Christmas Retreat – Behold: Images of the Nativity

Sunday – Wednesday, Dec 23 – 26, 2018

Lectio Divina asks us to pause from our busy lives, to take up a book, and to read deeply. We listen inwardly to sacred words as recorded or imagined by an inspired writer. We invite the words to speak to our spirits.

So it is with Visio Divina. This practice asks us to look deeply: to gaze. Guided by the artist who has brought forth the image before us, we use our faculty of sight to both look out from our inmost self and to let the images in, illuminating that deep place.

In this retreat we’ll look at images of the Nativity and through our looking, experience God’s loving light as it falls in through our eyes: the windows of our souls.

Led by Julie Poskitt, an Oblate of the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine. Recently retired as Officer for Music and Dance at the British Columbia Arts Council, she was reared by artist-parents whose life-practice was to behold the beauty of the world, its creatures and peoples. This principle has been absorbed into her own practices as artist, teacher, advocate and administrator.

Arrivals and registration 2 – 4 pm Saturday; ends after breakfast Tuesday.
Special holiday rate of $250 for this three-day retreat; deposit $50.
Registration deadline: December 16, 2017.
Registration here »

All retreats and quiet days at St. John’s Convent take place in the milieu of a contemporary monastic community which has a daily rhythm of prayer. All guests are invited to take part in the daily Eucharist, and those staying overnight may like to join us in the Divine Office (Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline).
See the regular chapel and meal schedule here »