Graduate
Summer 2009 Retreat
Graduate Theology and Pastoral Ministry
P R E S E N T S
Centering Prayer
A Summer Retreat with Father Carl Arico
July 12-17, 2009
THE RETREAT SCHEDULE
Sunday, July 12
Registration - 3:00-5:30 p.m.
Dinner - 6:00 p.m.
Orientation - 7:00 p.m.
Monday – Thursday, July 13 – 16
Morning Prayer - 7:30 a.m.
Morning Sessions - 9:00 & 11:00 p.m.
Afternoon Sessions - 1:30 & 3:00 p.m.
Eucharist - 4:30 p.m.
Friday, July 17
Morning Prayer - 7:30 a.m.
Morning Sessions - 9:00 & 10:30 a.m.
Eucharist - 11:45 a.m.
To register for this event, please download the retreat brochure, which includes the registration form, and mail the completed form along with payment to:
Graduate Theology and Pastoral Ministry
Saint Michael’s College
One Winooski Park, Box 252
Colchester, VT 05439
Phone: 802.654.2579
E-mail: emahoney@smcvt.edu
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The Retreat Focus
The Centering Prayer Retreat is an invitation to explore the discipline of Centering Prayer as silent communion with God beyond concepts, words and images. The retreat includes instruction on the method of Centering Prayer as well as lectio divina: and provides a setting in which participants can spend time in extended periods of Centering Prayer. The purpose is to help participants deepen the experience of interior silence and resting in God.
About Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.
Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer. Rather, it adds depth of meaning to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God and as a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.
The source of Centering Prayer, as in all methods leading to contemplative prayer, is the Indwelling Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. The effects of Centering Prayer are ecclesial, as the prayer tends to build communities of faith and bond the members together in mutual friendship and love.
About Father Carl Arico
Father Carl Arico is a founding member and the vice president of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., and has been an integral part of the organization’s growth and development. Fr. Arico has traveled extensively in the United States and internationally to present workshops and direct retreats for both priests and laypeople. In addition, he has been continually involved in the enrichment of Contemplative Outreach chapters and in the conception and implementation of many of the organization’s programs. Before coming to Contemplative Outreach he served in the Archdiocese of Newark as a parish priest, as a teacher at Union Catholic High School, and was actively involved in the marriage and family ministry in the Archdiocese of Newark and the Province of New Jersey. He was the Director of Priest Personnel for the Archdiocese of Newark from 1980 to 1986. In 1987 Fr. Arico began his ministry with Contemplative Outreach which he co-founded with Fr. Thomas Keating. He is a co-author of the book Living Our Priesthood Today (Our Sunday Visitor, 1987) with Fr. Basil Pennington, and the author of Taste of Silence (The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, 1999), a guide to the fundamentals of Centering Prayer.
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RETREAT ARRANGEMENTS AND TRAVEL
Accommodations
Participants will be housed in the new Pontigny Residence Hall on the campus of Saint Michael’s College. The living learning facility is air-conditioned, and residents are housed in single rooms in six room suites with shared baths. Each suite has a large sitting room with amenities.
Getting to Saint Michael’s College
The Burlington International Airport (BTV) in South Burlington and Amtrak station in Essex Junction are both 10-minute drives from campus. The Greyhound Bus station in Burlington is within 15 minutes of campus. Taxi service is available throughout the area. For driving directions visit: www.smcvt.edu/directions
