Beauty in Silence Week

NOV 18-22, 2024

faculty: Eric Erickson

Tuition: $700, includes meals. Space is limited. Currently this program is full, please contact jen@alcyoncenter.org if you would like to be the wait list.

This retreat focuses on Thomas Merton’s mature writings and talks on prayer to inspire our own.

Our main text will be The Climate of Monastic Prayer, a late work published posthumously in 1969. We will also listen to excerpts of live recordings of Merton’s conferences on prayer (1967-68) to get a fuller sense of his personality and his distinctive approach to contemplative prayer.

During Silent Week, the most vital questions are the ones we bring to our dialogue with Silence, with the support of our fellow retreatants. With Silence at the center, each day we will engage in five, 25-minute periods of contemplative prayer, about 90 minutes group discussion of excerpts from the texts above, free time in the afternoons with the opportunity for individual spiritual guidance, while taking most meals and our evenings in Silence.