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’.
As Labor Day approaches, let's take a moment in gratitude for the jobs that many of us hold and to pray for those less fortunate who are seeking a way to afford necessities. We lift up prayers of justice for all those seeking employment and for many who have lost jobs due to the pandemic. Today's prayer is taken from the Bread for the World organization. Almighty God, Creator of the world, we give you thanks for the gift…
Today's reflection highlights quotes from St. Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine. St. Augustine was a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings have greatly influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity. Many words of St. Augustine can encourage us during this difficult time of the pandemic too. If you haven't already, find a quiet spot to read his words and to pray with us. “And men…
Amy Kulesa, Director of the Sisters of Bon Secours Associates and frequent retreat presenter at our Center, shares the following reflection about Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Coincidentally, we just added a special retreat about Teilhard to our calendar for next summer too. We're looking forward to having Sr. Kathleen Duffy with us next July when we presents, "Dawn to the Road of Fire: Teilhard and Struggle" which is based around her latest book Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution.…
Before each of our staff meetings at the Retreat & Conference Center, we begin with a prayerful reflection. It isn't uncommon for that reflection to be read from one of Sarah Young's popular "Jesus Calling" books. These daily devotionals select a passage from Scripture and then share the author's wisdom on how Jesus is speaking to us, making it personalized. As we worship and rest today, we hope that you will also be comforted by the Spirit. "Come to me,…
Today's post is from author Mary DeTurris Poust's blog, "Not Strictly Spiritual". Mary shared her blog with us and is looking forward to her weekend retreat at our Center next summer. We just added her "Broken, Beautiful and Beloved: Learning to See Ourselves Through the Eyes of God" retreat to our website and you can read more about it here. Thanks for sharing your blog with our readers too, Mary. Let's take a few moments to reflect on her thoughts...…
Debra Donnelly-Barton has graciously shared her Summer Meditations with our blog and today's post is the last in this series. Let's take a few moments to contemplatively read her reflection and then maybe take time to be outdoors, recognizing this deep sense of Presence. A Liturgy of the Living Earth Praying the hours in tune with nature Summer Meditations Earth's Wild Wisdom The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is that I am not alone and unacknowledged. They…
We were so happy to have Fr. Michael Schleupner here at the Center this week as he served as a spiritual director on our Directed Retreat and offered daily mass to our guests. Fr. Mike shared the following with his guests on their opening night and we thought that our online readers would appreciate these words to contemplate too. Let's take a quiet moment to Focus and to Reflect. Focus Mark 1:9-11 “Beloved” In those days Jesus came from Nazareth…
Today's post comes from the Catholic Health Association of the United States. You can click here to read more about their important organization. Let's take a moment to reflect on the prayer below and then watch a short meditation video. Pray. Pause. Breath. Heal. Prayer for a Pandemic, by Cameron Bellm May we who are merely inconvenienced remember those whose lives are at stake. May we who have no risk factors remember those most vulnerable. May we who have the…
Debra Donnelly-Barton offers another beautiful reflection today within her “Litany of the Living Earth” series. She has presented several retreats at our Center and we look forward to hosting her again in the future. Let’s take a few quiet moments to read about her next reflection about flowers near her home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and how it parallel's with a gospel lesson. A Liturgy of the Living Earth Praying the hours in tune with nature Summer Meditations…
As we deal with effects of the pandemic, effects that we never anticipated would endure so long, the world around us can feel very heavy. If you're feeling weighed down by everything today, we hope that this prayer will remind you to lean on the Light. Let this Presence scatter the darkness... Let Your Light Shine As the sun rises, Lord, Let your light shine on me. Destroy the darkness about me, Scatter the darkness before me, Disperse the…
