Upcoming Retreats
Check out the scheduled retreats to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit listed below.
Retreat House 2026 Retreat Schedule
Our preached retreat programs provide a rich variety of spiritual presentations for men and women. In these preached retreats there is a leader or presenter(s) who offers conferences and leads discussions. The schedule also offers an opportunity to share in the Eucharist and invites you to spend your day, including meals, in prayerful silence.
Some retreats provide a quiet and contemplative atmosphere conducive to prayer and reflection while others offer opportunities for sharing and mutual support. These individual and group retreat experiences, inspired by Cistercian Spirituality, offer retreatants time to simply be with God in love, and listen to Him speak personally through the Scriptures. On this weekend journey, in an atmosphere of silence, you will have solitary time for prayer, journaling, discerning, and quiet meditation in nature by our lake, on our lawns, and on our peaceful walking trails.
Just so you know, there is limited space for these popular weekend retreats, they fill to capacity very quickly! If you would like to make a reservation call our office Monday-Friday 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Our phone number is 770-760-0959. Your space is reserved when you make your $30.00 deposit.
You may prefer to experience a personal private retreat and visit during a time when there is no scheduled program to allow you to reflect on your own. Our retreat house staff can help you decide what might be best for you and help to make a reservation.
Call us at (770) 760-0959
Our Office is open Monday-Friday 8:00-1:00 PM, and the number is 770-760-0959. Suggested donation for Retreats: $100.00 per night.
February 20-22 (Weekend)
Contemplative Prayer -Fr. Gerard and Br. Michael
Prayer is a loving exchange with God. When we learn to receive the gift of God’s presence through loving silence, we are able to develop our personal relationship with Him. One way to receive this gift is through centering prayer, traditionally known as contemplative prayer. This type of prayer enables us to rest in God, leading to a more intimate relationship with Him.
February 27-March 1 (Weekend)
Spirituality of Death and Dying – Br. Mark, Br. Michael, and Dr. Christopher Powers
This retreat will focus on both the medical aspects and the spiritual journeys at the end of our natural life on earth. Your retreat presenters have extensive medical, professional, and monastic experiences to share, along with the profound opportunities to integrate and grow our faith, even in the midst of a terminal illness. Themes to be explored during the retreat include Palliative Care, including ethical and surrogate decision concerns; the Spirituality of Health Care; various prayer themes, and the Image of God. Your retreat presenters include a physician and 2 of the monks in the monastery community, one with over 30 years’ experience in the monastery infirmary.
March 6-8 (Weekend)
Drawing nearer to Christ – Fr. Cassian
Jesus said, “Follow me.” He walks on ahead as we follow. He looks, he touches, he speaks, he heals. What does he see when he comes to us? How do we respond? Do we run ahead like Zachaeus and climb a tree to catch a glimpse? Do we stretch out a hand to touch his prayer shawl? Do we run up to ask him a question? Do others take us to him?
In this retreat, we will read scripture together to encounter Jesus, listening and responding
March 13-15 (Weekend)
Prayer and the Image of God – Fr. Francis Michael
The focus of this retreat is discovering and exploring our images of God and how they affect our prayer. As St. Teresa of Avila learned, discovering the images of God can profoundly affect our prayer life and ultimately our relationship with God.
April 10-12 (Weekend)
Gift of Suffering – Fr. Gerard Gross
Sisters Faustina, Therese de Lisieux, and Elizabeth of the Trinity teach us how to allow our God to transform our sufferings into precious gifts that bring healing to us and many others. This retreat will help especially those who find that an abundance of silence and solitude empowers them with sensitive love for all persons, even those whom they find difficult to love! By contrast, many people need a community of persons with whom to tell their sufferings and to support them. We all need a good spiritual director/close friend to help us discern our course, especially in suffering!
May 1-3 (Weekend)
Stewardship of God’s Creation – Fr. Francis Michael
Creation is God’s gift to us. We are called as Christians to care for this precious gift. We must not leave the care of the environment to others. As we are called to care for the lives of all people from the womb until natural death, we are also called to cherish the gift of our planet Earth with its soil, water, plants, and animals, all knit together in the Web of life. We do not see care of creation as opposed to care for all human life, but rather, care for humans demands that we care for our home, the earth. To love God is to love all His good gifts. Please bring hiking shoes for walks in nature in our forests and Wetlands.
