SDI Educational Events

Join Spiritual Directors International for a guided contemplative retreat experience following the 2012 Cultivating Compassion Conference. The contemplative retreats are the last in the series of 2012 educational events in Boston and will provide a meaningful interlude for participants before returning to their ministry and service. There will be time and space for reflection and integration. Two retreat options will be available.

Both retreats options will begin on Tuesday, April 24, with a midday meal.

Retreat Option A: Nearly full. Register now!

Contemplate Retreat: A Creative Journey

April 24–26, 2012
Leaders:  Andrew Rudd and Wendy Rudd
Location: Gonzaga–Eastern Point Retreat House, Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
Cost:  USD$375, includes transportation to the retreat center, seven meals, and two nights’ accommodations in a private room with a designated bathroom down the hall for women and men. The retreat concludes Thursday, April 26, after the midday meal.

Join Andrew and Wendy Rudd at the Gonzaga–Eastern Point Retreat House for an opportunity to process the rich and varied experiences of the conference, integrating our learning, and allowing it to become personal. Andrew and Wendy will offer some creative starting points: visual art, poetry, and music. They will seek to create and hold a space in which you can encounter the holy in your own way. The days will be framed with moments of ritual, but the core of this contemplative retreat will be the space of silence in which, in Mary Oliver’s words, “another voice may speak.”

Gonzaga is a Jesuit Retreat House on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean about an hour’s drive northeast of Boston. Noted for the spectacular beauty of its rocks, ocean, and woods, Eastern Point provides an ideal atmosphere for contemplation, prayer, and engagement with the Sacred.

Andrew Rudd is a poet and university lecturer. He is a lay reader in the Church of England, a spiritual director, and leads writing workshops, retreats, and quiet days. He teaches an interdenominational course for ministry formation, as well as a regional course for spiritual directors. His PhD explored the connections between poetry and spirituality.

Wendy Rudd is a textile artist, mentor, and teacher, who leads quiet days and retreats. She has created large scale contemplative installations which have toured many churches and quiet spaces throughout the UK. She is particularly interested in the potential of art to go beyond words. A significant part of her daily work with young children with complex needs is understanding how they communicate without words.

Retreat Option B: Full. Waitlist only.

Contemplative Retreat : Heart of Compassion—Embracing Christian and Buddhist Contemplative Practices of Compassion

April 24–27, 2012

Leaders: Carol A. Fournier, MS, NCC, Fr. Kevin Hunt, OCSO, and Maureen McCabe, OCSO
Location:  Mount Saint Mary’s Abbey, Wrentham, Massachusetts, USA
Cost:  USD$375 includes ten meals and three nights’ accommodations in a combination of single and shared rooms with shared baths. The contemplative retreat concludes Friday, April 27, after the midday meal. Limited to 14 retreatants.                  

Enter into the heart of compassion in the exquisite stillness of Mount Saint Mary’s Abbey Retreat House in Wrentham, Massachusetts, USA, the first women’s Roman Catholic Trappistine (Cistercian) monastery in the United States.

Surrounded by the rolling hills of the New England countryside, this contemplative retreat for both men and women offers an opportunity to grow in the deep compassion that is cultivated in silence. Retreat directors, Kevin Hunt, OSCO, and Carol A. Fournier guide participants on the path of integrating the richness of the Spiritual Directors International educational events with the depth of their own spiritual journey. Contemplative practice from Buddhist and Christian perspectives will be explored.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Welcome and Orientation – Maureen McCabe, OCSO, Carol A. Fournier, Kevin Hunt, OCSO
Guided Teaching and Integration #1 – Kevin Hunt, OCSO

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Guided Teaching and Integration #2 – Carol A. Fournier

Thursday, April 26, 2012
Guided Teaching and Integration #3 – Maureen McCabe, OCSO

Friday, April 27, 2012
Guided Teaching and Integration #4 – Kevin Hunt, OSCO, Maureen McCabe, OSCO and Carol A. Fournier  
Closing Ritual and Sending Forth

Carol A. Fournier, MS, NCC, is a Cistercian Lay Contemplative.  Prior to being called to a Cistercian Lay Contemplative community in 2004, she was formed through intensive retreats with hermits and studied with contemplatives from diverse charisms.  She brings a life-long commitment to contemplative living as well as dedication to interfaith and ecumenical spiritual formation informed by the truth and wisdom contained in sacred scripture, music and silence.

Fr. Kevin Hunt, OCSO, is a Trappist Monk at Spencer Abbey for over fifty years.  In 2004, he was recognized as the first North American Trappist to be both Catholic monk and authorized Zen sensei.

Maureen McCabe, OCSO, was a Sister of Mercy for 11 years before entering the Cistercians of Wrentham, MA in 1972.  In the monastery, Maureen loved baking bread and milking cows.  In 1986 she was appointed Novice Director and served in that beautiful ministry until 2003 at which time she was appointed Vocation Director and Prioress.  In 2008, Maureen was elected Abbess.  She has an deep love for and interest in Sacred Scripture, especially the Psalms and for Cistercian spirituality, especially St. Bernard.

Cultivating Compassion 2012 Educational Events
April 19:         Leadership Institute
April 19:         Spirituality and Health Care Institute
April 19:         FREE Public Evening
April 20-22:   Cultivating Compassion Conference
April 23:         Pilgrimage
April 24-27:   Contemplative Retreats