Experience Spiritual Deepening
Unless otherwise noted, programs begin at 7 pm and end at noon.
Here is our November 27 e-newsletter. Sign up for future issues here.
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. Learn more. 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.
Winter Yoga and Meditation
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 or vision for the New Year. 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.
Intuitive Painting: Rediscover Joy
January 3-6, 2019 (Thursday-Sunday)
Daily 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (commuters welcome)
with Sister Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD
Tuition: $60 a day / $30 for half days (all materials included), meals and lodging additional. Commuters: 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 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 until you see the studio walls! 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.
Grief, Loss and Resilience: a Buddhist Approach
with Lama Yeshe
Jan. 14 – 16 ( Mon- Wed.) 2019
Tuition $150
We can experience many types of loss during our lives; death of a loved one or friend, divorce, loss of ones health, loss of livelihood and so forth. Lama Yeshe will explore how to respond to grief and loss in a healthy way that actually can result in spiritual growth and the development of wisdom. By understanding that change is part of life, we realize we can also change and not be stuck in a past that no longer exists. There will be a description of Buddhist approach to death and what is traditionally done by the living for those who have died. This program will examine mindfulness, loving-kindness, and wisdom and how to include them in our lives. Learn More. Register here.
Yoga Nidra: A Day of Deep Relaxation
January 24-25, 2019 (Thursday–Friday)
with Tracy Chipman, MA, CYT, AYS
Tuition: $95, plus meals and lodging
“The mid-week, once-a-month yoga retreat is a wonderful idea! It’s a great break from everyday life. Everything is excellent. The Christine Center never disappoints.”–November 2018 retreat participant
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.
The Yoga of Relaxation
January 25-27, 2019 (Friday–Sunday)
with Tracy Hart, CYT
Tuition: sliding scale; $100 to $150, plus meals and lodging
Join us for a weekend of relaxation and training. Ease stress and tension while communing with the spirit. This weekend will incorporate yoga techniques and energy work to release and relax the mind and nervous system creating an overall sense of peace and tranquility. All levels of experience are welcome. Sessions will incorporate periods of conscious relaxation, Yoga Nidra breath work, meditation, visualization and include a crystal singing bowl experience. Gentle yoga stretching and QiGong exercises will be included in the weekend practice. Learn more.
The Resonant Soul: Tao in The Winter
January 25 – 27, 2019 (Friday-Sunday)
with Ronald E. Moor
More than 500 years before Christ, the legendary Chinese sage Lao Tzu composed a poetic and profound text known as the Tao Te Ching. It’s 81 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. 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 3-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. Register here.
The Heart of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Feb. 1 – 3, 2019 (Friday-Sunday)
with Barbara Wulf
Tuition $150 plus meals and lodging
“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment.”– Jon Kabat-Zinn
Based on the principals and practices of the 8-week MBSR program started by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979, this workshop offers a “taste” of the program. Through the use of MBSR mind/body techniques one can feel more alive and joyful, and gain immediate access to powerful inner resources for improving health and healing. The heart of MBSR includes: the seven foundational attitudes in establishing mindfulness, guided instruction in mindfulness practices (body scan, sitting with breath, loving kindness meditation, and walking meditation), gentle mindful yoga, group dialogue, and tools for practicing mindfulness in daily life. Learn more.
Yoga Nidra 24
with Patricia Wack
February 7-8, 2019 (Thursday 2 pm–Friday 2 pm)
Tuition $95 (housing and meals are additional)
“The mid-week, once-a-month yoga retreat is a wonderful idea! It’s a great break from everyday life. Everything is excellent. The Christine Center never disappoints.”–November 2018 retreat participant
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.
Beginners Eye; Contemplative Photography
February 8 – 10 (Friday-Sunday)
with Thomas Roberts
“Beginners Eye: A refreshing way to cultivate clear seeing.” This is a delightful blend of mindfulness/contemplation, photography, and haiku.
Beginners Eye is based on the Zen notion of “beginners mind.” That open and spacious place when you are completely receptive, fearless, totally available to the moment. A pure clear seeing awareness where everything is fresh and new.
No photographic experience is necessary, nor is fancy camera equipment–cell phone cameras are completely acceptable. Really! This is not a competition but a way of using the photographic medium as a way to deepen your spiritual journey by opening your senses to the way you relate to the world. It is not about what you see, rather how you see. Learn More. Register here.
