Experience Spiritual Deepening
Unless otherwise noted, programs begin at 7 pm and end at noon.
Here is our September 17 e-newsletter. Sign up for future issues here.
Save the Date! Register early – spaces fill quickly!
St Hildegard Lives! A Festival of 21st Century Greening Inspiration
September 21 – 23 (Friday-Sunday)
With S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD and Hilde-friends
Tuition: $250, plus meals and lodging. Early bird rate $200 through August 30th.
Come! Taste spices, sample spelt, hear music, see beauty, know God, sing! We’ll do all these Hilde-things! Let St. Hildegard challenge your soul to find its greening expression and allow her profound insights to fortify your own soul-path. Discover fresh, exhilarating ways in which the vibrant light of the 12th century St. Hildegard can nourish and sustain a 21st century mystic clarity. With select guests, S. Gabriele will explore the creative zest that continues to animate teachers and healers, herbalists and spice-sellers, artists and writers. They share their stories and creations to inspire our own spiritual experience and personal Hildegard-greening! Register here.
Aging into Higher Consciousness
September 25 – 27 (Tuesday-Thursday)
With Delmarie Gibney, FSPA and Lucia Leck, M.Ed.
Join us in exploring aging as nature’s way of luring us deep into the discovery of who we are, bringing us to the pinnacle of our personal and spiritual development. Hosted close to the time of the spring and fall equinoxes, when life is either budding forth or being harvested, we focus on our own aging process. We look back at who we have been or forward to who we are becoming. Learn More Register here.
Midwest Diamond Approach Weekend
The Lataif: Gateways to Essence
October 5 – 7 (Friday-Sunday)
With Kara Vangen, MSW, and Kathleen Graham, RN, MS
All-inclusive cost: $315.00 (includes tuition, 2 nights lodging & 4 meals)
The Diamond Approach is a path of spiritual realization characterized by sincere inquiry into one’s own experience and fueled by love of truth. This retreat is the first of a series on the various lataif, which are centers of subtle physiology.
Activation of the Red lataifa or Essential Strength allows an inner aliveness which connects us to our love of life. It carries the sacred impulse of “I can” which increases our capacity to expand with courage and strength in life and on our spiritual journey.
This weekend includes meditation, teachings, inquiry and experiential exercises.
For more information and to register: Johanna Seubert, FSPA, at j.seubert@tds.net or 715.267.5703.
Myofascial Release Weekend with Laramee Paradise, CMT
October 5 – 7 (Friday-Sunday)
Discover steps toward your potential as a MFR therapist. You must have taken at least one seminar by John F. Barnes, PT. Contact Laramee at 612.232.4669 before registering through the Christine Center. Register here.
The Path to the Transition of Dying and Death
October 5 – 7 (Friday-Sunday)
With Susan Mickel, M.D., Ph.D.
Mindfulness of impermanence and death are a core practices for all branches of Buddhism. Ordinarily, although we know cognitively that our bodies, minds, and the universe are constantly changing, we plan and enact our lives as though long lives and health were assured. When serious illness or death appears within our lives, we are surprised. By neglecting such awareness, we cut ourselves off from the tenderness associated with knowing our vulnerability and the vulnerability of others. We forget our collective need to connect deeply in each moment with the fullness of life. In the Buddhist tradition, rather than death being the end, it is a transition that leads from one embodiment of our consciousness/awareness to another. Learn More
Opening to Pure Awareness: a Foundational Retreat
October 7 – 14 (Sunday-Sunday)
The simplicity, peace, and power of our true nature are often clouded over by habitual patterns of thought, emotion, and perception. Recognition of this nature, and cultivation of dwelling in it, is the heart of meditation in the essence traditions of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. As clouds obscure the openness of the sky and the radiance of the sun, our habits of identifying with our personal experience cloud over the pure awareness that is our true nature.
The Buddhist path for cultivating the conditions for recognition and stabilization of this awareness is a science of the mind. The Theravada teachings of the mindfulness meditation tradition will provide a basis for the teachings in this retreat, while the heart of the retreat will draw primarily on the Indo-Tibetan essence traditions that point directly to the mind’s nature. By emphasizing concentration early in the retreat, we can use the stability of the mind to explore how the mind constructs inner and outer experience.
