Interactive Retreats and Workshops (uses email and discussion forum)
http://www.shalomplace.org/
Current offerings include the following:
1. Psychological Types and Spirituality
2. Freedom from Codependency
3. The Way of Christian Spirituality
4. Christian Spirituality Resources
5. Wonderfully Made (Christian metaphysics)
6. Growing in Christ
7. Communities in Transition (Spiral Dynamics�)
8. Discerning God's Will
9. Dark Night of the Soul
10. Silence, Solitude and Sabbath summer retreat (see above for more info).
11. The Five Consents

Daily Spiritual Seed
http://shalomplace.com/seed/
Free email newsletter on Christian spirituality featuring a quote by a mystic, meditations on the lectionary readings, and lessons in spiritual living.

Workshops and Retreats in Real Audio
http://shalomplace.com/inetmin/
You can listen to the conferences online and reflect on the handout resources. The following are currently available.
1. Christian Mysteries
2. Catholic Responses to Fundamentalism
3. Freedom from Codependency
4. Basics of Spirituality
5. A Debate on the Topic of Abortion
6. Pathways to Serenity
7. Lessons in Loving

Shalom Place Christian Spirituality Center
http://shalomplace.com/
Includes the resources listed above plus a great deal more, including a discussion forum, bookstore, and a wide variety of spiritual exercises.

For information contact Ronn and Annie Roehm at 620-728-0855.
For reservations contact Mike and Lindsey Mazouch at 620-792-6290

Looking Ahead

Holy Week Retreat 2012: "Into Your hands, I commend my spirit."
by Rev. Paul H. Colloton, D. Min.
Option one: April 1 - 5 (Palm Sunday Liturgy - Holy Thursday Morning) $200
Option two: Triduum Retreat, April 5 - 8 (Holy Thursday Liturgy - Easter Morning Liturgy) $150
Option three: April 1 - 8 (Palm Sunday Liturgy - Easter morning Liturgy) $300
The practice of surrender is a form of detachment. A major obstacle to spiritual depth is attachment. Classical spiritual literature instructs us in the dangers of attachment. Sur- render is a remedy to that obsessive tendency. Jesus surrendered his very life to God, but not without pain and suffering. Let us walk with Jesus this Holy Week and learn from him what it means to surrender our lives, emptying ourselves with Him and giving our lives into God’s hands like Him, knowing that the promise of sharing in His Resurrection is His offer to us.
- Full description flyer

- Online registration

Theology Institute 2012
by Carla Mae Streeter OP
"Dominican Spirituality Today"
June 15-19, 2012
$175 commuter fee (includes lunch Saturday - Tuesday)
$295.00 (includes room and board)
- free room June 19 and 20 for those who also come to the "Listening to God" retreat June 21-25 (see below)
Who are we as Dominicans in the Church and world today? How is our charism distinctive? How do we word it today? If Dominic were here today, what would he wrestle with? How would he approach questions involving ecology, evolution, the new atheists? What light would he bring to doctrinal questions such as original sin and the role of the Church among other faith traditions? We are men and women of the Word. What word do folks need to hear from us at this time, in this age? These days we will explore these questions and more. Together we will explore who we are...for TODAY.
- Full description brochure

- Online registration

Listening to God: A Contemplative Retreat
by Philip St. Romain, M.S., D. Min.
June 21 (7:00 p.m.) -25 (1:00 p.m.), 2012
$295.00 (includes room and board)
- free room June 19 and 20 for those who also come to our Theology Institute June 15-19 (see above)
"How does God speak to you, and what is God communicating these days?" will be the focus of this retreat. We will observe contemplative silence throughout except for times of group prayer and short teachings. Each day will include opportunities for praying the Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, group Lectio Divina, group contemplative sitting, and spiritual direction; there will be many hours of unstructured, open times for walks on our grounds, rest, or whatever one chooses. Come prepared to enter more deeply into the silence to become more aware of God's presence and action in your life.

Staff Notes

by Brenda Black
There is a wonderful couple whom we have gotten to know and love as they have come to our Center for personal retreats and with their ongoing church program over the course of about 10 years. They are a testament to devotion and faithfulness – to each other, to their faith community and to God. They are unable to come as often as they used to, but when they do its like dear friends coming to visit.

