Retreat, Respite and Renewal

So what do you do with a 20-bedroom facility?

Our Catholic Worker is ideal for individual and group retreats. Good meeting space is hard to find in this town. Many groups simply cannot afford it, or even if they can, places often book up months in advance.

Our home is warm and lovely. Kids love it. We have an almost ideal set-up: Large dining room and kitchen. Cozy living room. Smaller parlor rooms with doors for privacy. There is also a wonderful chapel.

We have around 12 rooms available for overnight stay. This will vary, depending on how many live-in volunteers we have. We use some of the bedrooms for an office, storage and other uses, but they could be re-configured if needed. Most of the rooms have beds already set up, but we are getting some more donations and will have a "bed set-up party" in the near future.

How much are we going to charge?

We operate in God's economy: We don't charge. We'll let the Lord sort that out. We want to make sure cost is not a barrier, as many wonderful ministry groups out there are struggling financially and our mission, after all, is hospitality.

So far there has been strong interest. We have been approached by different parishes to host meetings as well as from a prison ministry group.

Poustinia

At any time, individuals can stop over for respite. We like the idea of a poustinia, which is a tradition in the Russian Orthodox Church. This is a place people can go to in order to be alone with God. If you need to just get away and spend an afternoon or a weekend alone with God, we are more than happy to make our space available for you. Dorothy Day used to go on a retreat where she had nothing but a Bible, some bread and a lot of time alone with God. Probably the one thing lacking in a city such as ours is a quiet place to go to get away from it all. Just call ahead and we'd be glad to welcome you in!