Flowing Waters: Stress Release Retreat
Saturday, February 6 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
(8:30 am opening meditation and connection for participants)
Presenter: Bernice Olson-Pollack, ms, Certified Wellness Speaker
Investment: $65 includes lunch
We live in times where environmental, physical, mental and emotional stresses are a nagging presence in every day. If we are not fortified to manage our various stressors effectively, they will consume the quality of our life.
A meandering river is a visual image of moving with ease, grace and fluidity. The gentle sights and sounds that accompany this attractive feature of Mother Nature have a universal appeal of creating an atmosphere of peace and serenity.
Flowing Waters Stress Release Retreat polishes your inner self to become the smooth stone of well-being. Throughout your experience, you will discover how you can recognize your major stresses, restructure your perceptions and behaviors, and restore your inner balance.
Married Couples' Retreat (Full)
Saturday, February 13, 3:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Facilitators: Linda Kerrigan/Barb Kruse
Investment: $60/couple
Make Valentine's Day 2010 a truly special occasion for you and your spouse by attending our 4th annual Married Couples' Retreat—designed for just the two of you to celebrate your lives together. Highlights include a specially prepared dinner, 1-1 reflection/discussion time with spouse and story sharing by presenter couples. Bring your wedding photo for adding to the environment. Register early as this event is limited to the first 16 couples.
Reclaim Your Intuition (Full)
Saturday, February 20, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Presenter: Jean Kasparbauer, FSPA
Investment: $65 includes lunch
For anyone interested in accessing intuition for self-care and personal growth. No background required. Experienced are also welcome. This experiential and interactive workshop will explore past experiences where intuition may have been functioning.
- You will be taught a five-step method so you can access your own intuitive information
- You will have an opportunity to practice specific skills for enhancing your own intuition
- You will discover ways to remove blocks that inhibit fuller exercise of intuition in your daily living
- You will learn about the potential you have to read your own psychic energy, including a brief reference to auras and the chakra system
- You will leave with suggestions for fostering your intuition at home.
Jean Kasparbauer, FSPA, is a spiritual director. She received her training through the Franciscan Spirituality Center, La Crosse, WI. Her education includes masters degrees in chemistry and in pastoral counseling. She spent 25 years as a pastoral minister in Catholic parishes and is now a practitioner of Intuitive Soulwork.
The Contemplative Enneagram: Using the Enneatypes in Meditation
Friday, February 26 (7:30 – 9:00 p.m.) through Sunday,
February 28, (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Presenters: Santikaro and Eric Wheeler
Investment: $125 includes meals. Limited bedrooms available for $36/night.
Mindfulness, introspection, and other contemplative practices are essential to a deeper understanding of one’s enneatype. This includes exploring how the types influence our experience of meditation and prayer. Further, the deeper we go into silence, the richer our experience of what is beyond type. Using mindfulness exercises, panel interviews, and dyad work, we will explore these areas and emphasize the personal experience of participants. We hope that participants will bring some familiarity with their types. Short lectures will supplement such understanding.
About the Presenters of Contemplative Enneagram
Santikaro is the founder of Liberation Park, a modern expression of Buddhist practice, study, and social responsibility located near Norwalk, WI. He lived in Thailand for 20 years, 15 as a Buddhist monk, where he studied and taught under Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. . . Santikaro was abbot of a small monastic community near Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s Garden of Liberation. He began studying the enneagram in the mid-1990s, undertook the Enneagram Professional Training Program with Helen Palmer and David Daniels in 1998-2000, and pioneered a national enneagram program in Thailand, where he continues to teach yearly. Over the years, he’s also been active in inter-religious dialogue and socially engaged Buddhism.
Eric Wheeler is a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition as taught by Helen Palmer and David Daniels. He offers seminars and private consultations in the enneagram for churches, schools, businesses and individuals in the upper mid-west. Eric is an adjunct faculty member of Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI, where he teaches the enneagram in the master of arts in education program. He also offers the enneagram to individuals, couples, and small groups in a variety of settings including faith communities, retreat centers, as well as in the classroom and in the workplace.
Register online now
A Retreat for Those who have Lost Their Jobs or Live in Fear of Losing their Jobs.
Monday, March 29 (7:00 p.m) to
Wednesday, March 31 (4:00 p.m.)
Presenter: Fr. Charlie Smiech, OFM
Investment: Your time and prayer
Limited bedrooms available on a first-come first-served basis
Lord to whom shall we go? People today are searching for guidance in these troubled times which we live. Today many have already lost their jobs or live in fear of losing their jobs, which can lead to depression. As we embrace Holy Week, when we remember the sufferings of the Lord, and His rising to New Life, we would like to invite you to a retreat filled with hope in these trying times. Our time together will enhance our faith and give courage as we look to the future with hope. Lectures and time for personal consultation will serve as guidelines and help you restructure your life. You will enjoy the quiet environment to help with the process of integration. No longer live in fear, come join us and turn the darkness of uncertainty into the light of new beginnings. Bring a friend with you, for none of us walk alone.
Fr. Charlie Smiech is a Franciscan Friar from Chicago, IL who has experience leading retreats for the unemployed in the Chicago area. As a world-wide retreat director, he honors world religions as well as a multitude of cultures.
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Twelve Step Retreat: Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace
Dates: Friday, April 9 (7:00 – 9:00 pm) and Saturday, April 10 (9:00 am – 4:00 pm)
Investment: $95 includes meals. Limited bedrooms available at $36/night.
