St. Francis Retreat Center
Contemplative Connect
Online Retreats
May/June Offerings
" The spiritual life does not remove us from the world
but leads us deeper into it." Henri J.M. Nouwen
May Online Retreats
Suggested donation is listed on retreat description;
Don't let financial hardship keep you from participating.
If you need a partial or full scholarship,
please email mepkinguestmaster@gmail.com to register.
Praying Out of the Roots
of Our Own Lives:
A Thomas Merton-Grounded Contemplative Practice Retreat
led by Jonathan Montaldo 
May 29-30, 2020


Suggested Donation: $60

We shall reflect upon key moments in Merton's private journals where he exemplifies a way of praying that he taught his novices at the Abbey of Gethsemani:
praying by entering the school of your own life.
The take-away from this retreat will be a
spiritual exercise for our continuing practice.

Jonathan Montaldo is the editor of numerous books by Thomas Merton including  The Intimate Merton ,  A Year with Thomas Merton ,  Dialogues with Silence , and  Choosing to Love the World . He created a ten-volume resource for small group dialogue,  Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton . See his website at MonksWorks.com for further information on Jonathan's ministry.
June Online Retreats
Suggested donation is listed on retreat description;
Don't let financial hardship keep you from participating.
If you need a partial or full scholarship,
please email mepkinguestmaster@gmail.com to register.
Being Simply Available
with Chuck Coward, DMin, CM, CPC
June 5-8, 2020
Practically speaking, moving contemplative practices into life, every day, everywhere, with everyone, can be a challenge. It’s one thing to be alone with God and yourself in the quiet, but what does that look like along life’s way? This retreat will help you cultivate this ability. Chuck’s hope, prayer, and aim is for you to emerge from these sessions in community, with a new way of living—
The Simply Available Way.


Suggested Donation $80

Dr. Chuck Coward   has invested over 30 years in fostering human and community development from a variety of places and roles including as pastor, non-profit executive director, businessman, consultant, and personhood coach. Chuck is currently serving as Director of Development for Doors to Freedom, a
non-profit bringing new life, restored hope, and a beautiful future to
young girls rescued from sex trafficking.
He is the proud husband to Anita, dad to four, and granddaddy to five.
Midmorning Extended Online Retreat
June 8, 15, 22, & 29, 2020
10:00-11:30 am
Suggested Donation $80
Healing Our World One Person at A Time: 
A Discovery of How Deep Prayer Transforms Ourselves, Our Families, Our Communities,
and Our World

Led by Kathy Quinn Anderson and Susan Boruff
Meet the Retreat Leaders
Kathy Quinn Anderson  h as over fifteen years experience as a retreat and workshop leader and planner. She completed the Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreat Program at The Shalem Institute
for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC in 2011.  
Susan Flynn Boruff  i s a certified spiritual director, retreat guide and meditation practitioner of twenty years. She completed the Spiritual Guidance Program at
The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC in 2006.
Contemplative Retreat for Elders
led by Lyndall Hare, PhD Gerontologist
Suggested Donation: $60
Lyndall holds a social work degree and a Ph.D. in Gerontological Studies. She has worked in the field of aging for over 25 years, both in the USA, and in South Africa. She has expertise in the transitions facing individuals in midlife and beyond. As an Eldercare Coach, Lyndall helps those navigating the tricky landscape of elder-caring and aging services for loved ones. As an Aging Consultant, she coaches organizations that serve elders by providing innovative visioning and creative programming and planning. Lyndall also offers professional training workshops to those working in the field of aging. Lyndall conducts workshops and groups on life transitions, encore careers, caring for elder relatives, and the spiritual aspects of eldering using a “growth” rather than a “decline” model of aging. Lyndall has authored various training manuals & professional journal articles, as well as a book: In the Belly of the Beast: South African Women’s Lives of Activism, Exile, and Aging, CPCC Press, 2003.
Contemplating Christ
a virtual retreat
with Fr. Vincent Pizutto, PhD
June 15 – 18, 2020
suggested donation $100
Fr. Vincent holds a Masters of Education in Religious Education from Boston College (1995), as well as a Masters (STL) and Doctorate (STD) in New Testament exegesis from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2003). He is a Full Professor at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco where he teaches primarily in the areas of New Testament and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He has published and presented internationally in the areas of New Testament, christology, contemplative Christian spirituality, interreligious dialogue, same-gender marriage and theological responses to the climate crises. In April 2018 he published his second book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life, with Liturgical Press.
He also serves as vicar of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Inverness, CA where he provides leadership for the advancement of Contemplative Christianity.
Online Public Lecture
Returning from a Distant Land:
Spiritual Intimacy and The Mystical Body of Christ
a virtual lecture
with Fr. Vincent Pizutto, PhD
June 19, 2020
2:00-4:00 pm, EDT
Suggested Donation $20
St. Ambrose: We are not strangers and pilgrims, but we are fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God," for we who were far away have come near in the blood of Christ. Let us not look down on those who 'return from a distant land,' because we were also in a distant land, as Isaiah teaches.
"To them that dwelled in the region of the shadow of death, light has risen." (CC, 76)
Contemplative Experience
and Practice
This retreat will explore what a Contemplative Experience is,
what its fruits are, and the practice of Centering Prayer.
Friday, June 26 & 27, 2020
Led by Fr. Guerric Heckel and Kathy Tosney
Suggested Donation $60
Meet the Retreat Leaders
Fr. Guerric has been a monk at Mepkin Abbey for 26 years where he serves as the Director of Saint Francis Retreat Center and its Annual Crèche Festival. Prior to that, he was a parish priest in the Diocese of Richmond, VA and a hospital chaplain for 11 years.
Kathy Tosney  is an Interfaith Spiritual Director in Portland, Maine. She teaches Contemplative Prayer Practices for Mepkin Abbey‘s “Institute for Contemplative Eldering Retreats” and has been a retreat team member at Mepkin for the past 8 years. Kathy also directs Ignatian Retreats at Mepkin Abbey and Eastern Point Jesuit Retreat House in Gloucester, MA. Kathy lives in Portland, Maine and is the proud mother of two adult sons and four young grandchildren. 

Entering the Heart of Christ:
Christianity as Participatory Mystery
with the Rev. Matthew Wright


June 30,July 1 & 2
Mid-Morning Retreat
Suggested Donation $60
‌
The Rev. Matthew Wright, M.Div is an Episcopal priest and Pastor
of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church
in Woodstock, NY; in addition,
he is a writer and retreat leader working to renew the Christian Wisdom tradition within
a wider inter-spiritual framework.
He is a student of Cynthia Bourgeault and a teacher ...