This retreat will include guided meditations, group discussion of meditation experience, and individualized instruction within the group setting. The group discussion allows participants to learn from each other. Learn More
Intuitive Painting: Rediscover Joy
October 11 – 14 (Thursday-Sunday | 10 am – 5 pm daily)
Tuition: $60 a day / $30 for half days (all materials included, meals and lodging are additional)
Commuters welcome! Bring a bag lunch or purchase a delicious vegetarian meal for $16.
Brush, paper! GO!
Large sheets of vellum paper and 24 open paint pots of gorgeous colors await!
Experience a fun and supportive community of happy painters. Come with a friend! No previous art skill is required; bring a sense of play, adventure, and openness.
Each day includes two studio sessions with S. Gabe and an evening optional conversation circle. If you have ever felt blocked and uninspired, these days are the perfect remedy!
Painting from intuition brings freedom and restores creative zest. Dare to enter a marvelous “judgement-free zone” for discovering possibilities and breaking through limiting blocks old patterns that can invigorate all aspects of life. Just wait till you see the studio walls! Register here.
Yoga Nidra 24
October 23-24 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Note: Starts at 2 PM on Tuesday and ends at 2 PM on Wednesday
With Patricia Wack
Tuition $95 (housing and meals are additional)
Enjoy 24 hours of Restoration and Rejuvenation through the easiest yoga practice of all – simple, deep, natural rest! The Christine Center welcomes you to a monthly day designated for health, well-being, and ease. Each month, one of our featured instructors will offer a mid-week Yoga Nidra based program designed to help you experience quiet clarity and calm from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Join us as we take a 24 hour “time out” from our busy lives to unwind one serene breath at a time. You may even choose to extend your stay and create your own customized personal retreat. Our woodland sanctuary awaits you!
Writing Your Spiritual Journey with Joanne Nelson
October 26 – 28 (Friday-Sunday)
Tuition: $175 (meals and lodging are additional)
We all approach our spirituality—that link between the sacred and ourselves—in unique ways. Join in community to honor and explore your connection to the sacred and to the self through writing. Engage in guided written exercises developed by Joanne and other authors designed to help you explore your spiritual path, inspire your creative journey, and generate successful narratives and poetry. Give a written voice to your own spiritual story and leave with specific tools and strategies developed to make deepening your spirituality through writing easy to continue after our program.
Whether you are a seasoned writer or just beginning to play with words on the page, you will grow from this innovative retreat filled with unique writing prompts, mindfulness opportunities, and focused instruction appropriate to all genres of writing and levels of spiritual practice. Time will be available for writing in silence as well as for optional sharing in a safe and supportive community. All writing will be considered private and only shared with the community if desired. Register here.
Celebrating St. Clare of Assisi
October 26 – 28 (Friday evening to Sunday mid-day)
With S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD
Tuition: EARLY BIRD RATE! $175 until September 30th or $200 after that date (meals and lodging are additional)
Commuters are welcome!
Using two of the Christine Center’s treasured Franciscan icons, The Tavola of St. Clare and the San Damiano Crucifix, S. Gabriele will share how the 13th century Saint Clare can inspire in us a contemplative depth of soul so needed in our world today.
Defying both social prohibitions and no less than 4 popes, St. Clare dared to write her own way of life (the first ever!). She invited women into a sisterhood of equals to love God, to serve God, and to deeply care for one another’s souls.
We will explore the world of St. Francis and St Clare, pray together as the early Franciscans did, and take time to reflect and journal on the stunning reality of God’s beauty and unconditional love.
If you love Italy, luminous souls and amazing spiritual journeys, this weekend is for you! Register here.
A Soul Retreat with Robert Sardello
November 1 – 5 (Thursday evening through Monday mid-day)
Tuition: Early Bird Rate! $300 until October 1st or $350 after the 1st (meals and lodging are additional)
We are honored to host Robert Sardello in this premier retreat experience. Join Sister Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, and others of the Christine Center community for 5 days of contemplative practice and experiential Earth-conscious soul deepening. Joanna Macy calls it participating in the Great Turning. Thomas Berry calls it the Great Work. Andrew Harvey names it Active Hope.
