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Retreats & Spiritual Direction
Spiritual direction is a beholding , a oneing.
We create a sacred space and meet together either in person, or online. The focus is on connecting heart to heart in the oneing
presence of the Holy Spirit.
Together, in this Spirit Presence we behold and attend to the stirrings of love in the directee’s heart.
Spiritual direction | Personal silent retreats | Communal silent retreats | Study of a mystic in the style of lectio divina
Upcoming Retreats in 2025
The Song of Songs
Santa Casa Retreat Centre
May 28th to June 4th, 2025
Now is the time of the nightingale
In every meadow you hear
The sound of the turtledove. Sg 2:12
Quietened by the beauty of Santa Casa, in this silent retreat we will enter into the garden of the Song of Songs, into the garden of our hearts. We will listen to the song of the Beloved inviting us to bathe in contemplation. Drawing on the Song of Songs and the reflections of mystics on the Song, we will hear in the silence the song of our soul creating a new harmony with the song of the soul of the earth.
For further information and to book, please contact Sister Lizzie at santacasa@ismapng.org.au
Silent Loving
A Silent Directed Retreat
St. Joseph’s Kincumber
July 7-13, 2025
NI come into my garden, my Beloved my promised spouse;
I gather my myrrh and my balsam,
I eat my honey and my honeycomb,
I drink my wine and my milk.
Eat friends, and drink,
Drink deep, my dearest friends.
Song of Songs 5:1.
Inspired by the silent beauty of the gardens of St Joseph’s, Kincumber, in this silent directed retreat, we will drink deeply, enjoy, imbibe Love’s presence, and focus on the stirrings of love in our heart. Personal spiritual direction will be offered each day to support us in the art of contemplation.
For further information and to register, contact St Joseph’s Spirituality and Education Centre, Kincumber South.
Previous Retreats
These recordings are of retreats I have given within a silent retreat environment, so I invite
you to join us in the shared ground of Love’s silence as you listen. The retreats are designed
to nourish contemplative prayer and living. These are available for purchase by following the links to the retreats below.
The Beloved’s Desire
June 5-12, 2024
Santa Casa Spirituality Centre, Queenscliff, Victoria.
I am my Beloved’s,
the Beloved’s desire is for me.
Song of Songs 7:11
Expressing our longing, yearning, thirsting for God is at the heart of what it means to be human. Through immersing ourselves in the extravagant tradition of desire in the Psalms, Song of Songs and in mystical writings, in this silent retreat, we will centre in the eternal yearning of divine love kindling our desire to seek and love our God fully. We will awaken our heart senses and be inspired by the writings of mystics such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Gallus, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Brabrant, The Cloud of Unknowing, Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, Teilhard de Chardin and many others as we explore the energies of love and the evolutionary nature of desire. We will ruminate on how these mystics invite us to live from our oneing in divine desire and inspire us to enjoy living life passionately. Minne – Love’s words to Mechthild encompass the atmosphere of the retreat:
That I love you passionately comes from my nature,
for I am Love itself.
That I love you often comes from my desire,
for I desire to be loved passionately.
That I love you long comes from my being eternal,
for I am without an end and without a beginning.
The Fragrance of Oneing
June 7 - June 13, 2023
Santa Casa, Queenscliff, Victoria
The Beloved is mine and I am the Beloved’s.
Song of Songs 2:16
In this silent retreat, we will awaken the sense of the heart, as we enter into the repose of communing silence. We will be inspired by the beauty of images of mystical union in the Song of Songs, mystical illuminations, and the writings of mystics such as Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Jan van Ruusbroec, The Cloud of Unknowing, John of the Cross, Abhishiktananda and the evolving contemporary expressions of oneness. We will ruminate on how these mystics invite us into oneness in the ground of our heart and inspire us to enjoy living from this ground.
