portrays Jesus on an urgent mission to heal the sick, confront the scribes & Pharisees, and instruct his disciples. However, we read from John’s gospel for the final three Sundays of Lent due to Mark’s brevity.

How does Lent 2021 situate us in our vulnerable human depths to encounter the Risen Christ. What might repentance look like this year?

Let’s explore.

parish missions

I Want to See

Given first in March, 2020

I Want to See is based on my study of the Bartimaeus story from the gospel of Mark from the book of the same name.

Evening One: Jesus asked, “What do you want?” This question links Bartimaeus with the disciples as well as the scribes and Pharisees. Each wanted something, sought meaning and purpose. What do you desire?

What is… a parish mission? discipleship? Mark’s application of “The Two Paths”? blindness? What does it mean to sit with Bartimaeus at the crossroads in prayer?

Evening Two: What did the disciples seek? desire? want? Are we disciples? What did Jesus want for them? What does Christ want for us? We’ll explore all passages that might connect us with those disciples, the Twelve.

Evening Three: What did the scribes and Pharisees want? What do Jesus’ interactions with them tell us about our willingness to be taught? How do we pray from this location?

Evening Four: We’ll study Jesus’ healing of the leper and the man with a withered hand to glimpse human vulnerability and shame active in their lives – a mirror for our lives. And take a special look at the function of lust in our world. How can we pray as disciples incomplete and insufficient to heal ourselves?

Job Title at Company

2012 – 2015

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Discipleship in an Age of Anger, Sex, & Hypocrisy

Given first in 2012

Kinda self-explanatory. Except that our purpose here would be to collect data rather than verdicts that condemn. Why? The burden, the onus of shame distorts our vision and it feeds into our self-obsession. When we can recognize our patterns of wrongs and the contours of our shortcomings as facts, we can begin to approach them – serenity to accept, courage to change, and wisdom to know.

An Ignatian Introduction to the Landscape of Discipleship

Given first in April, 2018

Beginning: Introduction to praying with scripture; What is a retreat? What do you seek? First Week: I seek to know Christ as I am. Pray for the grace of clarity. Proposal: Blind disciples learn to sit with Bartimaeus by the Way Blind to my condition? Genesis 1 tells how LIFE appeared within Chaos Second Week: Walking with Jesus teaching & healing the log in our eyes; Mark’s story of the Gerasene demoniac. He was a restless, angry, idolater. Jesus healed him. Also in Mark: What were you speaking about on the Way? Self-Interest, Self-Centered & Frightened characterize the disciples – Riches, Honor, & Pride – Jesus challenged the scribes & Pharisees & disciples. Third Week: Being with Jesus in his Passion & Death: Parable of the Wicked Tenants & denouement of the aggressiveness of scribes & Pharisees – protection of self. Jesus’ death on the cross; betrayals. Jesus’ burial; We were buried with Christ through baptism into his death… Risen with Christ: Easter; Road to Emmaus – walking with Christ today as beloved sinners sent on mission.