Newsletter

Contemplative Watercolor Retreat

Join us for a day of Contemplative and Creative Reflection on Sacred Scripture  Using Watercolors
(C.R.O.S.S.)
with Nahed Fernando, Spiritual Director. 
 
Date: Saturday, May 18, 2024.
Time: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where:
             The Hermitage Community
             11321 Dutch Settlement Rd
             Three Rivers, MI  49093
 
With Scripture inspiring us, let us nurture our sense of wonder and creativity.
 
While delving into the spiritual practices of reading, reflecting, and responding to Scripture,  you will be guided into using watercolor painting and journaling to aid in deeply absorbing the truths of God’s word and presence in your life. 
 
Through creative expression, we will seek to quiet the noises and voices that so routinely occupy our lives and practice ways to hear and recognize God’s voice and invitation. 
 
You may arrive on Friday and/or stay on Saturday night, extending your retreat time for an added fee. When you register, please indicate if you would like spiritual direction with Nahed who will be available until noon on Sunday (for an additional reduced fee).   
 
The cost is $120 per person, includes the day retreat on Saturday, lunch, and all supplies. Please bring your own journal. 
A $50 non-refundable deposit is requested to save your spot and purchase supplies. 
 
Painting experience is helpful but not required.

Outdoor gardens and walking paths will be available. 

 

 

Advent 2023 – Creches from Around the World

Advent Day Retreat led by Faith Bierma and Patty Hogan
Maranatha! 
December 9
9am-4:30pm

Event Highlights:
*Advent Hymn Sing
*Lectio Divina 
*Practice of Listen Prayer
*Exploration of the Depiction of the Nativity from Around the World
*Small Group Discussion and Processing
 
 
To register, please fill in the registration form and note in the comments that you would like to register for the advent retreat. Thank you!
Would you like to meet with someone for spiritual direction during your retreat? (Requested amount of $50-75 per session.) Fees for sessions with David or Naomi Wenger or Christina Rhebergen should be paid directly to them.
We serve vegetarian meals and strive to accommodate allergies. With at least one week's notice, we are able to accommodate gluten, corn, dairy, soy, and peanut free meals. For diet preferences or if allergies are more complicated, please bring food to supplement what we provide.
Massages are available through appointment with David Wenger (and paid to David directly). If you request a massage here we will reach out to David and he will get in touch with you regarding schedule availability during your stay.
Please enter your email address here if you would like to receive our e-newsletter (usually sent once per month).

Howard Thurman Retreat

Join Us for a Day of Reflection and Inspiration!

Howard Thurman 1-Day Retreat led by Dr. Phillip Johnson

The Search for Common Ground

Howard Thurman

A Beacon of Hope

 

On the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth we reflect on the life and work of Dr. Howard Thurman. Dr. Thurman was spiritual advisor to Dr. King and one of the principal architects of the modern, nonviolent civil rights movement.

Dr. Thurman devoted his life and work to the quest for common ground. He believed that the quest for community begins with the contemplative life and when our inner sense of wholeness, integration, and harmony is awakened we become “apostles of sensitiveness” who work for transformation in the world even as we are working on it in ourselves. Dr. Thurman challenges us to move deep into our own hearts to move nearer to the inner experiences of all peoples, cultures, and faiths. During these troubled and fragile times, Dr. Howard Thurman is a beacon of hope for those who dream and continue the search for common ground. Through prayer, meditation, reflection, and small group discussions, we invite you to listen to “the sound of the genuine” within, as we reimagine the search for common ground amid the challenges and threats we face today.

 

Date: 20 January 2024

Time: 9am-430pm

The Hermitage

11321 Dutch Settlement Road

Three Rivers, MI 49093

 

Event Highlights:

  • Howard Thurman’s Wisdom and Teachings
  • Delicious Lunch Included
  • Prayer
  • Meditation
  • Small Group Discussion
  • Reflection and Community

 

Retreat Day Schedule

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM: Registration and Welcome (informal)

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Opening Meditation and Intro to Howard Thurman

10:45 AM – 12:30 PM: Workshop 1: The Quest for Community

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: Hermitage Lunch

1:45 PM – 3:30 PM Workshop 2: Meditation, Howard Thurman: Spiritual Activist

3:45 PM – 5:00 PM: Silent /Personal Reflection

4:30 PM – 5:00 PM – Departure

Facilitator Bio

Dr. Johnson is a retreat leader, speaker, spiritual director*, associate professor of counselor education and counseling psychology, licensed professional counselor, who has authored journal articles and book chapters. He desires to support all people on their spiritual journeys and help them to embrace a deeper sense of their inherent somebodiness as they discover their unique sacred calling.

