Join us for a silent directed retreat in the beautiful Centre of Sants Casa Queenscliff. Each day the retreat will offer you space and silence for quiet prayer and contemplation and opportunity to meet daily with your retreat guide. We will gather each evening for prayer together to close the day. Evening Prayer. May these days of prayer and reflection lead us all to deeper awareness of the loving embrace of God - the One that is named Mercy. Fully Booked Arrival time: Anytime after lunch and before tea which is at 5.45pm Departure time: Before 10 am
Deepening our Encounters with God, Self, Others and Creation Need a break? Seeking an opportunity for renewal? This is a sacred time for you to stop, rest, explore, reflect, be nourished and emerge anew. Inviting lay and religious, women and men, who are ministering as Christian servant leaders in education, health, aged care and related pastoral and social work. We offer a wide range of topics including: prayer, scripture, spirituality, integral ecology, mystics, cosmology, indigenous spirituality, human and faith development, contemporary justice issues, and more ... A Six-day retreat is included Weekly spiritual direction is available for participants. Daily prayer and liturgies will sustain communal living. We have ensured a balanced timetable of input, personal reflection and free time for excursions and activities such as iconography, yoga, book club and film nights. Testimonials from 2025 participants “This has truly been a significant time in my life as I walk confidently into the future.” Anon “Wonderfully rich in the variety of topics presented and the presenters.” “I felt immediately at home; a beautiful place and a wonderful group of people helped make the experience one of genuine care and renewal.” Carmel B “This has been a wonderful 6 weeks of transition for me I am deeply grateful for all who contributed to make this experience possible.’ Monica W Cost includes accommodation, meals and elective activities. Please note travel costs to and from Queenscliff, and expenses for personal excursions on free days are excluded. To Book An application form is available from Lizzie Finnerty rsm, Manager santacasa@ismapng.org.au or call 0418 194 261. Places in this sabbatical are limited to 15 participants. Closing date for applications is 1st August 2026. Arrival time: Anytime after lunch and before tea which is at 5.45pm Departure time: Before 10 am
Deepening our Encounters with God, Self, Others and Creation Need a break? Seeking an opportunity for renewal? This is a sacred time for you to stop, rest, explore, reflect, be nourished and emerge anew. Inviting lay and religious, women and men, who are ministering as Christian servant leaders in education, health, aged care and related pastoral and social work. We offer a wide range of topics including: prayer, scripture, spirituality, integral ecology, mystics, cosmology, indigenous spirituality, human and faith development, contemporary justice issues, and more ... A Six-day retreat is included Weekly spiritual direction is available for participants. Daily prayer and liturgies will sustain communal living. We have ensured a balanced timetable of input, personal reflection and free time for excursions and activities such as iconography, yoga, book club and film nights. Testimonials from 2025 participants “This has truly been a significant time in my life as I walk confidently into the future.” Anon “Wonderfully rich in the variety of topics presented and the presenters.” “I felt immediately at home; a beautiful place and a wonderful group of people helped make the experience one of genuine care and renewal.” Carmel B “This has been a wonderful 6 weeks of transition for me I am deeply grateful for all who contributed to make this experience possible.’ Monica W Cost includes accommodation, meals and elective activities. Please note travel costs to and from Queenscliff, and expenses for personal excursions on free days are excluded. To Book An application form is available from Lizzie Finnerty rsm, Manager santacasa@ismapng.org.au or call 0418 194 261. Places in this sabbatical are limited to 18 participants. Closing date for applications is 1st August 2026. Arrival time: Anytime after lunch and before tea which is at 5.45pm Departure time: Before 10 am
With thee, to behold is to give life; ‘tis unceasingly to impart sweetest love of Thee; ’tis to inflame me to love of Thee by love’s imparting, and to feed me by inflaming, and by feeding to kindle my yearnings, and by kindling to make me drink of the dew of gladness, and by drinking to infuse me in a fountain of life, and by infusing to make it increase and endure. Nicolas of Cusa (De Visione Dei, ch. IV) With these beautiful words, Nicholas of Cusa invites us into the beholding that gives birth to all life, and which itself imparts the sweetest love of Love. Silent, intimate, mutual, gifted and kenotic, beholding is the heartbeat of Advent, and we will draw on the writings of Nicholas of Cusa, Jan van Ruusbroec, Beatrice Bruteau and others who will help us to behold and see the Advent mystery unfolding in our world today. Fully Booked Arrival time: Anytime after lunch and before tea which is at 5.45pm Departure time: Before 10 am
