Group Retreat

A bit more about the retreat

Our lives are increasingly being lived at high velocity and with greater amounts of clutter. But if we can somehow slow down and strip away that clutter, we can focus on what really matters. That, in part, is what a wilderness retreat can do.

The discipline of wilderness is a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Just as wilderness offered revelations to the early Desert Christians, so wilderness hones crucial spiritual skills for us: paying attention, traveling light, practicing silence, exercising wonder, and slowing down.  Through these practices, the wilderness itself becomes another way of knowing God in ever deeper ways. As Aslan urged at the end of the Narnia tales, “Farther up and further in.”

We will explore the convictions of the early Desert Christians such as:

• There are no easy routes to self-realization; it begins, ironically, with self-abandonment.
• The spiritual life thrives on the margins of society, in solitude framed by community.
• Desire and relinquishment are a recurring pattern in wilderness experience.
• Failure and making mistakes don’t hinder spiritual growth; they occasion it.
• The body, when disciplined, becomes an important teacher of spiritual insight.
• Wilderness breeds a lifestyle of resistance, cultural critique, and cantankerous honesty.

A Rewilding the Heart Retreat will take you deep into the Bob Marshall Wilderness or Mission Mountain Wilderness of western Montana.  Together we’ll explore the landscape known as “the last best place” and “the valley of the hush” while enjoying the comforts of a cozy cabin.

We begin with dinner on Monday night and conclude by noon on Friday.  The cost of the retreat:  $425.00 (single), $395.00 (couples price/person) which covers lodging, meals and materials.  This is a 5-day retreat.  Space is limited so please register soon if interested.