Soul-work is now Earth-size. The spiritual deepening emergent in our time is a kind of transfigured incarnation, able to “suffer” planetary heart-break, and to willingly pursue a high spirituality of humbly, and profoundly “mattering”. With Robert Sardello as guide, join us in the evolution of a contemporary indigenous consciousness and vibrant heartfulness. Practice with us, fresh ways to live compassionate Earth-Soul presence. Register here.
Yoga Nidra 24
November 6 – 7 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Note: Starts at 2 PM on Tuesday and ends at 2 PM on Wednesday
With Patricia Wack
Tuition $95 (housing and meals are additional)
Enjoy 24 hours of Restoration and Rejuvenation through the easiest yoga practice of all – simple, deep, natural rest! The Christine Center welcomes you to a monthly day designated for health, well-being, and ease. Each month, one of our featured instructors will offer a mid-week Yoga Nidra based program designed to help you experience quiet clarity and calm from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Join us as we take a 24 hour “time out” from our busy lives to unwind one serene breath at a time. You may even choose to extend your stay and create your own customized personal retreat. Our woodland sanctuary awaits you!
2018 Uplift Yoga Retreat: Spiraling In-to Ourselves, and Out-to the World
November 16 – 18 (Friday 5 pm – Sunday 1 pm)
With Kate Karshna and Angela Coffee
All-inclusive cost: $272 – $348 (depending on lodging)
To register, please contact Kate at upliftyoga@gmail.com by Nov. 3rd.
Kate and Angela invite you to join us for the 9th Annual Uplift Yoga Retreat!
We will explore our interactions with ourselves, each other and nature through the lens of the Pancha Maya Model of yoga. Pancha Maya, or 5 sheaths, represents the 5 layers or aspects of our human experience: physical, energetic, mental, wisdom and bliss.
Our practices will spiral through all aspects of our being, using movement, sound, silence, visualization, and meditation. We will take time for self-care and tap into our inner wisdom and the shared wisdom of the group.
This retreat is intended for everyone, at any stage of yoga practice. Learn More.
The Heart of Self-Love with Dawn Morningstar
November 16 – 18 (Friday-Sunday)
Tuition: sliding fee $150 to $195 (meals and lodging are additional)
Autumn is a time for change, mystery, and comfort. Imagine feeling renewed love for yourself during this sacred weekend. You’ll learn the unique Venerable Women method to love yourself and live your highest and best life—which uplifts and blesses the lives of others on your path. Unlock the mystery of your empowered self in a nurturing, loving, and inspiring weekend with Dawn Morningstar, Venerable Women founder and award-winning author of “Venerable Women: Transform Ourselves, Transform the World.”
When you feel empowered (power within and with others, not power over), you open the door to live fully and joyfully. In this loving gathering, you will learn a simple and meaningful practice to empower yourself in all situations. You’ll learn how to stop relying on others for your happiness and wholeness—and become one who lives in authentic, grounded love. Learn More. Register here.
Midwest Diamond Approach Weekend
The Lataif: Gateways to Essence
November 23 – 25 (Friday-Sunday)
With Timothy Bernhard and Johanna Seubert FSPA
All-inclusive cost: $315.00 (includes tuition, 2 nights lodging & 4 meals)
The lataif are centers of subtle physiology. Activation of the Compassion or Green latifa gives us access to our loving kindness and compassion and reveals the mystery of having an open heart. This ongoing program on the lataif is presented by Midwest Diamond Approach teachers. The Diamond Approach is a path of spiritual realization characterized by sincere inquiry into one’s experience, fueled by the love of truth. This Midwest Diamond Approach retreat offers:
- a unique understanding of psychological and timeless spiritual wisdom.
- awareness and direct personal experience of a doorway to our being.
- support for one’s inner journey, and living in the world with loving kindness and
The weekend includes meditations, teachings, movement, and experiential exercises. The retreat begins on Friday night at 7:00 and ends on Sunday noon.
For more information and to register: S. Johanna Seubert at j.seubert@tds.net or 715.267.5703.