*Certified Spiritual Director, (Completed Spiritual Formation and Practicum at Dominican Center Marywood, Aquinas College)

Cost: 85 USD

Registration Details: To register, please fill in the reservation request form. Please note in the comments of the form that you are registering for the Thurman Retreat.

Would you like to meet with someone for spiritual direction during your retreat? (Requested amount of $50-75 per session.) Fees for sessions with David or Naomi Wenger or Christina Rhebergen should be paid directly to them.
We serve vegetarian meals and strive to accommodate allergies. With at least one week's notice, we are able to accommodate gluten, corn, dairy, soy, and peanut free meals. For diet preferences or if allergies are more complicated, please bring food to supplement what we provide.
Massages are available through appointment with David Wenger (and paid to David directly). If you request a massage here we will reach out to David and he will get in touch with you regarding schedule availability during your stay.
Please enter your email address here if you would like to receive our e-newsletter (usually sent once per month).

Women’s Experiential Prayer Retreat

Encounter Prayer in a new way! Come and unleash the imagination and creativity of prayer through unexpected mediums.  Using art, nature, movement, silence, and listening, we connect with God using all of our senses and honor the Lord who created our whole selves- and engages us wholly.

There will be guided workshops and space for personal reflection and group processing. Presenters: Faith Bierma, Patty Hogan, Mary Knapp, and more!

Come for the total experience: Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, meals included: $250, or come for the day on Saturday 9-4:30, lunch included : $75

Please RSVP at contact@hermitagecommunity.org, space is limited!

Spaces open for Women’s Retreat this weekend – April 14-16

Come and encounter God and His unprecedented dreams for your life surrounded by nature and intentional time away in solitude. 
This is a 3-day experience that provides a Holy Spirit tailored setting for a small but powerful group of like-minded women to encounter the presence of God. This will be a beautiful time of building genuine relationship and greater intimacy with God, self, and others. 
 
ROCIO VALLEJO
Identity & Purpose Coach | Writer | Storyteller
“May the heavens split, earth tremble, & sea roar
to welcome the truest parts of you that ever lived.”
 

‘God’s love made edible’ fundraising retreat: Cultivating/Inoculating Mushrooms

28 April 2023 from 10am-3pm
 

·       Professor Emeritus MSU, Dr. Richard Leep, will lead a class on inoculating gourmet mushrooms on logs. Rich has several years of experience cultivating and marketing mushrooms. Rich will instruct on basic inoculation methods for backyard logs and for more extensive production. 

Included with registration: 

  • A Hermitage prayer of thanksgiving for mushrooms.
  • Instruction on types of mushrooms, log selection for species, etc.
  • Participants will practice inoculating with the dowel and sawdust methods.
  • Hermitage Lunch! 
  • 2 logs for each participant to bring home—your choice of two mushroom strains from the class—one shiitake and one oyster (60+USD value based on Field & Forest prices for inoculated logs). 
  • Additional logs available for 20USD each, various species, and strains.

Suggested donation 200 USD

Limit of 10 participants

Register by 20 April. Contact Troy at contact@hermitagecommunity.org

Invite anyone you know who may like to come for this event.

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Lent Retreat 2023

Facilitated by Joel and Patty Hogan

March 4, 9:30am-3:30pm $75 Lunch included

On Saturday, March 4, 2023, the Hermitage invites you to participate in a Lenten retreat of Lament.  We will work in small groups to write communal laments, and we will write individual, personal laments as well.  Time will be given to bear witness to both small group and individual lament as participants are willing.

Lamentation, or Lament, is a God-given and biblical way to respond to and process grief and loss. When we lament, we give voice to the sacred stories of our lives and our world as they are disrupted, and as we strive to find meaning and resolve.

Psalm 102: 1-2

“A Prayer of the Afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.
Hear my prayer, O Lord!
And let my cry for help come to You.
Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;
Incline Your ear to me;
In the day when I call answer me quickly.”

