The Redemptorist Retreat Center (Oconomowoc)
Renewal, Rest, and Contemplative Reflection
How much care do we give to our spiritual selves?
How much do we invest in our spiritual health?
A spiritual retreat helps give us direction in our spiritual lives,
in order to tune into and better know God’s plan for us.
A Spiritual Retreat is for those who:
• seek to be closer to the Lord
• seek a stronger prayer life
• have been away from church life
• wish to overcome personal problems
• seek peace of mind and heart
• seek guidance in their spiritual journey
The mission of the Redemptorist Retreat Center in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin is to provide a place of renewal, rest and contemplative reflection. Through programs created, sponsored and hosted by the retreat center, spiritual seekers are presented the opportunity for reconciliation, healing and the atmosphere to strengthen and motivate one’s growth towards spiritual wholeness.
The Redemptorists of the Denver Province, through their commitment to the values and charisma of their founder Saint Alphonsus Liguori, continue to maintain the Retreat Center so that the redemptive love of Jesus Christ may be abundantly proclaimed.
The Poustinia
• A hermitage is a place where one may go, to find solitude and peace.
• Although there were probably Christian solitaries before his time, a little-known Egyptian named Paul was the first to popularize the eremitic (religious recluse) way of life.
• At the beginning of the fourth century, this life was one of the standard ways, especially in the East, in which Christian contemplation and self-denial expressed itself.
• In the West, the rule of St. Benedict provided for the exceptional case of the ascetic who might be permitted to become a solitary.
• In Russian, the word for hermitage is Poustinia. This word and this custom was introduced into North America by Baroness Catherine de Hueck Doherty, a modern-day contemplative.