Day of Rest & Reflection for Registered Nurses
2025-06-04 08:30 - 16:30 (America/Chicago) | Holy Wisdom Monastery, 4200 County Road M, Middleton, WI, 53562, United States
We understand how challenging and depleting it can be to be a healthcare worker when caring for others and having little time for yourself.
This day is designed specifically for registered nurses to rest and reflect on how their career choice brought them to where they are today. Your day will be guided by speakers who will offer you time to reflect with each other, feed your body with delicious food prepared by our chefs, and nourish your soul by exploring the grounds at Holy Wisdom Monastery.
Please join us as we honor the gift you are to so many others. May this day be a day away for you to be cared for. Dress for the outdoors.
Schedule
8:30 – 9:00 am – Coffee, tea, and muffins
9:00 – 9:15 am – Welcome & introduction to day
9:15 – 9:30 am – Icebreaker
9:30 – 9:45 am – Leader story
9:45 – 10:45 – Sharing our stories
10:45 – 11:00 am – Break
11:00 – 11:30 am – Brief history of the Sisters of Holy Wisdom Monastery and Benedictine spirituality
12:00 -1:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 -1:15 pm – What experience in your career was life-changing for you?
1:15 – 2:00 pm – Share your story
2:00 – 2:30 pm – Care for the Earth at Holy Wisdom Monastery
2:30 – 3:30 pm – Free time to walk the prairie/write in journals
3:45 pm – Spiritual /meditation activity. How this can be so beneficial as an everyday practice.
4:30 pm – Closing
Facilitator – Rita Emmenegger

Rita Emmenegger is a registered nurse who worked at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, WI, for 35 years in pediatrics and obstetrics. She understands the challenges of choosing a career as a care-giver and not having the time to nourish one’s own body and spirit.

Cost
$60/person
Register
Please register below by May 28, 2025.

Embracing the Mystery: The Soul of Aging Retreat
2025-09-04 16:00 - 2025-09-06 13:00 | Zoom, Connect to the program with computer or phone., WI
“I don’t want to fight the gravity of aging. It’s nature’s way. I want to collaborate with it as best I can,
in hopes of going down with something like the grace of that setting sun.” ~Parker Palmer

An Opportunity for Reflection, Renewal & Gracious Harvesting
Sep. 4-6, 2025
An Online Circle of Trust® Retreat
Embracing the Mystery is a retreat inspired by Parker Palmer’s book, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old (2018). Parker writes, “There’s no antidote for the gravity that takes us to the grave. But there is a countervailing force called ‘levity.’” Together, we wish to explore the mystery of our many-layered life. How might we embrace the joys, challenges and gifts of aging; to surrender to, and be transformed by the aging process? This is a time to come together to listen, share and hold space for each other as we deepen our connection to ourselves; honoring the known and embracing the unknown.
A Circle of Trust® Retreat offers:

a space to renew the heart, mind and spirit through the exploration of the inner landscape of one’s life

time to reconnect to one’s identity and integrity and renew our courage to live from a place of wholeness

a process to strengthen one’s self-awareness

a trustworthy space for inner work in community

an opportunity to practice deep listening and respectful speaking – strengthening one’s life beyond the retreat

Dates/Times
All times reflect Central Daylight Time (CDT)

Introductory Session: Tues., Sep. 2, 4:00-5:30 pm
Online Retreat:

Thurs., Sep. 4, 4:00-6:00 pm
Fri., Sep. 5, 10:00 am-1:00 pm; 4:00-6:00 pm
Sat., Sep. 6, 10:00 am-1:00 pm

