Welcome to the Bon Secours Retreat & Conference Center’s blog! This blog will extend our retreat ministry by bringing prayers and reflections into your home ‘retreat’. Many of our presenters and staff share their homilies, favorite prayers and reflections through this medium. We encourage you to comment, pass it along to friends or simply take a moment to pray with us. We hope that this will serve as a moment during your day when you can ‘retreat with us’.
The phrase 'Fear not' and similar wording is mentioned over and over again in the Bible. Clearly this is a message that God wants to make sure that we hear! It's been very difficult not to have deep feelings of fear during the pandemic though, right? So, let's take time today to refresh our hearts and minds with the scripture below. Then, take a few moments of silence to unwind, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, relax your…
Book Recommendation: We are happy to have Sr. Chris Kollhoffer, IHM with us for a Lenten retreat next spring (click here to learn more). Sr. Chris is the author of Longing for the Endless Immensity and offered this excerpt for our blog today. If these themes and prayer practices interest you, we recommend purchasing the book to learn more and it will be available in our bookstore soon too. Longing for the Endless Immensity: Reflection and Prayer for Living a Life…
We are excited to host our annual Women's Wellness retreat this weekend and to be able to bring back popular featured speaker, Dr. Veidre Jackson. The theme of this year's retreat is "Peace in the Middle of the Pieces" and this theme in the midst of the pandemic is certainly timely! Please pray for the ladies who are attending this retreat. May they feel joy, relaxation and a sense of the peace in their lives that only Jesus can provide.…
Our faithful friend of the blog, Fr. Michael Schleupner, offered this homily a few weeks ago. It gives his personal reflection about his relationship with Jesus, providing a beautiful way to embrace our connection to Jesus too. Let's take a few quiet moments to prayerfully read and reflect on our own journeys with God. Who do you say that Jesus is? Mark 8:27-35 Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus teaches that those who would follow him must…
We are pleased to be bringing Sr. Chris Koellhoffer to our Center next spring for a Lenten retreat! She will present "The Lenten Summons to Green Our Lives" March 4-6 and you can click here to learn more. Sr. Chris is a gifted writer and today we're sharing a post from her blog, Mining the Now (click here to visit). It was written in July, but has an important lesson that we can carry throughout the seasons. Let's read about…
Fr. Michael Schleupner offers Mass at our Center frequently and shared this homily with us from last week. We're so grateful for the wisdom that he shares with us and our guests! Let's see how he ties a story about dog food into the gospel! Gospel Reading Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23 Dog Food Some years ago, I read a newspaper article about a particular kind of dog food. I was interested in it at that time because I had a dog. Well,…
As one of our caregiver retreats approaches this Saturday, we thought some of our readers may appreciate this beautiful prayer that was shared on the Sisters of Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods website. Our caregiver retreats are a special time to enjoy a delicious lunch with other caregivers, share and to be guided by a wonderful presenter, Gordon Creamer. Click here to learn more about this afternoon retreat. We hope this prayer offers peace and encouragement to all caregivers. A caregiver’s prayer…
Jackie Antkowiak, spiritual director and dear friend of the Retreat & Conference Center, passed away peacefully on Sunday. She began serving on directed retreats in 2018 and truly touched all whom she encountered with her sweet, gentle spirit. Jackie's directees always shared their immense gratitude for her daily guidance during these retreats. She had an incredible way of making everyone feel comfortable right away. One of her recent directees commented, "Jackie is one of the most welcoming people I’ve ever…
Let's take a few moments to center ourselves with prayer and a (virtual) walk through the forest. Many of the scenes in this beautiful video could be from the woods around our Center. May you have a deeper appreciation for the simple vine wrapping around a tree in the sunlight or the diligent ant making it's journey home on your next walk in nature. Pray with us. Creation Prayer God our Father, you created the world and sent your own…
We were so happy to have Fr. Michael Schleupner with us last week as a spiritual director for our August Directed Retreat. He also celebrated Mass several times throughout that retreat. Today, we're sharing one of those homilies that offers a great reminder to all. Compare and Despair Gospel: Matthew 19:23-30 Today’s gospel is a good lesson about comparing ourselves to others. The workers in this vineyard who began working at dawn would have been okay if they had not…