Mandala Weekend with Gabriele Uhlein OSF, PhD
November 23 – 25 (Friday-Sunday | 10 am – 5 pm daily)
Tuition: $60 a day / $30 for half days (all materials included, meals and lodging are additional)
Commuters Welcome! Bring a bag lunch or purchase a delicious vegetarian meal for $16.
Learn how to make Mandalas and discover creativity, relaxation and meditation.
Relax, refresh and reflect as your hands create circles of beauty and light.
Sister Gabriele provides guidance and introduces how to use mandala making as a form of prayer and meditation. No previous drawing or art experience is necessary. We will use artist grade colored pencils and watercolors. All materials are provided. Mandalas make wonderful personal keepsakes to honor special occasions and lovely one-of-a-kind gifts. Register here.
The Art of Self-Care: Ayurveda, Yoga & Meditation Seasonal Retreat
November 30 – December 2 (Friday-Sunday)
With Andrea Russell
Going on retreat offers an opportunity to let down the stresses of life and deepen your yoga and meditation practices. In addition to alignment-based yoga classes and mindfulness meditation instruction, you will learn Ayurvedic lifestyle and practice recommendations to align harmoniously with the season, so your health and well-being may flourish. This retreat offers just enough time to come back home to yourself without having to travel far. All levels are welcome.
Click here for more information and to register.
Bead-Making Open Studio
December 3 – 5 (Monday-Wednesday | 10 am – 4 pm daily)
With S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD
Tuition: $60 a day / $30 for half days (all materials included, lodging and meals are additional)
Commuters Welcome! Bring a bag lunch or purchase a delicious vegetarian meal for $16.
Design a custom set of prayer beads. Make two! Give them or keep them! Join S. Gabe and her bead-making friends in making Contemplation Cords.You will learn basic beading techniques and the amazing history of prayer beads as contemplation and prayer tools. The daily tuition includes materials for two sets of beads. Materials for additional completed prayer beads can be purchased for $20 each. Perfect for creating personalized one-of-a-kind gifts. (Limited to 10 participants.) Register here.
Yoga Nidra 24
December 4-5 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Note: Starts at 2 PM on Tuesday and ends at 2 PM on Wednesday
With Ann Swanson, E-RYT 200, RYT 500
Tuition $95 (housing and meals are additional)
Enjoy 24 hours of Restoration and Rejuvenation through the easiest yoga practice of all – simple, deep, natural rest! The Christine Center welcomes you to a monthly day designated for health, well-being, and ease. Each month, one of our featured instructors will offer a mid-week Yoga Nidra based program designed to help you experience quiet clarity and calm from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Join us as we take a 24 hour “time out” from our busy lives to unwind one serene breath at a time. You may even choose to extend your stay and create your own customized personal retreat. Our woodland sanctuary awaits you!
Learn more. Register here.
IRest Yoga Nidra Personal Practice Retreat
December 12 – 14 (Wednesday-Friday)
With Iris Mickey, MS, LMT, COTA
Explore sensations in gentle body sensing practices, inquire into thoughts and beliefs and be guided into deep states of remembering our innate wholeness and joy.
Yoga Nidra is always deeply relaxing and in this Irest form of practice also very contemplative and informative.
IRest Yoga Nidra was developed by Richard Miller, who incorporated all the tradition of Yoga Nidra with a nondualistic approach to self inquiry. Iris is blessed to be a Certified Irest Teacher and is thrilled to share her passion about this practice. Learn More
Sound and Silence
December 14 – 16 (Friday-Sunday)
With Wendy Kohlhaas and Sheila Nolte
Tuition: $150 (lodging and meals are additional)
Two practices based on praying from the heart frame this retreat. Sounds produced by gemstone crystal and Tibetan bowls help purify and raise the vibration of the body. The pure sound helps you release aches and tensions of a lifetime. Sacred singing, mantras, toning and giving voice can move us toward higher states of well-being. Learn and practice simple chants to pray when there are no words. Each tone makes its journey into deep places within the soul and aligns us with divine harmony. Register here.
New Year’s Retreat
December 27–January 1 (Thursday evening – Tuesday mid-day)
With Sisters Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD, and Marge Zulaski, OSF, PsyD
Tuition: Sliding scale $250-$450 (meals and lodging are additional)
Sign up for fewer days at a sliding scale rate of $50-$90 per day.
