This Winer, we invite you to stay home and treat yourself to a year-end retreat.

Just imagine . . .

• Approaching the December Solstice, the darkest time in the Northern Hemisphere.

• Walking through Advent, the time of waiting for new birth.

• Deepening your relationship with the Sacred Feminine.

• Heightening your senses to see, feel, and taste the holy--thereby birthing the holy.

Using this book Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal by Christine Valters Paintner, Notre Dame, IN; Sorin Books, 2022 we will explore Mary as a person and as an archetype of both the sacred feminine and Mother.

We will focus on her presence at the thresholds of Jesus’s life. She is the embodiment of the sacred feminine, a window into another understanding of how the presence of the sacred can manifest in the world. She models the essence of what it is to be an active co-creator and participant in the divine unfolding.

Paintner explores the names of Mary because the images they represent show what we hunger to embody and ultimately find within ourselves. These are invitations into practices and ways of being. Archetypes invite us to consider these names as living encounters right now with sacred aspects of ourselves.

This is a way to welcome our inner multitude! It does not require silence, nor is it terribly time consuming. We will have small-group sharing and a little bit of writing in each session. There will be music, too!

Dates and Times:

• Wednesdays: Nov. 19, Dec. 3, 10, 17; 7-8:30 PM ET

• Ending on Friday, Dec. 19 10 AM-12 NOON ET (2-hour hybrid in-person hybrid) at Mountain Light Retreat, celebrating with ritual and walking a labyrinth, followed by lunch.

Sessions will be recorded and posted to this site.