Enjoying God
With Women Mystics
Six Day Silent Retreat
23-30 September 2022
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Hartzer Park, Bowral, NSW
In this time of transformation, when winter stillness opens into the new life of spring, I invite you to be in silent communion in this six-day retreat and enjoy God. Held in Love’s silence, we will immerse ourselves in art, poetry and music as we enter into the heart of Love and enjoy the presence of Love’s Trinity, within our own heart and the heart of creation. The wisdom of the mystics, Julian of Norwich, Gertrude of Helfta, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Clare of Assisi, Hadewijch of Brabant, and Hildegard of Bingen will inspire us as we see how each one teaches us to enjoy God in contemplation.
“To enjoy you is to be one with God”
Gertrude of Helfta, Spiritual Exercises, Mystical Union, 132-133.
In Silent Communion Dancing: Six Day Silent Retreat
May 29-June 5, 2022.
Santa Casa, Queenscliff, Victoria
Henceforth, I travel towards Repose, where time rests in the eternity of time;
I go now into silence.
Gospel of Mary Magdalene
In this silent retreat, we will enter into the Repose of a communing silence, guided by Mary Magdalene, John the beloved disciple, Mechthild of Hackeborn, The Cloud of Unknowing, Jan van Ruusbroec, Thomas Merton, Beatrice Bruteau, Ilia Delio and other contemplatives. Our focus will be on how, entering into the depths of our vulnerability, enables us to touch the point where time rests in the eternity of time and opens into mystical communing with the Christ, in the serenity of the repose of Love.
In Your Presence There Is Fullness Of Joy. (Psalm 16:1i)
The Self-Realized Person Is Present In The World As A Valley Of Peace And A Fountain Of Joy.
Beatrice Bruteau
Joy Arising in Suffering
Six Day Silent Retreat
September 14-21, 2021
Santa Casa, Quenscliff, Victoria
and online
In this silent retreat, we will immerse ourselves in art, poetry and music as we enter into the joy that arises in the midst of suffering. We will explore how when we enter into the depths of our wounds, we discover our oneness with the wounded Christ and are drawn into resurrection joy. In this time of enormous world suffering, we will explore how our personal suffering transformed into joy, enables creation to evolve in joy. The insights of Julian of Norwich, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Brabant, John of the Cross, Teilhard de Chardin, Abhishiktananda, Beatrice Bruteau, and others will guide us.
Oneness in Luminous Presence
Five Day Silent Retreat
7th-11th June, 2021
In this silent retreat, in an atmosphere of prayerful silence, we will withdraw into the depths of our heart to create a communion consciousness in the noosphere. Together, we will continue to ponder the contemplative seeing from oneness in Luminous Presence. We will focus on the oneing of the Luminous Energies of love, drawing on a number of mystics including Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Brabant, The Cloud of Unknowing, Swāmī Abhishiktānanda and Beatrice Bruteau. Ever attentive to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit enflaming our hearts, we will draw out implications for creation’s evolutionary flow into Oneness in Love.
I will place my spirit in the midst of you. Ez 36:26
In the Gaze of Luminous Presence
Six Day Guided Silent Retreat, 2020
In an atmosphere of prayerful silence we will create a communion consciousness in the noosphere. Together, we will ponder the contemplative nuances of seeing from oneness in Luminous Presence. In the first retreat we will focus on the mystical symbol of fire expressed in the writings of Gertrude of Helfta, Marguerite Porete, Meister Eckhart, Teilhard de Chardin and Iia Delio. Ever attentive to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit enflaming our hearts, we will draw out implications for creations’ evolutionary flow into Oneness in Love.
At the Time of the Rising Dawn
Six Day Guided Silent Retreat, 2019
Drawn by the touch of the Beloved in the night of our lives, we will create a communion of love longing, as we follow the invitations of the dawn light arising in us, awakening unite consciousness. John of the Cross, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Teilhard de Chardin, Beatrice Bruteau and David Steindl-Rast will be our guides.