Midwest Diamond Approach Weekend
The Lataif: Gateways to Essence
February 8 – 10 (Friday-Sunday)
with Jim Lockridge, PhD
and Sister Johanna Seubert, FSPA
All-inclusive cost: $315 (includes tuition, two nights lodging and four meals)
Do you sometimes lack confidence? Do you feel ungrounded or a lack of support? Do you feel like you put great effort into your life and yet the results are unsatisfying? All of these experiences are related to the White Lataif; the will aspect of our true nature. In this retreat, we will explore how we have lost touch with the will aspect, how we have replaced it with false will and false supports. By exploring these substitutions we invite an opening to this indestructible aspect of our essential nature. Come learn about this important expression of subtle consciousness and what it means to a spiritual life.
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; and
· support for one’s inner journey, and living in the world with loving kindness.
The weekend includes meditations, teachings, movement, and experiential exercises. The retreat begins on Friday night at 7:00 and ends on Sunday noon. This retreat is open to all.
Learn more here. For more information and to register: send an email to S. Johanna Seubert or call 715-267-5703.
Compassionate Presence
February 15-17, 2019
with Susan Mickel and Pam Eyden
Tuition: $175, plus meals and lodging
Compassionate presence is about practicing opening into our actual experience of the body and the mind in this moment. Susan’s meditation instructions will emphasize settling the mind with concentration as a way to be able to stay present. She will teach the four bases of mindfulness, four ways of paying attention to our mind and body experience that open us into our basic experience. Lovingkindness meditation will also help us to settle the mind and cultivate kindness towards ourselves and others. Through yogic postures, asanas, both energetic and restorative, Pam will emphasize awareness of the body in movement and at rest, from the inside out. Through stretching, strengthening and relaxing, we will cultivate compassionate presence, joy and a sense of play. This retreat is about being with what Is, and learning to accommodate everything in life. It is appropriate for both beginning and experienced practitioners of meditation and yoga. Learn more.
The Life of St Francis in Fresco: The Art of the “Divine Alive!”
Feb 15-17, 2019
with Sister Gabe Uhlein, OSF, PhD
Tuition: $175, plus meals and lodging
Calling all spiritual seekers and lovers of beauty! Discover the Giotto’s 28 frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Just as St. Francis offered a revolutionary new spirituality, Giotto’s paintings of the Life of St. Francis forever changed the nature of Christian art. Using visually stunning and evocative images of Assisi and of the frescoes, S. Gabriele offers an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the “divine, alive.” in St. Francis and in us. We will contemplate the frescoes like treasured photos, looking for clues to our own contemporary spiritual experience – filled with wonder, deep feeling and God’s Love. Let these transformational frescoes refresh and reinvigorate your own spiritual practice. Come, awaken to the “divine, alive” in you.
By Women for Women; One Voice
March 1-3, (Friday – Sunday) 2019
Hosted by: Annie Lea with featured facilitators; Kris Rued Clark, Marjorie Huebner, Dawn Morningstar, Joanne Pelinka, Liz Rog, and Barbara Wulf
Tuition: Sliding scale $50 – $150, plus meals and lodging
“I thank the Christine Center for the By Women For Women weekend! I wait for it every year. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” –A March 2018 participant
Our annual Christine Center event is calling for all Women! Bring your moms, daughters, aunts, sisters and friends. We will be gathering together for a weekend of community singing, soul collage, mindfulness practice, authentic movement and inspiring group discussions that cultivate deep awareness and awaken our collective voice. Participate in breakout sessions facilitated by expert facilitators, sign up for a massage by a licensed therapist, hike along our boardwalk trail, take a nap, or enjoy our sauna. It is your weekend to connect, to contemplate, to enjoy as you choose! We welcome your presence and invite you to make this your sacred space for the weekend. Learn more.
