Clergy Retreat July 2022

Theme
The vocation to leadership in ministry is a beautiful one, but it is also costly. Taking time to converse with the God who inhabits us and sends us out about the joys, accomplishments, disappointments and woundedness of life is an essential part of our healing and prophetic ministry.

This retreat will attempt to open spaces for us to “re-taste and know” the simple but foundational realities of our faith which the everyday sacred monotony of our lives can cloud: we are inhabited by a God who longs for our company: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9), in Whom we live, move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Silence
This will be a fully silent retreat.

Program
The aim of the program is to facilitate spaces of personal prayer and conversation with God. The program will include:

• Morning Prayer with a daily address to orientate the day.
• Daily Eucharist at 5 pm before dinner.
• Compline for whoever would like to finish the day together.
• There will be plenty of time for rest, reflection and personal prayer during the day.

Arrival and departure
The retreat will commence on Monday afternoon with arrival any time from 2 pm and pre-dinner drinks at 5.30 pm. The retreat will conclude on Friday morning after morning tea.

Cost 
$690 (includes four nights’ accommodation in own room with ensuite, and all meals).

About the retreat leader
Dr Maeve Louise Heaney VDMF is a consecrated member of the Verbum Dei Community and Director of the Xavier Centre for Theological Formation at Australian Catholic University. She specializes and teaches in the areas of theological aesthetics, music and spirituality, and has extensive experience in the area of ministry and theological formation. She is President of the Australian Catholic Theological Association (ACTA).

In 2020 she released her fifth album: Strange Life: The Music of Doubtful Faith, and her next book, Suspended God: Music and a Theology of Doubt, is forthcoming in 2022.

Enquiries
For retreat enquiries, please contact Belinda Macarthur on phone (07) 3835 2284 or [email protected].