“Pray + Work” Retreat

Join retreat leader Mary Litch for a combination spiritual retreat and work weekend as we put St. Gertrude’s famous raspberry patch “to bed” for the fall.

Sessions will alternate between work in the patch, cutting back the raspberry canes, and exercises to help you explore the Mystery of Creation in light of your personal spiritual journey. Indoor exercises include both meditation on brief passages and engaging with the multi-media artwork Passion of the Earth that is installed in the Spirit Center foyer. Outdoor exercises will focus on building gratitude for creation, and experiencing oneself as part of creation. There will be opportunities for group sharing at the end of each day.

Participants will stay in the Spirit Center and join the Sisters for morning, mid-day, and evening prayers in the chapel, and for meals in the monastery dining room. The work portion of the retreat requires participants to be able to stoop or kneel for long periods of time, to cut 3/4-inch-thick raspberry canes off at ground level with hand pruning shears or loppers, and to handle those prickly raspberry canes.

Please register only if you are physically capable of performing the gardening work described for 2 hours each day. Plan on arriving in the late morning on Saturday, September 5, in time for mid-day prayer at 11:30 and the mid-day meal at noon. We will have the first retreat meeting Saturday afternoon. The retreat ends after the mid-day meal on Monday.

For questions about the retreat content, contact the retreat leader at mlitch@stgertrudes.org.

For administrative questions, contact Melissa England.

Registration required. Limited to eight participants.