HOUSE OF PRAYER
2010 RETREAT SCHEDULE
March 29-April 4
Holy Week Retreat
This silent immersion retreat will open up the
opportunity to experience Holy Week from the
inside: as an imaginal reality leading to a
direct encounter with that part of ourselves
that already lives beyond death, and to a
renewed intimacy with the risen Christ. The
practice will be rigorous, combining extended
sitting meditation with simple, contemplative
liturgy and teachings from The Mystery of Death
by contemporary mystic Ladislaus Boros (material
to be provided upon registration).
Prerequisites: prior participation in a Wisdom
School and an extended silent retreat.
Led by Cynthia Beourgeault and Ward Bauman
Cost: $680
June 20-28
KENOSIS: The Prayer of Self-Emptying An 8-day
Contemplative Silent Intensive
This retreat is based upon the basic spiritual
tools that Jesus taught and patterned in his own
life. He taught us that IF we are to follow him
in discipleship we must be willing to “deny our
own selves.” Primary and foundational to all
other Christian practices are the prayer forms
that lead
to self-emptying (kenosis). This retreat
represents our central ministry in spiritual
formation and is particularly geared for the
House of Prayer alums, or anyone who has already
been grounded in Christian contemplative
practices and feels ready to take further steps
into the fullness of God
through deeper prayer and honest reflection.
Led by Ward Bauman, Director of the House of
Prayer.
Cost: $640
July 18-24
A SCHOOL OF CONTEMPLATIVE WISDOM (Week 1)
From time immemorial there have been wisdom
schools to raise human consciousness, thereby
transforming society. Concerned with life lived
in the fullness of human being and
consciousness, Wisdom has been transmitted
across time as a treasury of theory and practice
to teach us how to awaken. Once again Lynn will
be returning to work with a teacher new to us,
David Stringer, poet, priest, writer, retreat
leader and teacher. Poetics will be our topic,
including modern nature poets of spirit and well
as the ancient mystic poets, “Hymn of the
Pearl.”
If you are registering for the first time to our
Wisdom academy, we would recommend that you read
Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Wisdom Way of Knowing
before attending either academy 1 or 2.
Led by Ward Bauman, Lynn Bauman and David
Stringer.
Cost: $680
August 6-13
A SCHOOL OF CONTEMPLATIVE WISDOM (Week 2)
See
Brochure
Conscious Love: A Pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy
In this incredibly beautiful spiritual home of
Francis and Clare we will offer a unique school
drawing from this loving energy, including the
feast days of St. Clare, St. Ruffino and the
Assumption. Morning meditation and wisdom
classes will be combined with afternoon
pilgrimages to holy sites, including spiritual
practices and rites. Our work will be
contemplative, rigorous, deeply reflective and
personally engaging.
Led by Cynthia Bourgeault, Ward Bauman and
Susanne Olin.
Cost: $1,399. includes board (2 meals per day),
room, tuition and all on site retreat related
transportation. Transportation to Assisi will be
privately arranged (ask us for recommendations).
August 26-29
Cooking Your Life
Back by request, we are offering this retreat
once again! Almost all cultures and religious
traditions, one way or another, hold food, its
preparation and consumption, as sacramental.
Celebrating our 20th year as a retreat center,
we will focus upon the wholeness of our lives.
Balancing the physical, mental and spiritual
work involves creatively cooking our lives. Food
and spirituality go hand in hand. What we put
into our body has everything to do with our
ethics, with our understanding of the
relationship between spirit and the material
world and God’s pattern for our us; seeing
ourselves through the lens of the Divine. We
were placed in a “garden” of God’s making and
the abundance is ours. We will creatively and
spiritually approach food and its preparations
to bring about a feast for our souls and bodies.
Led by Ward Bauman and friends
Cost: $355
September 20-26
BENEDICTINE EXPERIENCE
This is a six day experience of the Rule of St.
Benedict. This retreat is for those who have had
some exposure to the Rule or have attended a
previous Benedictine Experience. We will explore
more deeply the values, insights and wisdom of
the Rule. Participants will join the monks at
St. John’s Abbey Church for morning and evening
prayer as well as the sisters of St. Benedict’s
Monastery for evening prayer. Leaders include
members from both monastic communities.
For information and to register contact:
The Friends of St. Benedict, St. David’s Parish
5150 Macomb Street, NW
Washington, DC 20016
telephone: (202) 363-8061
e-mail:
saintbenedict@prospect-tech.com
October 1-3
Come and See: Personal Prayer in a Post Modern
World
Is prayer more than “twittering” God on the run,
even though that may be necessary some days?
What does prayer have to do with “real life”?
What happens to us when we pray? What are the
difficulties and paradoxes of prayer? What are
the possibilities of prayer? Does it “work”?
Meister Eckhart said: “The outward work will
never be puny if the inward work is great.” How
will prayer transform your life?
Led by David Keller, former Steward of the House
of Prayer and Emily Wilmer, retreat leader and
spiritual director.
Cost: $270
October 22-24
YOGA: A Spiritual Practice
This meditation intensive will offer the
beginning techniques of Yoga combined with
Christian contemplative practice. This is
offered to help the practitioner experience
spiritual practice as it occurs through one’s
body, developing ways to respond and open to new
channels of spiritual energies.
This introduction to Yoga and contemplative
practice will require the participant to be in
generally good health.
Led by Carole Baker (Practitioner and licensed
teacher of Iyngar Yoga) and Ward Bauman,
Director of the House of Prayer.
Cost: $270
November 12-15
A Spiritual Life
“There is nothing in the world that resembles
God as much as silence,” said the 13th century
mystic, Meister Eckart. This silent retreat is
appropriate for anyone, but is geared especially
for those new to silence and the contemplative
arts. We will offer teachings and guidance in
basic Christian spirituality and meditation
techniques. This will be intensive in
experience, but will be equally supportive and
spiritually nurturing. If you are unsure of your
spiritual path, and what is being required of
you, this retreat is intended to answer your
questions.
Led by Ward Bauman, Director of the House of
Prayer.
Cost: $310
Completed Programs
January 8-10
Practicing Transformation
This is an annual retreat for the Members of the
Contemplative Body of the House of Prayer. For
further information please contact the office of
the House of Prayer or the Director, Ward
Bauman.
Cost: $220
February 18-21
2012 Apocalypse: Humanity’s Future in Light of
Prophetic Vision
Something is afoot. Not only do ancient
prophecies point to an apocalyptic ending, but,
more importantly, there is an unveiling
phenomenon that humanity is on a trajectory
pointing either to a consciousness shift or a
bleak and treacherous future. We will explore a
new-school of awareness that history and the
cosmos are, indeed, inter-related events. God is
acting through humanity’s will and we must be
wide awake.
Led by Lynn Bauman, Director of Praxis Learning
Center, Telephone,
Texas, and Ward Bauman, Director of the House of
Prayer.
Cost: $355