May 29-31 (Weekend)
The Seven Desires of Every Heart – Br. Michael
“The Seven Desires of Every Heart” focuses on what are perceived as the 7 great needs of every human being:
- To be heard and understood
- To be affirmed
- To be blessed
- To be safe
- To be touched
- To be chosen
- To be included.
This retreat will show how important these needs are and how we may have them met in legitimate ways that please God.
July 10-12 (Weekend)
Messy Spirituality – Br. Michael
Imperfection and messiness are, in fact, the earmarks of true Christianity. Real Christianity is messy, erratic, lopsided . . . and gloriously liberating. What if genuine faith begins with admitting we will never have our act completely together? Maybe messy disciples are exactly the kind of imperfect people Jesus came to earth for and whose company he actually enjoyed–and still enjoys. Messy Spirituality is a strong antidote for spiritual perfectionism in us all. Here are truths that can cut you loose from the tyranny of ought-to’s and open your eyes to the deep spirituality of being loved, shortcomings and all, by the God who meets you and transforms you in the midst of a messy and unpredictable life.
August 21-23 (Weekend)
As I have loved you – Fr. Francis Michael
This retreat invites participants to contemplate the depth of God’s love revealed in Christ, to understand this love as the foundation and model for their own lives, and to commit to living out this new commandment in their relationships with others. It is a call to a transformative love that mirrors the divine, a love that is selfless, sacrificial, and ultimately, fruitful.
August 28-30 (Weekend)
Self-Confrontation -Br. Mark
A retreat that deals with the need to grow through self-knowledge and the courage to make that journey.
September 11-13 (Weekend)
Emotions: “Our cross and our crown”- Br. Michael
What are emotions? What’s their purpose?
Emotions seem to rule our daily lives. We make decisions based on whether we are happy, angry, sad, bored, or frustrated. We choose certain behaviors based on the emotions they incite. Emotions can play an important role in how we think and behave. “Don’t get emotional or maybe do so!”
September 25-27 (Weekend)
Pondering The Desert Fathers – Fr. Francis Michael
Using Roberta Bondi’s book To Love as God Loves, we will consider the Desert Fathers’ take on living with and loving one another.
October 2-4 (Weekend)
The Monk within- Br. Michael
We are contemplatives; we all have a “monk within”. Come and discover “The Monk within you.” This retreat will focus on ways to nourish the contemplative dimension in yourself through prayer, silence, solitude, work, and community.
October 30—November 1 (Weekend)
“God In All Things – Praying the Examen” – Br. Michael and Allison Mattison
St. Ignatius’s daily Examen prayer invites us to use the material of our daily lives to draw closer to God and live more holy lives. This retreat will break down the five parts of the Examen and guide participants slowly through its components, which include gratitude, self-examination, prayerful reflection, and openness to change.
November 6-8 (Weekend)
“Retreat at Nazareth with St. Charles de Foucauld”- Fr. Cassian
From November 5 – 14, 1897, St Charles de Foucauld made a retreat at Nazareth. We will sit beside him as he converses with Jesus, remembering the life and suffering of Jesus, reviewing his own life, exploring the life of virtue and the grace of God, and making resolutions for the future.
November 20-22 (Weekend)
“Listening to God in Scripture and in each moment” – Fr. Gerard
This retreat focuses on learning to listen to God with the ears of our hearts. We will learn how to listen to God speak to us through the Scriptures, how to listen in the monastic tradition (Rule of Benedict), how to listen to Conscience, the Silence of God, and finally how to listen to the hearts of our brothers and sisters. Please bring a notebook for journaling.
December 4-6 (Weekend)
Vocations – Fr. Cassian and Br. Mark
Open to single Catholic men, ages 18-38. Vocational Discernment Retreats provide a prayerful atmosphere of silence, beauty, and peace in which men come together with others to listen to God and their own hearts. We offer this retreat as a way of helping men to discern more clearly what they want and what God wants for them.