“My deep gratitude for such a caring and nurturing environment. The By Women For Women program was excellent. I will be back for this program and for personal time here.”–A March 2018 participant
Exploration of Dreams
March 4-6, 2019 (Monday 6:30pm to Wednesday noon)
with Sister Marge Zulaski OSF, Jungian Analyst
Tuition: $150 before September 10th and $200 after that date, plus meals and lodging
Join Sister Marge for an experiential practice of exploring dreams with a Jungian emphasis on learning from the symbols and images of your dreams. To prepare for these days write down all you can remember about a dream and bring a few dreams with you. Together, we will engage with dreams to access inner guidance and to become conscious of where life energy is blocked and where life energy wants to go
Andrea Russell’s Silent Meditation Retreat
March 15 – 17, 2018
Join Andrea Russell and Sheryl Lilke on a meditation retreat. During the retreat, we’ll focus on slowing down and deepening your meditation practice. Days will include gentle yoga to prepare your body for sitting, several periods of seated and walking meditation, dharma talks, and opportunities to ask questions and receive support. Much of our time together will be spent observing noble silence, enabling us to turn our attention inward and create community based on shared devotion to practice. It’s a wonderful and welcoming environment for those who are new to retreats or yoga and meditation.
Click here for more information and to register.
Equinox Yoga and Meditation Retreat
March 21-24th 2019 (Thursday – Sunday)
with Amie Heeter, CYT 500
Tuition: $250, plus meals and lodging
Retreats are an invitation to dive deep, intentionally, into a place that supports the opportunity to see inside and listen. We will harness this seasonal transition of winter to spring and utilize tools to vitalize, clear, empower, and inspire. Our days will include breath centered hatha yoga, meditation, Yoga Nidra, writing, reflection, and group discussion- as well as ample free time to explore the surroundings and enjoy the quiet, creative atmosphere. Special attention will be given to cultivating a Sankalpa, an intention born of the heart meant to bring us closer to that which supports growth, meaning, and embodied potential, and actively erodes unconscious thinking and behavior patterns that hold us back with dysfunction and cycles of self-sabotage. May this retreat help carry you into a fruitful season of activation and empowerment. Some yoga experience required, open to all levels of practitioners. Learn more. Register here.
Mandala Weekend: Discovering Beauty and Light
March 22-24, 2019 (Friday-Sunday | 10 am – 5 pm daily)
with Sister Gabriele Uhlein OSF, PhD
Tuition: $60 a day / $30 for half days (all materials included, meals and lodging are additional)
Commuters are 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.
Awakening a new depth consciousness
March 22-24, 2019
with Tom Roberts
Tuition: $150, plus meals and lodging
The importance of cultivating quiet and peace has been the bedrock of many spiritual traditions, leading to the skillful return to presence.
During this retreat, we will explore the depth teachings of the Zen tradition (specifically the Hsin Hsin Ming) along with Hesychasm, Kenosis and Apatheia practices of the early Christians, as valuable methods in achieving a renewed depth of spiritual consciousness. In addition to contemplative time, study and discussion, we will immerse ourselves in a meditation method leading us toward a direct experience of the depth spiritual essence. As the Zen teachers implore: “cultivating a method of no method.” Learn more. Register here.
Earth-Heart Relating: Revealing the Beautiful Soul of the World.
April 4-8, 2019 (Thursday – Monday)
with Robert Sardello and Sister Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, PhD.
Tuition: Early Bird Rate $300 until March 4th, then $350, plus meals and lodging
Imagine the tumult of our times and the complexities of our contemporary living reconstituted in Earth-intelligent beauty. Imagine our relationships with each other–and all our contentious discourse of race, religion and nations–restored to balance and unity. Such a quantum leap in love requires our awakening to Earth presence in every encounter. Earth’s beauty is revealed each time the spontaneous creativity of heartful Earth-intelligence informs our relationships. In earlier times, such beauty was termed “the soul of the world.”
In this workshop, we will develop a living, creative imagination of the heart of Earth — how to notice it, how it reveals in human relationships as new, intimate living, and how to experience again the restorative soul of the world in our times and circumstances. Learn more. Register here.
Discovering wholeness with the Enneagram
April 12-14, 2019 (Friday – Sunday)
with Katie Taylor and Dave Hall
Tuition: sliding scale $200 – $250, plus meals and housing
The Enneagram teaches us that there are nine facets to the human soul, nine different styles of orienting the personality toward the world and toward our own true nature. When we simply play out the reactions and rely on the habits of our core personality type, we constrict our understanding of our deeper potentials and limit what we can offer to the world. Conversely, when we learn to embrace and draw upon the full palette of human capacities available to each and every one of us, we discover a much richer and more colorful way of being in the world.
