East-West Intensive Contemplative Holy Week Retreat

We invite you to join us for this silent, contemplative retreat to be held at Eastertime. Our retreat begins on the evening of Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) and will end on Easter morning.

This silent retreat will be a time of deepening our intimacy with the Divine through contemplation, meditation, and the practice of sitting, walking, and eating with awareness. Our time together will be a time of practicing full, focused attention.  As our teacher Fr. Greg Mayers Roshi said:

Attention is a skill we can develop and a gift we can receive that unifies the Absolute and everyday life. As a skill it means waking up to whatever flows across the field of attention, whether that is inner or outer experiences, thoughts, feelings, or perceptions. It means not picking and choosing what arises to awareness, and not hanging on to what falls away. It means not being disturbed by the content of attention, not being obsessed with it, not being compulsive about being attentive.

During the retreat, we will sit in silence for several hours each day, with time out for meals, solitary rest, and communion with nature on the beautiful grounds of Mercy Center. You are free to bring your current practice – be it Zen meditation, Christian contemplation, Centering Prayer, or whatever – to our silent sitting sessions. We will enjoy communal readings from both Western and Eastern wisdom literature, as well as spiritual talks and one-on-one meetings with the retreat leader.

Please note that beginners are welcome. If you haven’t embraced a particular form or style of spiritual practice, no matter. You will find that the silence welcomes all.

In his book Everything Is Practice, Insight Meditation teacher Gil Fronsdal wrote:

Group meditation retreats are profound times to discover a non-separated, unattached sense of community. Meditating together in silence cuts through many of the usual projections, fears, and reactions we might easily have with others. Meditating together, we sense people’s sincere dedication to being mindful of their life challenges and their spiritual wholeness.

So, take this opportunity to enrich your Easter celebrations – and your life – by joining us in April for this intensive contemplative meditation retreat. It’s a time of new life! Get ready to welcome the coming spring with peace, harmony, and joy!