The retreat begins Thursday afternoon with check-in available at 3:45 pm and the initial gathering at 4:00 pm.
Location
Online, via Zoom. Although online, it’s important that you prepare for being in retreat. Create a sacred space where you are able to be as present as possible. Dress comfortably. Have a journal close by to hold your reflections from our time together.
Cost
$170/person
Facilitators – Kirstin Anglea and Winton Boyd
Kirstin Anglea is a mother, daughter, spouse and learner. With an early awareness that life is terminal, she seeks to embrace the beauty and messiness of life and help others do the same. She has been a facilitator with The Center for Courage & Renewal since 2014 and leads Courage & Renewal retreats, locally and internationally. She is trained in the Soul of Aging program. In addition, she serves as the Mentor Program Coordinator with the Center for Courage & Renewal. She is a member of the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon in Bend, OR. She and her partner live in Sisters, OR near her father and daughter. When not working, you can find Kirstin playing in the kitchen, singing, traveling, exploring the outdoors or losing to her dad in cribbage. 🙂

Winton Boyd is a spouse, father, grandfather and one who seeks to hold space for reflection and relationship for people of all ages. He has been a facilitator for the Center for Courage & Renewal since 2007. He is trained in the Soul of Aging program and together with Kirstin, has led 10 retreats on this topic since 2020 (mostly online). He is also the Flourishing in Ministry Program Coordinator for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery. From 1999-2019 he served as the Senior Pastor of Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ in Madison, WI. He also co-facilitates the Contemplative Clergy Immersions for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery. Before moving to Minneapolis, he and his wife were members of the Sunday Assembly at Holy Wisdom. They have three grown children and two grandchildren. He enjoys outdoor activities, travel, reading and baking bread, among other things.
Questions
If you have questions about the retreat or the online platform Zoom, please contact either Kirstin or Winton:

Kirstin Anglea (kirstin@nourishcourage.com)
Winton Boyd (boydwinton@gmail.com)

Register
Please register by Aug. 28, 2025. The maximum number of participants is 23 and registration will close when full.
This event is full; if you’d like to be put on a waiting list, please contact Signe Lee at slee@holywisdommonastery.org.
Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until Aug. 28, 2025. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.

Being Harmonized with the Unconditional Love and Wisdom of Our Buddha Nature
2025-10-19 09:30 - 2025-10-21 18:00 | Holy Wisdom Monastery, 4200 County Road M, Middleton, WI, 53562, United States
From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, our buddha nature is the basic space of our being that is undivided from vast capacities of awareness, warmth, love, compassion and wisdom. These capacities are always available below our surface consciousness but often hidden by our conditioned habits of thought and reaction. In this retreat, we will learn three modes of practice derived from Tibetan Buddhism that empower each other as they harmonize us with those innate capacities. The receptive mode generates a field of care that helps us find immediate access to unconditional qualities of love and wisdom from the depth of our awareness (our buddha nature). In the deepening mode, we let those qualities help the mind settle into their source—the non-conceptual openness, simplicity, clarity, and compassionate warmth of our buddha nature. In the inclusive mode we come from that depth of being to recognize others in their depth, and to include them in those unconditional qualities of openness and compassion. This contemplative process also empowers our ability to discern the empty, constructed nature of our experiences, freeing the mind for further access to its innate awakening capacities.
In this retreat, we will adapt this pattern of practice from Tibetan Buddhism, with some assistance from modern psychology, to make it accessible both for Buddhist practitioners and for people of all faiths who have contemplative practice experience and seek not just an intellectual dialogue with Buddhism but a deep experiential encounter with it that might freshly illumine analogous depths of their own tradition.
Sessions include guided meditations, Q&A and discussion. Prerequisites: At least two previous years of regular contemplative practice (meditation, ritual or prayer). Before the retreat, please read John’s book, Awakening through Love (Wisdom, 2007) or How Compassion Works (co-authored with Paul Condon, Shambhala, June 24, 2025), or as much of either book as possible.
Schedule

Daily session from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Daily session from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Rest breaks
Lunch at 12:30 pm
Dinner at 5:15 pm.
More details to come

