St. Benedict Center
Schuyler, NE
June 28th – 30th, 2024
(with special travel day option for Thursday, June 27th is available for those traveling from other parts of the country)
A special Discerning Hearts retreat with Dr. Anthony Lilles based upon St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s retreat, “Heaven in Faith”
Spiritual Conferences, time for personal prayer, Daily Mass, opportunities for Confession, and Daily Holy Hours all set in the backdrop of the beautiful quiet atmosphere of the St. Benedict Center
The retreat begins promptly at 10am CST on Friday, June 28th and ends at 12pm CST on Sunday, June 30th.
There is a special Thursday travel day option: If you are arriving from another part of the country OR if you would like to come the evening before to relax and experience fellowship with Dr. Lilles and the team – this includes dinner and breakfast the next morning – the price for the room is the same regardless if you are sharing a room with another person. If you are interested in arriving Thursday, June 27th, 2024 for the “Thursday Travel Day”, please e-mail us at contact@discerninghearts.com for more information.
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity understood her mission to be to help people enter into deep prayer. A Carmelite nun, she saw self-occupation as a considerable block to prayer and said that she would help lead souls out of themselves and into God. She was convinced that once we are free of our big fat ego – God can transform us in love. She called this transforming encounter with the Lord “the divine impact.”
With her love for the Scriptures, her devotion to the Trinity, her captivation with Christ’s salvific work – her writings are filled with helpful insights. Not everyone finds her easy to read – her flow of thought follows a musical composition rather than the rules of logic – and she is dense with quotations from the mystical tradition of the Catholic Church.
Although she only lived to the age of 26, from the beginning of the Twentieth Century to today, many contemplatives have found her solid teaching helpful.
Retreat Director: Dr. Anthony Lilles
Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is an associate professor and the academic dean of Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo as well as the academic advisor for Juan Diego House of Priestly Formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For over twenty years he served the Church in Northern Colorado where he joined and eventually served as dean of the founding faculty of Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Through the years, clergy, seminarians, religious and lay faithful have benefitted from his lectures and retreat conferences on the Carmelite Doctors of the Church and the writings of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity. After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville, he completed licentiate and doctoral studies in spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome. In 2012, he published Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden: a theological contemplation of prayer by Discerning Hearts. Married with two young adult children pursuing their careers and a teenager still at home, he has settled in family in Oxnard, California.
Collaborators:
Kris McGregor, Executive Director/Founder of Discerning Hearts
Sessions
- The seminar is addressed to those who wish to live in an atmosphere of fraternity and evangelical simplicity for a time of study, prayer, and social interaction, learning how to integrate Christian spirituality with their engagement with the world.
- The sessions comprise of an initial lecture, individual silent reading on selected texts, small-group discussion and big group sharing then synthesis. The directors of the seminar initially will present the texts, and the group coordinators will guide the discussions.
- The celebration of the Holy Eucharist will be offered daily. Reconciliation will be available, as well as times of Eucharistic Adoration.
***IMPORTANT***
If you are flying in from another part of the United States or Canada,
please plan on arriving on Thursday, June 26th, 2024.
We highly recommend flying into Omaha’s Eppley Airport
Special travel day accommodations option is available for Thursday, June 26th for those traveling from other parts of the country.
Contact us at contact@discerninghearts.com for details.