Spritual Retreats

  A Place for God by Timothy Jones:
A Guide to Spiritual Retreats and Retreat Centers
This is the source for the retreats that I list here.

Readers have said:
" Howdy -- I was browsing for silent retreats in North America and came across the retreat website. Thank you for the information -- it's a comfort to get such guidance from an astrologer! All good wishes for a Happy New Year to you." -- Anne P.

Enota asked to be added and we are delighted.

I enjoyed my retreat to Mount Calvary so much (Spring 2002) I made a webpage. I also collected information about other retreats around the country: Catholic, Episcopal, Christian, Ashrams, Buddhist and more.

Episcopal Benedictine

My retreat page is just getting started. Please check back often. Everyone needs a retreat every now and then. I found it hard to discover a good place for a retreat so I'm getting this page together to get your imagination sparked.

Enota

Spiritual, health, yoga, marriage and many more types of retreats. Tents, campers ok and PET FRIENDLY!! Spa services, local faires and festivals.

Mount Calvary Benedictine Monastery
Order of the Holy Cross (Anglican)
Santa Barbara, California

the great hallway to the dining room (chapel off to the right in the background, libraries off to the left and right in the foreground, guestrooms off to the left in the background

the original white robed monks

Please go to the individual websites and check out the prices, etc., for yourself. Verify them, I mean.

Mt. Shasta Buddhist Abbey

Retreatants must follow Abbey schedule. No fee -- donations gratefully accepted. Nice mountain grounds and retreat house. Small Buddhist monastic community. Recommended for this page by Dr. Karen Mann.

 see a slide show of its beauty

Cistercian (Trappist) Monastery
Abbey of Gethsemani
3642 Monks Road, Trappist, Kentucky 40051 (near Culverton)
502-549-3117

This retreat center comes highly recommended by a member of my Introverts' Forum.
For more information, resources and support of introversion as a legitimate personality type, click here for THE INTROVERTZCOACH.

From their website:

The Tradition
Hospitality maintains a prominence in the living monastic tradition. As outlined in Saint Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries, the guest represents Christ and has a claim on the welcome and care of the community. The Abbey of Gethsemani has received guests from the first days of its foundation in 1848.

Prayer and Recollection
The monastic milieu offers a place apart “to entertain silence in the heart and listen for the voice of God – to pray for your own discovery.” (Thomas Merton)

Communing with the Lord requires a measure of solitude, a stillness and an emptiness, a waiting on and attending to the Spirit. Silence fosters and preserves the climate of prayer and is thus a fundamental part of the Gethsemani retreat experience. Speaking is permitted in designated areas. Retreatants are asked to limit their speaking to those areas only.

The abbey’s many acres of woodlands and fields afford extensive space for reflection and prayer.

The Cistercian Abbey in Culverton, Kentucky

Some of the Catholic Retreats say they welcome people of all spiritual backgrounds but do not, so please check for your own comfort. I had an unpleasant experience once when I said I was an astrologer (oh my).

Enjoy browsing the page!!

The Assisi East-West Retreat Center
in connection with St. Francis, warmly welcomes people of all faiths and spiritual backgrounds, understanding that St. Francis touches many people in many lands

Entrance to Assisi East-West Retreat Center

East-West Retreat Center

You can have your retreat guided or alone. Group and private retreats are welcome all year long. There are special retreats planned at Easter and Christmas! They seem to run about $750 for one week, not including airfare and travel to the retreat. Please click here for more information.

The (Buddhist) Insight Meditation Center
Barre, Massachusetts

80 acres of woodland in Massachusetts, not shown here!
Welcome private retreats with experienced meditators and have group learning experiences as well
approximately $44/day

Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, New York
(eclectic)
Rhinebeck Campus, 140 acres, Hudson River Valley
Sueno Azul Resort in Costa Rica, 1200 acre rainforest
$1,000 or more (Cost Rica retreat)

Visitation Monastery
Mobile, Alabama
Catholic/Visitation Nuns

retreat prices not known

The Dwelling Place
Brooksville, Mississippi
Franciscan

Hermitage Cottage

There are three hermitages: each is a self-contained, air-conditioned cottage that includes private bath, dressing, sleeping, and living areas as well as kitchen/dining facilities.
$55 a day; less if you bring your own food

McCabe Renewal Center
Duluth, Minnesota
Benedictine Catholic Nuns

$53 a day includes three meals
Up to half of the price can be covered by a scholarship fund application if you need assistance

Kripalu Yoga Center
Lenox, near Tanglewood in Massachusetts
3-day packages for $500 or more

Formerly a Jesuit Seminary

Dormitory

Standard

Upgrade

Abbey of the Genesee
Piffard, New York


$35/day

Beaver Farm Retreat
Yorktown Heights, New York
Christian but they say that a person's spiritual background doesn't matter

about $45/day

 

JESUIT RETREATS
Jesuits follow the teachings and practices of St. Ignatius .. there are a lot of them listed all over the world. This one is on the shores of Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

"Although we are a Catholic retreat house in the Ignatian tradition, we welcome men and women of all faiths to our silent, conference retreats from Thursday evening until lunch on Sunday."
Check each one separately for prices.

Holy Cross Monastery
West Park, New York
Episcopal/Order of the Holy Cross


$70/night

MadreGrande Monastery
of the Paracelsian Order
Nancy's Note: Monastery cum hippie commune ;-)
about an hour outside San Diego on Highway 94, Dulzura
They describe themselves as a non-profit religious organization, eclectic in approach to God realization, dedicated to the good of all beings.

