Bethany Spring Newsletter

Retreat Descriptions

Retreat Presenters

Register by calling the number listed below. Or register online. When registering online, Search: Bethany, click on "go," and choose your retreat.

To schedule a private retreat or a group retreat, contact Bethany Spring.

We look forward to having you with us!

502-549-8277

502-583-6117
800-886-7275

Currently Scheduled Retreats:

Bridges to Contemplative Living Retreats
are intimate, guided retreat experiences that include no more than twelve participants who share lunches and dinners in common. Retreatants are invited to participate in the prayers of the monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani located only one mile from Bethany Spring. No prior knowledge of Merton or the Bridges series is required for participation.

Directed Retreat:
This silent retreat includes daily forty-five minute, private meetings with a spiritual director while enjoying access to the prayer services at the Abbey of Gethsemani and to Bethany Spring's library for spiritual reading. Theresa O'Bryan will direct the June retreat; Wayne Anderson, the July retreat. Directed retreats are limited to only five participants.

Love Poems from God
This retreat will invite participants to pray with the Mystics, East & West, through the prayerful reflections on their poems and writings. Included are the poetry and writings of Meister Eckhardt, St. Thomas Aquinas, Rumi, St. Catherine of Siena, Hafiz, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Merton, and others. What in their lives moved them to the depths of their souls? What is moving us to our depths? Where is God in the midst of this?

Seeing With New Eyes
A contemplative photography retreat. Thomas Merton described contemplation as a "long, loving look at the real." Contemplation is a form of prayer that helps us to realize our deep connection and interdependence to all that is. For most of us, it's not our modus operandi. We need a practice that will help us to slow down and develop this new way of seeing. Photography is a practice that can help and it's not surprising to know that Merton was a photographer, too. Explore your relationships with others, God, and nature with the help of your camera. Kim Manley Ort directs this retreat.

Thomas Merton & Mary Oliver:
Poets of the Sacred
Thomas Merton and Mary Oliver are unique writers who resonate when they converge on aligning their lives with Wisdom in their poetry's approach to nature and the feminine. In addition to praying with the monks of Gethsemani, this retreat will celebrate with reflections on Hagia Sophia [Holy Wisdom] as the feminine energies of God (Merton) and Wisdom as living a life of praise within Nature's embrace (Oliver). Participants will discern their need to recover the "unheard feminine voice" within themselves, whether they be man or woman (Karl Stern's The Flight from Woman). Living in consonance with Wisdom's ways is foundational to experiencing the depths of our core relationships with ourselves, our neighbors, nature and the Source of all relationships, God. Each participant will receive Mary Oliver's latest volume of poetry.

 

 Look for these on a Future Calendar:

Contemplating Our Sacred Stories
Participants will reflect on their own life stories, recognizing God's presence, or perceived absence, in specific life events; retell scripture stories to become aware of his/her soul in the passage; and finally, develop their own style of storytelling through imagination and longing. By listening intently to another's story, one can learn from them and discern how God is present through others. Listening is transforming and in every way a part of sacred story.

Dreams, Dreamwork and Contemplative Living
Paying attention to our dreams - dreamwork - is a way of fostering practical connections between our inner and our outer lives, between symbolic process and daily chores, between personal intuitions and choices that affect other. During our time together, we will experiment with various dreamwork techniques that may help us to listen to the fragmented epiphanies of our heart's ear and, perhaps, become more intimate with our Hidden Wholeness.

Satori: Awakening The Inner Self
is based on Thomas Merton's book, The Inner Experience, the program will help lead one into a contemplative place to realize that "I and the Lord are One." The program will give each participant the experience of going past our outer structure of self to find the place where God resides within each of us. This will be achieved through Sabbath walking, listening to the heart (soul) meditations and spiritual sharing within the group based on selected materials from Thomas Merton.

Thanksgiving at Bethany Spring:
Enjoy a home-cooked Thanksgiving festival dinner and attend the holiday liturgies at the Abbey of Gethsemani. A retreat of simple prayer in common limited to eight persons.

Writing and the Contemplative Life
Thomas Merton once wrote: "If you write for God, you will reach many people and bring them joy. If you write for people, you may make some money and you may give someone a little joy and you may make a noise in the world, for a little while. If you write only for yourself , you can read what you yourself have written and after ten minutes you will be so disgusted, you will wish that you were dead." This retreat is for those who do all three-- write for God, for others, and themselves. It is not a how-to workshop, but for the one whose writing is one of the fruits of her contemplative life--and whose contemplative life inspires his writing.