Living Gratitude: A Sacred Compass For The Spiritual Life
November 21 - 23, 2025
This retreat, offered just before the holidays, is an invitation to drink deeply, to rest, and reflect on where we have been met by the Holy, and where we long to be met. Gratitude will be our compass––a gentle guide to show us the way to inner stability, steadiness, and joy while never diminishing what is painful and difficult.
Rooted in the contemplative Christian tradition, this retreat will weave together silence and spaciousness with creative expression and deep reflection. We will explore how gratitude can become a way of seeing, a way of praying, and a way of being.
In a loving and supportive community, we will journal, pray together, and use new art practices as a way to explore our deepest stories. We will have the gift of spending time on Mercy Center’s beautiful grounds, allowing ourselves to simply be and to dream a little.
Join us for a weekend of rest, reflection, and gratitude. During our time together, we will engage in:
- Journaling and “spiritual mapping” to more deeply explore our stories and longings
- Labyrinth walks and time on the sacred grounds of Mercy Center to enter into deep listening with the Holy
- Ancient practices such as lectio divina, breathwork, silent prayer, contemplative sharing, and other deeply restorative practices.
This retreat is an invitation to live not only with gratitude, but in gratitude. And in doing, become a presence of living gratitude in the world.
We hope you’ll join us.

FACILITATORS
Colette Lafia is an award-winning author, spiritual director, and retreat leader. As a graduate of the Living School, through the Center for Action and Contemplation, Colette has a passion for the contemplative path. She has worked in the spiritual formation programs at Mercy Center Burlingame and is a commissioned Centering Prayer presenter. Her most recent book is The Divine Heart: Seven Ways to Live in God’s Love, which received a 2022 Nautilus Book Award. To learn more about Colette, please visit www.colettelafia.com.
Mary Loebig Giles is Pastor of Action and Contemplation at Common Table SF (a small house church in San Francisco), a fellow of the Center for Faith & Justice, and a graduate of the Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation. She offers spiritual direction outdoors in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and at Mercy Center Burlingame, facilitating retreats that awaken the heart through embodied and contemplative practices.
Category : Sponsored