Leader – John Makransky
John Makransky, PhD, has been a professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, Senior Academic Advisor at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal, president of the Society of Buddhist-Christian studies and Contemplative Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute. John’s scholarly writings focus on connections between devotion, compassion and wisdom in Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist practices to meet contemporary minds and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning. In 2000, John was ordained as a Lama in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism – a teacher of innate love and wisdom practices. For the past 25 years, John has taught meditations of innate compassion and wisdom adapted from Tibetan Buddhism for modern Buddhists, those in other spiritual traditions, and for people in caring roles and professions. In consultation with participants from those settings, John developed the Sustainable Compassion Training model of contemplative practice (SCT) to help Buddhists, people of diverse faiths and those in caring roles and professions generate a more sustaining and unconditional power of compassion and awareness to support their lives and work (https://sustainablecompassion.org).
Dates/Times
9:30 am, Sunday, October 19 – Dinner following afternoon session, Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Cost
This retreat uses a tiered fee system. Please pay according to your means.
Registration fees do not include payments to teacher. Please consider supporting the teacher with dāna (generosity) at the event.

$350 – Benefactor
$300 – Tier 1
$250 – Tier 2

Scholarships are available. Please contact Carole Kretschman at c.kretschman@icloud.com.
Lodging
Lodging is NOT included in the price of the retreat.

We have limited lodging at Holy Wisdom Monastery
$148.50/single (one person for 2 nights)
$170.10/double (2 people for 2 nights sharing a room)
Extra nights are available.
Please email retreats@holywisdommonastery.org to reserve your overnight room at the monastery for the retreat. Rooms will fill up.

Register
Please register by October 12, 2025.
Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until Oct. 12, 2025. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.

Grace & Reflection: A Courage & Renewal® Weekend
2026-02-20 19:00 - 2026-02-22 12:00 | Holy Wisdom Monastery, 4200 County Road M, Middleton, WI, 53562, United States
Grace & Reflection: A Courage & Renewal® Weekend
Each renewal weekend will include creating a quiet, focused, and enlivened space — a Circle of Trust® — where personal, inner wisdom can be heard. There will be a mix of time spent in large group, small group, and individual reflection along with poetry, teaching stories, wisdom traditions, nature, and activities for exploration. We will use these experiences and other rich metaphors to symbolize and discover and explore life questions. Together, we will experience creating spaces in our lives to tend and nurture our desire to live fully with courage and resilience.

Revitalize your commitment to the values that give meaning to your life.
Increase your ability to listen openly and be present.
Learn reflective practices to become more intentional.
Explore questions to build and sustain community.
Expand trustworthy and authentic relationships.

The Circle of Trust® approach is based on the work of Dr. Parker J. Palmer, Founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal, who is a world-renowned writer, speaker and activist. Explore the principles, practices and resources from the Center for Courage & Renewal: https://couragerenewal.org/courage-renewal-approach/
This program is being independently organized and led by a Courage & Renewal Facilitator(s) prepared by the Center for Courage & Renewal.
Schedule
Friday, February 20
3:00 pm – Check-in for Retreatants Staying in RGH
6:30 pm – Registration
7:00-9:00 pm – Session One
Saturday, February 21
9:00-10:15 am – Session Two
10:15-10:30 am – Break
10:30 am-12:00 pm – Session Three
12:00-1:30 pm – Lunch and Free Time
1:30-3:00 pm – Session Four
3:00-3:15 pm – Break
3:30-5:00 pm – Session Five
5:15 pm – Dinner
Sunday, February 22
10:00 am-12:00 pm – Session Six
Leaders – Mary Louise Peters, MSE & Amy Christianson, EdD

Mary Louise Peters is a Courage & Renewal® Facilitator, providing retreats and renewal experiences since 2010. She has worked as an educator and consultant at local, state and national levels to improve early childhood and special education for children and families, teaching practices and conditions for staff, and state educational systems.

Amy Christianson recently completed the Courage & Renewal® Practicum Program. Amy has been a participant in a number of seasonal and Circle of Trust retreats. She has a long professional career in education within early childhood, K-12 and higher education settings. Amy’s background includes educational leadership, organizational change and working with diverse populations.

