Online gathering. All are welcome. Fill out the registration form to be added to the email announcements. Check the link for more information about the gathering.
Contemplative Photography Group
Contemplative Photography group
Online gathering. All are welcome. Fill out the registration form to be added to the email announcements. Check the link for more information about the gathering.
Lent Quiet Day – The Truth About Freedom
Lent is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for “spring.” It denotes the lengthening of days. In Christian practice, it is a time for honest introspection and long reflection on the life and work of Jesus and readies us for an entry into Holy Week culminating in the celebration of Resurrection. We believe we are made free because of the work of Christ. But do we live out the fullness of our freedom or do we have too limited a view? This Lent, our challenge is to exercise true freedom, not out of a power-based liberty, but from the strength of self-giving Love. Our only source of this Love is Union with God and others.
Join us to explore the truth about freedom through an examination of Jesus and The Disinherited, by Howard Thurman. Read the book ahead or come for the gleanings.
Presenter: Naomi Wenger
Suggested Donation: $75; lunch included, any donation gratefully received
Note: Depending on the spread of COVID in this region, we may ask attenders to wear face coverings during the retreat. We will meet in the Chapel of the Transfiguration where we will practice physical distancing.
Please register by February 26 using the form below or emailing contact@hermitagecommunity.org
Greetings from the Hermitage
Dear Hermitage friends,
In this season of thanksgiving, let me first offer our heart felt thanks for all the prayers and support you have provided The Hermitage during this past year. We would not have been able to provide the loving, hospitable presence of God to so many retreatants if not for your support. Thank you and may God bless you and your family abundantly.
Now, as autumn slips into winter, the glorious leaves are falling, and the gray tree shapes emerge from the golds and reds. Jewel-like harbingers of the dark and cold time. We know that Christmas is coming. Our memories of Christmas do not reflect the weather patterns in the real Bethlehem. We envision snow, winds blowing, and the cold in Michigan where the Hermitage is a sacred nest.
Every Christmas, when I intentionally prepare to write this appeal, the manger comes to my heart. I often think of Mary and Joseph in the dark winter seeking habitation for the birth of Jesus. The Hermitage is a welcome dwelling to pilgrims seeking a way and a place to pray. The dark winter is a time for seeking renewal, the Hermitage welcomes all. We cover our guests with the quilt of love, provide warm and nutritious meals, and grounded spiritual counsel.
This year we have faced many challenges: the rising costs of completing our house built of earth and sky, the ever-shifting Covid pandemic, and staff transitions. We are asking you to, once again, please help us sustain the grace and mercy of Jesus at the Hermitage by your Christmas giving. Your help is needed in creating the beauty and safety of a place to lay their sweet heads.
We thank you, as always, for your prayerful discernment of your gift to our ministry.
You can donate online or mail your donation to The Hermitage, 11321 Dutch Settlement Rd. Three RIvers, MI 49093
Blessings of Christmas!
Mary Asmonga-Knapp
Hermitage Board president
Hermitage closed
Hermitage closed
Making God Alive – An Advent Quiet Day Retreat
Annalena Tonelli, a woman who served the desert nomads of northern Kenya dying of tuberculosis penned the following words:
The poor are waiting for us. The ways of service are infinite and left to the imagination. Let us not wait to be instructed in how to serve. We invent and we live the new heavens and the new earth each day of our lives.…We are the visible sign of [God’s] presence and we make [God] alive in this infernal world where it seems that [God] is not. We make [God] alive each time we stop next to a wounded person.
from Rachel Pieh Jones – Stronger than Death: How Annalena Tonelli Defied Terror and Tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa.
We are facing all kinds of cultural transitions we feel unready to embrace. We are afraid. We are uncertain. We are wounded. We are grieving. We want to know that God is alive and at work among us. We need to make God alive by our presence in the world.
Join us for an Advent Quiet Day retreat on December 4 from 9-3:30. We will be reflecting on this theme of “Making God Alive.”
Leader: Naomi Wenger
Suggested Donation: $75, includes lunch. Payable the day of the retreat by cash, check or credit card in Hermitage office.
Register by: December 1
Register
Hermitage closed
Happy Thanksgiving
Witness – Grief, Trauma, and Transition: Quiet day of reflection
Recently, I heard the phrase, “grief is in season.”I believe it captures the essence of these days. We have all been experiencing loss in some way. For some, the loss is of relationships or wellness, or even the life of a loved one. For others it is the uncovering of hidden trauma, held in the body, perhaps for generations. And all of us are going through transition due to the social upheaval of pandemic. What kind of people are we? What kind of person am I becoming? These questions have moved out of our private musings and into our everyday conversations.
On Saturday, September 11, 2021, Naomi Wenger will be facilitating a Quiet Day from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm to bear witness together to our griefs, acknowledge our trauma and support one another in our transitions.
Join her at The Hermitage Community in Three Rivers, Michigan for a quiet day of witness and reflection. There will be ample personal reflection time and communal rituals as we share the day together.
Lunch is included in the retreat; please mention any dietary restrictions at the time of registration.
Suggested Donation: $50-75; we gratefully receive whatever you are able to give for this Quiet Day.
This retreat is offered in collaboration with the Sister Barbara Anne Hallman, OSF, Memorial Fund
This retreat is currently full. Feel free to use the form to be put on a waiting list.
Register for event: use form or email contact@hermitagecommunity.org
Feast of the Transfiguration – Celebrating the Ministry of David and Naomi Wenger
Join us as we honor David and Naomi Wenger as they conclude their 20 years of ministry at The Hermitage. Bring a story, a poem, a memory to thank them for their faithful service.
We will be walking the Hermitage land during the day and walking shoes are advised. We will be enjoying the traditional mid-day potluck feast—please bring food to share.
Schedule
9 am–Morning Prayer
9:30—Blessing the Land
10:45—Retreat: Calling
11:30—Silent Reflection
12:30 pm– Midday Meal
1:30—Honoring, Recommissioning David and Naomi Wenger
3:00—Eucharist; Waykeepers Committing
3:30—Closing Blessing
Questions, suggestions? Email June at June@hermitagecommunity.org