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July 9, 2021, Adrian, Michigan – A three-day virtual retreat offered by Weber Retreat and Conference Center allows participants to explore – through the study of two remarkable mystics – the process in which we realize that God is the very reality of ourselves, others, and all things. The retreat is from 7:00 p.m. Sunday, August 1, 2021, through 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, August 4, 2021.

Gabrielle Earnshaw, founding archivist of the Henri J. M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, discusses the mysticism of Henri Nouwen (1932-1996). A Catholic priest born in Holland, Father Nouwen taught at the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard before joining L’Arche Daybreak, a community for people with intellectual disabilities. His honest exploration of his interior world is a model for those who yearn to create a space for God.

Margaret Winfrey leads retreatants in a discovery of Thomas Keating and Mary Mrozowski: Visionaries leading us in our spiritual journey. Father Thomas Keating, OSCO, a Trappist priest, created a new way for ordinary people to reach God and deepen their relationship with him through centering prayer. Mary Mrozowski, an early disciple of Father Thomas and a lay contemplative living in Chrysalis House in Warwick, New York, wrote the Welcoming Prayer.

The cost of the retreat is $140. Registration is required and is available at www.webercenter.org; click on “programs.” Registrations may also be made by contacting Weber Center at 517-266-4000 or webercenter@adriandominicans.org. Limited scholarships are available.

July 7, 2021, Chicago – In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sister Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, OP, ministered as Chaplain at Loyola Medical Center in Chicago and was present when the hospital’s first patient died of the virus. Sister Xiomara is part of a group of graduates from Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago who discuss their role as Chaplains – Spiritual First Responders – who are present in compassion to patients, family members, and medical staff suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Sometimes we cannot cure, but we continue to care,” Sister Xiomara said. Watch the CTU video on Spiritual First Responders.