Join us by emailing contact@hermitagecommunity.org to reserve your seat

Advent Quiet Day 2022 – Presenter Naomi Wenger

Would you like to meet with someone for spiritual direction during your retreat? (Requested amount of $50-75 per session.) Fees for sessions with David or Naomi Wenger or Christina Rhebergen should be paid directly to them.
We serve vegetarian meals and strive to accommodate allergies. With at least one week's notice, we are able to accommodate gluten, corn, dairy, soy, and peanut free meals. For diet preferences or if allergies are more complicated, please bring food to supplement what we provide.
Massages are available through appointment with David Wenger (and paid to David directly). If you request a massage here we will reach out to David and he will get in touch with you regarding schedule availability during your stay.
Please enter your email address here if you would like to receive our e-newsletter (usually sent once per month).

Advent Quiet Day 2022

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“As Kingfishers Catch Fire”-

An Exploration of the Incarnation With Gerard Manley Hopkins

Date: December 3, 2022
Time: 9 am – 3 pm
Place: The Hermitage Community, Three Rivers, MI
Presenter: Naomi Wenger
Suggested Donation: $75 (lunch included)

“…Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.”

These words from the closing of Gerard Manley Hopkin’s untitled sonnet, form a framework for an Advent Quiet Day reflection on Being, Doing, Incarnation and Divinization. Join with Naomi in a day-long meditation on one of Hopkin’s most beloved poems. As we prepare for the darkening days of Advent and the remembrance of the incarnate birth of the son of God, we take a few hours to remember that we participate in this great movement of God earthward by approaching the fullness of “our life … hidden in Christ with God” (Colossians 3:3).

To register, email contact@hermitagecommunity.org or call 269-244-8696 before November 26.

Women’s Silent Retreat

A silent retreat for women at the Hermitage will be hosted by the Sanctuary at Bear Creek on 14-16 October 2022 . 

There are a few openings still available! Please use the link below to see if this opportunity is for you.

Women’s’ Retreat Offering

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Support the Hermitage through transitions

Dear Hermitage Friend,

In late August 1999 June and I moved into Nazareth, the double-wide mobile home on Hermitage property. This began a 3-month season of transition for us, and a 23-year loving relationship with The Hermitage. For most of those years we continued our relationship by coming on retreats, lots of volunteering, and my serving on the board for several years. In August 2018 we moved here again to join the staff. These past 23 years have been incredibly rich and rewarding. And June and I once again have entered time of transition as we’ve heard the call to move closer to my folks in Southern Manitoba.

Kevin and June in the fall of 1999

In conversation with my spiritual direction trainer, a few months before starting here, the image of the inn-keeper in the parable of the Good Samaritan emerged as an identity shaping image for me. I saw him as offering hospitality to all who Christ brough to his door. A copy of the Rembrandt painting of the Samaritan dropping off the injured man at the inn has hung on the wall above my office phone during my time here. I am so grateful for a place to continually discover what this image and identity means for me. Bearing witness to the presence of Christ through our guests whether that be in silence or heartfelt conversation has been the greatest gift the Hermitage has offered me. These encounters have only strengthened my desire to share God’s hospitality and God’s rest. I look forward to discovering how this identity will find expression in our new home.

These years as director have been very rich, and very challenging. Attempting to lead the Hermitage through the season of Covid was a challenge I never could have imagined. The endless needs of our aging facilities included replacing one geothermal unit in the cold of winter, and then the other geothermal wasn’t heating properly and took many months to fully repair. Earlier this year a range, dryer, and microwave stopped working and needed to be replaced within two months. And I continue to keep an eye on the Hanby Center roof which we’ve put off replacing for a couple years. The list could go on.

Throughout my 23 years with The Hermitage, I’ve been overwhelmed by the support shown to the Hermitage. I’ve learned that it is the very presence of guests that most sustains this place. The presence of guests and staff turn this lovely spot in the woods into a place of encounter with God. I am deeply grateful for those who help share in the day-to-day work of the Hermitage, whether that be for an afternoon, or for many years. I am also continually grateful for those who have financially supported the Hermitage over its 37 years. For many years I was one of you and was always grateful to hear about the work happening here and showing my support through time, treasure and talent.

Transitions can be hard on people, and on an organization. There will be rough spots and times of uncertainty for the Biermas as they assume leadership. I can say with complete confidence, however, that the support of the broader Hermitage community will continue and will sustain them and this place for many years to come. I invite you to support the Hermitage through this transition to continue providing a way and a place to pray for 37 more years. No gift is too small.

You can donate online via our PayPal page.

Sincerely,
Kevin Driedger

June and Kevin as we prepare to depart.
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