Hello friends! Are you planning to run a retreat in the near future. I thought you might benefit from my experience planning and facilitating a retreat for the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women. I chair the Spirituality Commission for the DCCW, so I and my committee of myself and two other women planned a Pre-Lenten Retreat, which was attended by forty-six women. The theme of the retreat was Getting to Know Jesus Through the Eyes of Women. Here is our agenda for the day

10:00 Welcome

10:10 Opening Prayer

10:15 John Paul II on The Dignity of Women

10:25 Women Who Encountered Jesus in Scriptures Readings and Group Discussion

11:30 Lunch

12:15 Confession and Time for Personal Reflection

1:00 Women Saints

1:30 “Let Us Be Heard” group discussion on quotes brought and placed on our “Tree of Saintly Women”

2:00 Saintly Women and the Canonization process

2:30 Break

2:45 The Future of Women in the Church

3:15 Reflections of the Day

3:45 What’s Next?

4:00 DCCW Needs You

4:10 Closing Prayer

4:30 Mass (Optional)

The discussion on women who encountered Jesus face-to-face was based on three chapters of my book, The Face of Jesus, with discussion questions from the book. After time for participants to either go into the church for private meditation or take part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation with the parish priest where we held the retreat, we talked about Saints and Saintly Women. One of our facilitators is an artist and she made a beautiful tree on poster board, and, on this tree, each woman brought a quote from a female saint she admired. We invited participants to explain their quote and why they brought it. After this we invited all participants to explain which quote really touched them and why. Before the “Tree of Saintly Women” exercise, each of our three facilitators talked about a female saint who they admired and why. Following this was a talk on the eighteen American women who are at the first stage leading to canonization and the canonization process. We talked about the future of women in the Church and had an open discussion including what these women would like to see from DCCW and the Spiritualty Commission. After our closing prayer, those who could stay went to Mass.

Evaluations from participants were very positive and gave us some great ideas going forward. If you are interested in getting help planning you own retreat, or someone to facilitate your retreat, contact me at Linda@LindaLysakowski.com. And if you are interested in the book, The Face of Jesus, you can pick it up here