Learn more about the Madre Grande

The costs are as follows:

Day use ..... $5 per person
Dorm bed ..... $20 per person/day
Private room ..... $25 per person/day
Massage ..... $50 per session
Meals ..... Dinner: $7 per meal; Breakfast and Lunch $5 per meal

Rustic but clean. Very communal. Absolutely beautiful land, very quiet. Huge trees to gather under, etc. It's in a valley about 20 minutes UP a mountain side.

 

 

Self Realization Meditation Garden in Encinitas, California (site includes directions)
Gardens open 9 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday and 11 to 5 on Sundays, but please double check before you head up there.

"Luminous Peak" Buddhist Retreat Cabin
at Tara Mandala
500 acres of land in the
mountains of Southwest Colorado

Quote from the Organization: Our retreat cabin provides a rare opportunity to be completely secluded and alone. Here you are free to experience your innermost being.

The cabin is 11' by 11' and was consecrated in 1998. There is no electricity or phone. Cost is about $35 per day, $210 a week.

Read more.

 

-- and you shall give them comfort --

 

 

Ramakrishna (Hindu) Trabuco Canyon Monastery
near Hollywood, California
take a day trip from San Diego to walk the trail

This shrine to Hinduism is one of many along the Trabuco Shrine Trail.

This is the Medicine Wheel shrine to certain American Indian peoples.

WALK THE VIRTUAL Ramakrishna SHRINE TRAIL,
dedicated to the world religions, or visit in person as it takes about one half hour and is noted for its scenic charm and serenity
Visiting hours:
Mon-Sun 9 am to 11 am, 3 pm to 5 pm

THERE ARE NO RETREAT FACILITIES FOR SINGLE PERSONS; THE MONKS OFFER A FREE 6 WEEK STAY TO MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS DURING SUMMER BREAK (MUST BE BETWEEN 18 TO 33 YEARS OLD)

Bodhinyanarama Buddhist Monastery
in the Thai Forest Tradition
near Wellington, New Zealand

The community eats only before midday, in keeping with monastic traditions.

Typical schedule
5:15-6:30 Morning chanting and meditation
6:30 Domestic chores
7:00 Breakfast
8:00-10:30 Light work
10:30 Meal
The afternoon is free for individual practise unless some extra work is required.
6:00 Tea
7:00-8:25 Evening chanting and meditation

Monk for a day? Click to find out more.

Following at least 5 of the 8 rules, as here stated:

1. Harmlessness: not intentionally killing any living being.
2. Trustworthiness: not taking anything that is not given.
3. Chastity: refraining from all erotic behaviour.
4. Right Speech: not speaking falsely, or with abusive or malicious intent.
5. Mental Clarity: not taking any intoxicating drink or drug (smoking is discouraged).
6. Restraint: not eating after midday.
7. Renunciation: refraining from entertainments and from personal adornment (e.g. dress modestly, no radios).
8. Arousing Energy: to refrain from luxury and unnecessary comfort in sitting and sleeping.

 

 

-- and you shall give them comfort --

Metta Forest Monastery
Theravada Buddhism - FREE
but there are restrictions, read carefully
learn more about Theravada Buddhism

located in Northern San Diego County

Train in the practice of the Thai Mountain Tradition

Here's what they say about themselves: "We don't charge for room or board, as all our activities are funded by donations. Our accommodations are very simple: a guest house with three dormitory-style rooms, and platforms where tents may be pitched under the trees in our orchard. We recommend that visitors bring a flashlight, an alarm clock or watch, a tent (if you have one), a sleeping bag, and loose-fitting clothing (no shorts). Summers tend to be hot and dry, winters cold and rainy. We ask all our visitors to be sensitive to the differing cultures that meet here -- Thai, Laotian, and American -- and to be supportive of the rules that the monks follow." Contact (they turn the cell on for 1/2 hour each evening ;-)

 

 

-- and you shall give them comfort --

 

 

 

 

Maharishi Vedic Spiritual Center of America
Retreats for Woman in over 7,000 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina
view of the East Campus dining facility

various programs but the website was out of date ??

The Expanding Light Retreat
located in Nevada City in the foothills of Calfiornia

A thriving spiritual community, The Expanding Light is part of Ananda Village, a model of cooperative spiritual living founded in 1968 by Swami Kriyananda aka J. Donald Walters, pictured below.

The Village has 250 members living on 700 acres of land. Ananda includes homes, businesses (community-owned as well as privately owned), and a school for children.

Personal Retreats
These run somewhere between $70 and $100/night depending on your type of accommodation.

Meditate in the Temple

Guided Silent Retreat -during a silent retreat, all events are in silence and are optional. There are other kinds of retreats as well.

one of many cabins

some cabins have dining facilities

inside of another cabin -- each is unique

dining hall

Chautauqua Institute
Chautauqua, New York
(nearby home)

They say about themselves: "The nine-week long summer program is an opportunity for all kinds of spiritual exploration, growth and renewal. In an atmosphere of civility, participants in the Chautauqua programs are encouraged to enter debate on religions and philsophies, however controversial, with openness and goodwill. The relationships of beliefs with arts, science, politics and society can explored.

"Today, Chautauqua is a unique place where all kinds of spiritual journeys can be made -- into Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Native American Culture and more. Some of the foremost proponents and leaders of spiritual and philosophic movements are available for informal discussions in a relaxed and physically beautiful environment."

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article last updated 9.11.2007