The last time they were here, we were discussing vegan and gluten-free recipes and they shared this one. I like using different grains, especially quinoa (keen WAH’), so I had to try it. It does get better with time, so leftovers are great and quinoa is high in protein, so its perfect to take to work for lunch.

* * * Quinoa Salad * * *

1 cup quinoa, rinsed several times in cold water and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, optional
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup cooked or canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup whole kernel corn
1 large ripe tomato, peeled, seeded, and diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 small sweet red pepper, seeded, and chopped (about 1/2 cup)
2 green onions or Vidalia onion, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves, optional

In medium saucepan, heat 1� cups water to boiling over high heat. Add 1 cup quinoa grains. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed—about 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

In large bowl, mix together beans, corn, tomato, red pepper, green onions, basil, garlic, and parsley. Whisk olive oil, vinegar and soy sauce together and pour over vegetables. Add cooled, cooked quinoa, mixing well.

Serve at room temperature or refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Makes 8-10 servings. Note: This salad improves over time, so it can be made a day ahead.

God of Relationships, you give us many and varied friendships; some for a short period of time, some for a times of transition and some for a lifetime. Thank you for them all – for their care and support, for the lessons they teach us, the memories they create. Bless them all with health and happiness. Help us to be alert to opportunities for friendship and to be a kind and gentle presence to those You bring into our lives.

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by Sr. Jolene Geier OP

One of my favorite poems in The Circle of Life; The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr is “Listening to Winter”. The lines “I am listening to faith rising out of doubt. I am listening to the need to believe without seeing.” are particularly haunting my contemplation “to the quiet of winter” and the “sacrament of non-doing”.

I chose to stay in Great Bend to celebrate a quiet Christmas instead of traveling elsewhere to be with my brothers and sisters and their families. I especially enjoyed the chanting of the Christmas Novena, nine days of prayer we sisters offer for all our families, friends and benefactors. A spiritual Christmas Gift to be sure. During this sacred winter time and Christmas vacation I found myself practicing a corporal work of mercy burying the dead over and over again these past days. We had Sisters, Associates, devoted employees and friends say earthly goodbyes to loved ones. There have been many tears shed in witnessing this mystery of life.

On a brighter note I am looking forward to working with Ann Axman on four events this coming new year—two presentations Feb. 4 and March 3 on Charisms with the SpiritLife participants and two diocesan RCIA retreats one in Great Bend Feb. 11 and one in Dodge City Feb.18, 2012. I find Ann a gifted youthful teacher very invigorating to stand beside in Heartland Center events.

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by Sr. Renee Dreiling OP

A Child in Winter: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany with Caryll Houselander has been a staple of my prayer and reflection since it was published in 2000. Re-reading it never grows and old and new insights come each year. The invitation to “secret ourselves with Mary, to join our hearts with hers, and to grow pregnant with God together” is always welcome and stirs a deep longing within me to make more room for Jesus in my life.

Over the years I have invited directees to join in the riches and delight this book of reflections and wisdom brings. It was heartwarming to witness the blessings and strength it brought to one directee struggling with a complex and difficult family situation. Hope was truly born in her, though the difficult circumstances didn’t really change.

The reflections tie in with an address Sister Barbara Reid OP gave to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious this past summer in which she offered a view of the mystery of death as “the birth pangs of hope and new life”. She invited the leadership of women religious to embrace the role of midwife as communities of religious women diminish. But I find it fits for me and for many directees as well. The economy, the world situation, the hardships couples endure in the job market, the diminishment and sometimes terrific illness of parents, of children, of friends—all call for a birthing of hope and new life it seems.

Sister Miriam Ukeritis CSJ, CEO of The Southdown Institute, wrote a reflection, “Nurturing New Life” in the December 2011 issue of their newsletter. She shares the story of a friend who was a midwife in South America, and who had been called to assist in the birth of a child in a shed, where not only all the family came in and out, but also the chickens came in and out. As the labor drug out, the husband kept coming in and asking the wife where she had put the cow which he could not find! Finally the midwife had to put a stop to the husband’s concerns about the cow as well as to the chickens wandering in and out of the shed and insist that the birth become the focus of the effort and attention of the family! And shortly a healthy baby was born!

How often in life and in ministry, Sister Miriam wrote, do the ‘chickens” that wander in and out of our lives, and the “cow” that we can’t find, become the focus of our lives and prevent us from seeing the new life about to happen?

A powerful question, worthy of reflection!

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