Cost
$250 commuter; $435 residential
Register
Please register by February 13, 2026. The maximum number of participants is 24 and registration will close when full.
Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until February 13, 2026. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.

Upcoming Courage & Renewal Weekend
Save the dates for the next Courage & Renewal Weekend, May 29-31, “Wonder and Hope”

Holy Week Silent Retreat
2026-04-02 16:00 - 2026-04-05 11:30 | Holy Wisdom Monastery, 4200 County Road M, Middleton, WI, 53562, United States
Anyone who would like to experience a deep and sustained silence in the quiet companionship of others is invited to the Holy Week Silent Retreat. For some, this retreat will be an opportunity to contemplate and participate in – with greater intention – the texts, liturgies, and prayers of Holy Week. For all, it is an invitation to live the rhythms of monastic life in an extended retreat experience. Optional contemplative engagements (e.g. journal prompts, walking meditations and opportunities for artistic expression) will add depth to the experience, as will opportunities for lectio divina and shared reflections on the meaning and mystery of these days.
Retreat Schedule
Thursday, April 2

4:00 pm
Orientation
Retreat & Guest House (RGH) 110

4:30 pm
Brief introduction to the weekend and to each other
RGH 110

5:00 pm
Dinner and continued orientation
Members of Sunday Assembly and other guests at tonight’s liturgy will be sharing a meal in the Monastery Guest Dining Room. We will go through the serving line and eat in the smaller Community Dining Room. We will meet the sisters, complete the orientation and then have some time to gather – if you wish to do so – with the other guests.
Monastery Community Dining Room

6:00 pm
Holy Thursday Liturgy
After this liturgy, we enter into silence until Sat. dinner
Monastery Assembly Room

8:30-9:30 pm
Companioned silence
RGH 222

Friday, April 3

Breakfast on your own
RGH 108

7:35 am
Centering prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

8:00 am
Morning prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

10:00 am
Lectio divina and contemplative dialogue to prepare for Good Friday liturgy
RGH 110

11:45 am
Midday prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

Noon
Lunch (in silence)
Monastery Guest Dining Room

3:00 pm
Good Friday liturgy
Monastery Assembly Room

5:00 pm
Dinner (in silence)
Monastery Guest Dining Room

7:30-9:30 pm
Companioned silence
RGH 222

Saturday, April 4

Breakfast on your own
RGH 108

7:35 am
Centering prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

8:00 am
Morning prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

10:00 am
Lectio divina and contemplative dialogue to prepare for Easter Vigil liturgy
RGH 110

11:45 am
Midday prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

Noon
Lunch (in silence)
Monastery Guest Dining Room

Afternoon
Afternoon spent in silence
RGH 110 for companioned silence

5:00 pm
Dinner (we break the silence)
Monastery Guest Dining Room

7:30 pm
Easter Vigil
Monastery Assembly Room

After Vigil
Refreshments
Monastery Guest Dining Room

Meet for companioned conversation about the retreat, and a closing ritual for those departing early
RGH 110

Sunday, April 5

Breakfast on your own
RGH 108

8:00 am
Morning prayer (optional)
Monastery Oratory

9:00 am
Easter Sunday Eucharist
Monastery Assembly Room

Immediately following Eucharist
A final gathering from which we take leave from one another
Community Dining Room

11:30 am
Departure

Facilitator – Pam Shellberg
Pam is the director of spiritual nourishment at Holy Wisdom Monastery. As a scripture scholar and educator, she is eager invite people into a deeper appreciation of the texts that shape the Holy Week liturgies. As someone with a contemplative spirit, she is eager to co-create with retreatants a rich and meaningful experience of silence.
Cost
$360/person, includes silent retreat, overnights on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; dinners on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; lunches on Friday and Saturday; and breakfasts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Registration
Please register by March 25, 2026.
There is a 75% refund for cancellations before the March 25 registration deadline, a 50% refund after the registration deadline until the start of the retreat on April 2.