This workshop is open to all students, whether you are new to the Enneagram or wish to deepen your understanding of this beautiful and liberating map of the human soul. Learn more. Register here.
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Sound and Silence
April 12-14, 2019 (Friday – Sunday)
with Wendy Kohlhaas, and Sheila Nolte
Tuition: $150, plus meals and lodging
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. Learn more. Register here.
Opening to Pure Awareness: Experienced Student Retreat
with Susan Mickel
April 14-21, 2019
This retreat has as its foundation the teachings of the Theravada mindfulness meditation tradition. The heart of the retreat draws primarily on the essence traditions, which belong to the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. Although the emphasis in this retreat is on cultivation of direct experience through meditation, the teaching will also present conceptual understandings of the approach. Group discussion of meditation experience gives an opportunity for regular feedback to help students to stay on track, and it helps participants to learn from each other. Prerequisite: practitioners must have completed a foundational level Opening to Pure Awareness retreat with Susan Mickel, or a Level 1 retreat with Susan Mickel or a teacher from Pointing Out the Great Way. A brief telephone call with Susan regarding ongoing practice is required to approve participation (there is no charge for this). If you have questions about the retreat, or to register, email Susan.
Learn more.
Holy Week Retreat
April 17-21, 2019 ( Wednesday – Sunday)
with Sisters Henrita Frost, SSND, and Johanna Seubert, FSPA
Tuition: A suggested offering of $50 – $100
All-inclusive housing and meal rates: Modern and guest room housing (four nights with all meals) re $400; Rustic housing (four nights with all meals) is $300
Join the Christine Center community as we enter deeply into the mystery of Christ in Holy Week. We offer quiet and reflective days with optional participation in group meditations, reflective, prayerful rituals, and optional spiritual direction for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Liturgical services are available at the local church. The retreat concludes on Sunday morning with a gathering for prayer celebrating Easter, followed by lunch.
Cultivating Mindfulness One Breath at a Time
April 25 – 26, 2019, (Thursday – Friday)
with Barbara Wulf
Tuition: $95, plus meals and housing
Mindfulness can shift our experience, expand our awareness, and open us up to new approaches to life. In this workshop, learn techniques for bringing awareness and balance into your life while cultivating a sense of overall calm. Sessions include sitting meditation, loving kindness meditation, gentle mindful movement, walking meditation (outside), and mindful rest yoga, a form of deep, restful sleep.
There will be group dialogue and time to commune with nature in the peaceful setting of the Christine Center grounds. Learn more. Register here.
Midwest Diamond Approach Weekend
The Yellow Lataif: Gateway to Essence
April 26-28, 2019
with Diamond Approach teachers: Kara Vangen and Kathleen Graham
All-inclusive cost: $315.00 (includes tuition, 2 nights lodging & 4 meals)
Please join us for an exploration of the Yellow Lataif.
Activation of the joy or yellow qualities invites a sense of adventure and playfulness into the process of exploring and discovering our true nature. It allows us to access the lightness and curiosity we need to guide our inner journey, illuminating what is real and authentic in us. This retreat is the 4th of an ongoing program on the lataif presented by Midwest Diamond Approach teachers in 2018-19. This weekend we will carefully explore the quality of being that connects us to our deeper inner nature through meditation, teaching and experiential exercises. The retreat begins on Friday night at 7 pm and ends on Sunday noon. Learn more. To register: email S. Johanna Seubert or call (715)267-5703.
Meditation: Taming the Mind, Unlocking the Heart
July 26–28, 2019
with Lama Yeshe
Tuition $150
The foundation practice the Buddha taught is meditation. It is a way to tame our minds so they behave better. There is a big difference between being impulsive and spontaneous. Impulses have elements of selfishness, fear and habit; spontaneity comes from our inherent wisdom, love and compassion. We start by increasing our ability to stay focused so we are distracted less by fear, wild thoughts, impulses and the chaos of daily life. This is achieved by meditating on an object, usually the breath. We all have a noble heart full of wisdom, love and compassion. There is another type of meditation we will learn during this retreat that will aid in releasing these wonderful qualities of our noble heart. This type of meditation is called taking and sending, Tonglen in Tibetan. Participants will have the opportunity to meet individually with Lama Yeshe during the retreat.
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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.