Mepkin Offers Online Retreat: Contemplating Our Sacred Story – Intimacy, Integration, & Transformation with Douglas Hertler
Mepkin Abbey Presents:
Contemplating Our Sacred Story
Intimacy, Integration, & Transformation
An Online Retreat with Douglas Hertler
October 12-15, 2020
Mepkin Abbey St. Francis Retreat Center is pleased to offer the online retreat Contemplating Our Sacred Story Intimacy, Integration, & Transformation with Douglas Hertler, who is no stranger to the Abbey. He is a former Monastic Guest, and we are happy to have him be able to bring this retreat to our “Virtual Retreat Center.” For more information or to register, click HERE.
Don’t let finances keep you from registering. Email us at mepkinabbey@gmail.com for a partial or full scholarship.
Here is a preview of the topics and schedule of the retreat:
Who am I? It is one of the most deeply personal questions of human existence, yet is it too often asked in a void of non-relationship? Would it be better to ask who am I in relation to what? Or to whom? Who am I in relation to my country? To my planet? To my God? Who am I in relation to myself?
This retreat will explore such questions against the backdrop of a rancorous Presidential election, a devastating pandemic, widespread inequality and unemployment, a social justice movement whose force inspires both hope and fear, and a planet whose suffering is a mirror of the human condition – so badly wounded it cannot heal unless we get out of its way and allow it to BE as it was meant to BE.
Each of us is a radiant facet of the jewel that is God’s human creation. Every one of us embodies a sacred story which in some way reflects the deepest beauty of the entire human family. These stories are told in different languages. Learned through different traditions. But at their core is an unseen unity, a hidden intimacy that is yearning to breathe free.
Through guided creative reflection and journaling, periods of silence, and group sharing, let us explore these infinitely unique and inter-dependent stories, our sacred stories, and journey together on the path of integration and transformation.
Daily Breakdown of Schedule
10/12 – Introduction + Reading from Doug’s play Merton and Me, A Living Trinity
10/13 – Morning: Exploring Personal/Contemplative Narrative, Life in One Page
Afternoon: The American Soul
10/14 – Morning: Black Theology, the Gospel and the Church
Afternoon: 9-11 & Covid – Pain, suffering, and hope
10/15 – Morning: Planetary Consciousness, Teilhard, Berry, & Merton
Afternoon: Sharing our Sacred Stories
Douglas Hertler, aka Doug Lory, is a professional actor, playwright, retreat leader and NYC tour guide. He also works at Fordham University School of Law as an actor/educator. His one-man play Merton and Me, A Living Trinity, debuted in the fall of 2018 for the Corpus Christi Chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society (ITMS) in NYC, of which Doug is a member. Merton and Me explores the dynamics of the false self and depicts Doug’s unexpected and life-changing encounter with the writings of Thomas Merton, whose spirit journeys with Doug throughout the show. A universal search for meaning and identity, Merton and Me creates a synergy of spirit and psyche that serves as a mirror into the soul.