Wrap yourself in winter’s stillness. 6 days and 5 nights to restore and hearten soul amid the challenge of our times. Join in the signature Christine Center rhythm of meditation.
Experience daily offerings of reflection and conscious conversation to bless and release 2018.
Let our snow-clad woodland and luminous night sky inspire you.
On New Year’s Eve there is a splendid candlelight ritual to welcome 2019 followed by a festive social.
New Year’s morning features a celebration of intention and blessing for the year ahead.
Let stillness call you! Come for the days you can! Register here.
January 3 – 6, 2019 (Thursday – Sunday)
With Kali Higgins and special guest teachers
Winter is the time to slow down, restore and reflect. It is the season where we incubate our deepest dreams. Retreat in community with inspiring and like-minded people at the beautiful Christine Center. Together we will tap into winter’s energy and wisdom, while also offering plenty of time to rest and reflect in solitude. Over the weekend you can expect to reconnect to what matters most to you and begin crafting your dream/vision for the New Year ahead. Leave feeling restored with the support of gentle yoga, meditation, creative and healing activities and non-activities to nourish the soul. Learn More. Register Here.
Refill Your Well: A Weekend of Yoga, Sacred Sound and Connection
January 11 – 13, 2019 (Friday-Sunday)
With Aveen Banich, MD, RYI
Join Aveen for her 5th annual winter retreat at the Christine Center. Plan to begin 2019 with a re-committment to self-love, care and compassion. Come to refill your well, attune to your heart and find resonance both with yourself and the amazing wisdom circle that will gather with you. This weekend will consist of gentle yoga, chant and sacred sound, visioning for 2019, rest, delicious nourishing food and sacred connection. Yoga styles will include gentle vinyasa flow, yin and restorative practices. You will leave the weekend feeling rested, refreshed and renewed. Learn More. Register here.
The Resonant Soul: Tao in The Winter
January 25 – 27, 2019 (Friday-Sunday)
With Ronald E. Moor
Five hundred years before Christ, the legendary Chinese sage Lao Tzu composed a poetic and profound text known as the Tao Te Ching. It’s eighty-one short wisdom sayings come down to us with an uncommon elegance that crystalize a deep feminine philosophy on such perennial matters as power, happiness, and the source of meaning. Written down at a time of great chaos in ancient China, it is gaining wider recognition in our own time of challenge.
We will begin with the origins of The Tao as it was initially expressed in its sister book, The I Ching, that dates back to around 3,000 BCE. Of the same linage, both cannons, or “Ching” in Chinese, spring from the mystery beyond the mystery. After learning the mythic story of how the text of The Tao came to be, we will then explore several of the core verses, reading, discussing, and contemplating. We will bring each verse we encounter into a time of silent meditation so that the meaning of the text resonates more fully. Learn More. Register here.
Yoga and Sound Healing for Chakra Balancing
January 31 – February 3, 2019 (Thursday-Sunday)
With Kristin Manjula
Imagine taking time away from the responsibilities of daily life to nourish your body, focus on your well being, and gain greater insight into what it means to be at your happiest and healthiest.
This three day retreat will emphasize finding personal fulfillment by exploring each of the seven main chakras through philosophy, breath work, movement, chanting, and sound healing. Kristin, of Breathe Yoga and Wellness Center in Janesville, Wisconsin will lead you through yoga practices, philosophy discussions and sound healing sessions. There will be opportunities for discussion, questions, and personal inquiry. Most importantly, there will be time and space to settle into an immersive practice of yoga in a serene environment with supportive community.
This retreat does not require any experience and is open to all. Learn More
You Can Experience This Too
The staff has been incredibly kind. Everyone has gone out of their way to be of service. I could not ask for a more loving environment. David B.
The staff were so warm and welcoming. I felt completely comfortable right away. Judy M.
The energy at the Center is so calm, soothing, and peaceful. Everyone is so kind and helpful. I felt safe and cared for by ALL the staff. Laurie R.
The staff was so helpful and friendly. They took care of my special diet with excellence. Spruce K.