You are invited to come just as you are and rest in God's unconditional love. Together, we will gently explore how experiences of significant loss and trauma can leave us feeling disconnected, empty, or uncertain, while discovering pathways of healing, hope, and renewed life. Arrival: Any time after lunch Tea is at 5.45pm Depart: 10am
“I pondered all these things inwardly, and contemplated in my heart…” Wisdom 8:17 And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we are all enclosed.Julian of Norwich In this silent retreat, we will breathe the perfume of Sophia Wisdom as we journey together into the depths of the heart. In silence, prayer, contemplation and gentle communion we will discover anew that we are enclosed in divine love and continually being awakened from within by Wisdom herself. Guided by the Wisdom tradition of Scripture, Julian of Norwich's Showings, Sergii Bulgakov's vision of Sophia, Thomas Merton's Hagia Sophia, Teilhard de Chardin's mystical vision of creation, and other contemplative voices, we will cultivate an atmosphere of receptive silence, opening ourselves to the divine fecundity that awakens us ever more deeply into loving presence. As we rest together in silence, we awaken to the Wisdom already dwelling within and among us. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fountain of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility. This is at once my own being, my own nature, and the Gift of my Creator’s Thought and Art within me, speaking as Hagia Sophia, speaking as my sister, Wisdom. I am awakened, I am born again at the voice of this my Sister,sent to me from the depths of the divine fecundity. Thomas Merton Arrival: Any time after lunch Evening meal is at 5.45pm Departure: 10am
When asked what one must do to be a good Christian Pope Francis replied: “The answer is simple: we have to do, each in our own way, what Jesus says in the Beatitudes.” This retreat will explore what it means to grow into the Beatitudes as we journey in faith. Arrival Any time after lunch. Evening meal is at 5.45 Departure 10am
One of the core metaphors of a Celtic spirituality is the image of the beloved disciple John, leaning his head onto Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper, ‘listening to the heartbeat of God’. What of our own heart? What do we hear when we truly listen? What is our core resonance through which we hear God’s voice? What is it that we really want to hear the Holy One say to us? Dr Cath Connelly will open these topics and more as we come to discover the heartbeat of God resonating through each one of us. Arrival: Any time after lunch. Evening meal is at 5.45pm Departure: After Lunch
The Rich Case Within offers participants a peaceful reflective space to look back on their journey through their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. These decades are often full of energy, adventures, and challenges. Through life's ups and downs, we have learned to adapt, building a deep well of wisdom, patience, and strength. This mini retreat invites you to reflect on your story, recognise your ‘deep well’, see how God has been present and, gather the life lessons you are carrying, into the next phases of your life. Arrival: after lunch Evening meal is at 5.45pm Departure: After lunch
Cherishing Mary, Mother of God and Living Icon for our Time And the angel, having come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Beloved are thou amongst women — Gospel of Luke 1:28 O Love, O Love, In your beautiful cherishing love Prepare my way to you… — Gertrude of Helfta, Spiritual Exercises, III, 379 Something extraordinary is going on in our time: we are living a metamorphosis, giving birth to a new field of consciousness that is radically original, beautiful and new. At the heart of this metamorphosis is the living presence of Mary. Her way of receiving God within herself, within her own womb, becoming Theotokosis – God bearer - allures. Guided by Scripture and by mystics across the centuries whose lives and writings have been illumined by Mary, we will enjoy the gift of undisturbed Mary silence and spaciousness in communal contemplation. From the poetic and cosmic vision of the early Church, through the intimate feminine mysticism of the medieval women, to contemporary contemplative and evolutionary voices, we will behold Mary as the eternal living icon of Mother of God in beautiful cherishing Love, as she prepares our hearts anew.