A Retreat in Daily Life is a way to find something of what you might experience on a residential retreat, with the difference being that you are at home, and the prayer experience is woven into the rhythm of your ordinary life.

The Contemplative at Home Retreat in Daily Life involves two components:

Six days per week : Thirty to Forty-five minutes of daily personal prayer, with suggested meditations and reflection questions.
One day per week : A two-hour Zoom call, to share with other pilgrims who are on retreat with you. Lissy hosts these sessions in a group spiritual direction format.

Who is this for?

This retreat is suitable for anyone who has (or has had) some kind of practice of Christian prayer, and is ready to explore a bit more of their faith, their prayer life or their relationship with God.

This might be for you if you

Would like to explore the contemplative prayer traditions of the Christian faith
Are ready for something deeper in your relationship with God
Hope to find God in new ways
Would like some structure and support to help you reinstate a habit of daily prayer
Would like to go away on retreat, but are unable to at the moment
Enjoy Contemplative at Home meditations and want to connect with others who do as well

Prayer Material

Meditations from the Contemplative at Home archives are suggested for five days of the week, with an Examen or review practice on the sixth day of the week. Each week follows a slightly different theme.

Week One: Introduction to Contemplative Prayer / Establishing your Routine

Week Two: Lectio Divina / Listening to Scripture

Week Three: Imaginative Contemplation / Encoutering Jesus

Week Four: Praying with the Psalms / My Life in God

Prompts for reflection are also provided. Most of the meditations are around twenty minutes in length, with a suggested 15 minutes after the audio meditation for journalling or reflecting on your prayer experience.

Further Details and Commitment

The times listed on the sign up link above reflect the time for the group calls. Please be aware of your local time zone. I work in the UK and times may be listed for GMT.

There will be one call before the retreat begins, and one at the end of each week, for a total of 5 calls.

There will be a maximum of six participants in the group.

Please check that you are able to attend all of the group sessions before you apply.

The daily prayer can be done at any time that suits you but, if you don't already have a 30-45 minute window of time devoted to prayer each day, do take some time to think about when you might fit it in, for example: will you wake up earlier? Will you do it at lunch time? in the evening? How realistic is this? Is there a place in your house where you could sit to pray? Will those you share space with will be able to respect your commitment to the retreat?

This won't be for everyone, but for those who are drawn to take part in this prayer experience, I have no doubt that it will be a positive and enriching time. I am really looking forward to sharing this space with you.

Mini-Retreats at Leasowes Farm

Virtual Mini-Retreats

Retreat in Daily Life: John's Gospel