Facilitators: Staff of FSC
The Prayer of St. Francis is known as The Eleventh Step Prayer as it’s presented in the book “12 Steps and 12 Traditions.” In the early 1950s, Bill Wilson introduced this prayer as a model for those with no experience with prayer and meditation as a guide through the eleventh step in AA's 12 steps of recovery. It was thought the St. Francis Prayer epitomized the way of life AAs believed in and practiced. Join us in reflection and discussion as we explore this beautiful prayer of peace. This is a closed retreat for those recovering from alcoholism.
The Norman L. Gillette, Sr., Scholarship is available to financially assist those who are in recovery from alcohol or chemical dependency.
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Wild Food, Wild Souls: A Springtime Food Retreat
Friday, April 30 (6:00 – 9:00 p.m.) and
Saturday, May 1 (8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Presenters: Anne-Marie Fryer Wiboltt, Amelia Baxter, Joe Orso
Investment: $95 (includes delicious meals). Scholarships are available.
Limited bedrooms are available at $36/night at FSC.
It is not only the plants and earth that awaken during springtime but our bodies, too. As winter breaks and spring emerges, we’ll spend this weekend on an enchanting journey, finding what food awaits us on the forest floor, learning to cook wild edibles, considering the value of eating live, fermented foods, and contemplating the role of food in our awakening spirits.
Our guides for the weekend will be Danish-born Anne-Marie Fryer Wiboltt, a biodynamic farmer, cooking artist, Waldorf teacher and author of Cooking for the Love of the World: Awakening Our Spirituality Through Cooking; and Amelia Baxter, a local family farmer who worked on food and justice projects in Chicago before starting a family and establishing Driftless Farm in the Coulee Region.
The retreat will begin Friday evening at the Franciscan Spirituality Center; and then on Saturday morning, we’ll carpool to Baxter’s forest and farm (12 miles from downtown La Crosse). Meals include breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Friday evening will include some light eating, but you’ll want to eat dinner before arriving.
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Singing Bowl Inner Harmony Yoga Retreat
Dates: Friday, May 21 (5:30 – 8:30 p.m.) through
Saturday, May 22 (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Investment: $95 includes meals. Limited bedrooms available at $36/night.
A singing bowl is a special type of metal bowl that functions as a ritualistic instrument. Several harmonic sounds come together as it is gently rung or massaged around its rim to call attention to a forthcoming significant event.
Like the singing bowl, if we call attention to inserting mindful yogic practices into every day, there is potential for creating melodic balance within ourselves. A concert of values to live by, conscious movements of the body, purposeful breath work and various forms of meditation collectively can enhance our inner harmony. A consistent rehearsal of a yoga way of life is a lark’s song to our self-confidence, composure and feelings of sustained contentment.
Presenter: Bernice Olson-Pollack, MS
Bernice Olson-Pollack, ms, is a staff member of the Wellness
Center at St. Rose Convent, La Crosse, WI. She holds a MS in counseling and years of hands-on experience in lifecoaching,
personal training and yoga instruction. Bernice holds certifications in personal training, behavior change counseling, holistic stress management and she is a certified wellness speaker.
Register online now
Celebrate Friendship
Dates: Friday, June 18 (6:30 – 8:30 p.m.) and
Saturday, June 19 (9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Investment: $95 includes meals. $30 for those under 30 years old.
Limited bedroom space available at $36/night.
She’s the first one you call when you need to talk. She’s there for the good times and bad. She’s the one who knows everything about you and she is still your friend.. Invite your best friend, sister, mother, daughter, college roommate, or co-worker for an evening and day of reflection and connection through prayer, laughter, food, creative movement and relaxation. You’ll leave rejuvenated and recommitted to your cherished friendship!
Facilitators: Linda Kerrigan and Barb Kruse
Linda is on staff at FSC and offers individual and group spiritual direction. She believes building and nurturing authentic relationships is central to embracing a rich and meaningful life. In our larger world, it's how we promote peace and mutual understanding, one friendship at a time
Barb Kruse is on staff at the FSC. She received her training in spiritual direction from the FSC, completing the program in 2002, and has a Masters in Servant Leadership from Viterbo University. Barb is a wife, a mother, community volunteer and a friend. She believes that as we journey throughout our lives, it is through friendship that we find grace, healing and ourselves.
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Begin Like A River: A Writing Retreat
Dates: Thursday, July 8 (5:00 p.m.) – Sunday, July 11 (Noon)
Investment: $235 includes meals, bedroom and river cruise. $135 commuters.
Where do we commence the journey of writing? Do we start with a story, the characters, or an experience? In this retreat we begin like a river, at the first trickle of energy emanating from our souls. We will reinforce this energy with support systems to create credible, readable stories. Using combinations of free writing with present moment practice, we will explore voice, character credibility, and overall plot development. Saturday evening, we will read and celebrate our stories on a river cruise. This retreat is for anyone who wants to learn or return to the basics of the story and reignite their passion for writing.
Facilitator: Theresa Washburn
Theresa Washburn is a communications consultant to the Franciscan Spirituality Center and a writer. She holds a Masters in Servant Leadership and is an affiliate to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She has written for over a dozen publications, leads a writing group and co-developed the conference, Awakening the Soul of the Writer. She is dedicated to combining the art of writing with the human journey towards the divine.
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