Growing Older Gracefully

A gathering of for empty-nesters, para-retirees, and grandparents
February 4-6, 2010
Dinner Friday night through lunch Saturday afternoon
Retreat House at Rolling Ridge

As young and middle-aged people of faith we embarked on an inner and outer journey to live intentionally, listening to the Spirit within and connecting with the world around us.  We sought to do good work, to live honestly and passionately with partners and community, to raise children with love and understanding.  Now we find ourselves in the wilderness time between adulthood and eldership: our children are adults, the ground of our work is shifting, and we are simultaneously overjoyed and overwhelmed by new roles within the family.

We invite you to a conversation about this wilderness time amid an actual wilderness space. In a safe and sacred place apart, surrounded by the winter woodlands of Rolling Ridge which are themselves a metaphor of beauty in the slowing phase of life’s cycle, we are enabled to explore the challenges and the possibilities opening before us.  Helped by resources such as Creative Aging by Marjory Bankson and Looking Back and Giving Forward: Finding Common Ground for Positive Aging, a workbook published by Lumunos, we can ask wide-ranging questions such as how we can balance the allure of new options with the necessity of letting go; how can we come to terms with physical limits; can we envision alternatives to the way aging is typically seen by contemporary society; can we grow old together?

Our conversation will be facilitated by a member of the Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community and will include time for individual reflection, silence, and rest as well as sharing, discussion and gathered prayer. Lindsay McLaughlin is an educator, writer and newly minted grandmother; a dancer all her life, she is motivated by a desire to find the gift of maturity in a field built on the fire of youth and to gather friends to harvest the wisdom of years gone by and uncover hope for the years to come.

We will be offering this retreat from dinner on the evening of Friday, February 4, 2011 through lunch on Sunday, February 6.  The cost is $125 and covers all sessions, meals and lodging (mostly dorm-style).  Space is limited.  To register send $50 deposit made out to RRSR to Rolling Ridge Study Retreat, 120 Jubilee Lane, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. Include your name and contact information.  Feel free to call 304-724-1069 or email community@rollingridge.net.

Inner Liberation and Outer Possibility: An Advent Retreat

December 3-4, 2010
Friday 6:30 pm - Saturday 8:00 pm
Retreat House

The four weeks before Christmas are liturgically a season to prayerfully anticipate and ponder God's magnificent gift of the Incarnation. We are encouraged to make room in our hearts and lives today for the birth and movement of the eternal spirit of Christ. During our time together this weekend we will seek to nurture a sacred openness into which and out of which creativity and compassion can flow. We will draw on the experience and wisdom of teachers such as Thomas Merton, Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen, Dorothy Day, and others who embodied God's Incarnate love through an inward journey of prayer and outward abiding action.

You are warmly invited for our guided retreat time from Friday evening to Saturday evening, led by RRSRC resident and contemplative retreat leader Trish Stefanik; and you are also welcome to extend your retreat another day into Sunday.

The cost for the retreat program is $70, which includes lodging for one night, four meals, and handouts. Participants are welcome to arrive and settle in at the Retreat House as early as 5 pm on Friday. Our retreat will formally begin with dinner at 6:30 pm. We will conclude with dinner Saturday. Retreatants are invited to stay over Saturday night until Sunday noon for an extended time of contemplation for an additional $25 (total: $95). Inquire about a scholarship if the fee is a hardship. Please make checks payable to RRSRC and mail to: Rolling Ridge, 186 Tupelo Lane, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425.

For more information and to register, see www.rollingridge.net, and email tstefanik@aol.com or call 304-725-4301.

The Wisdom Way of Knowing

A Five Day Wisdom Retreat at Rolling Ridge with Cynthia Bourgeault (FILLED: please email to be put on waitiing list)
November 16-21, 2010
3:00 pm Tuesday - 3:00 pm Sunday
Claymont Society

The two great hungers in our world today are the hunger for spirituality and the hunger for social justice. The connection between the two is the one the world, and especially a new generation, is waiting for. We need schools of contemplation and action to help us connect our own inner faith journey to how we live our daily lives in a broken world.

These new wisdom schools have two purposes -- the first is to study and learn the rich contemplative wisdom within our own Christian tradition, knowing that this tradition is open-hearted and eager to learn from other faith traditions as well.

The wider tradition is unanimous, however, in its assertion that the deeper Christianity cannot be known by the mind alone; it requires a transformation of the entire being. That is the second, and in fact, primary purpose of the school. From time immemorial there have been wisdom schools to raise human consciousness and transform society, and to work with the core practices that sustain the transformation of consciousness: meditation, contemplative prayer, lectio divina, sacred song, the language of sacred gesture, simple work in community, and the daily practices of mindfulness, inner observation and surrender.

The schools are conducted in the 1500 year old Benedictine spirit of a balanced daily rhythm of prayer, work, silence and study. Wisdom schools practice the core components of this path: contemplative prayer, lectio divina, chanting the psalms, simple work in community, shared meals, silence, inner practice, and study.

We are honored to have The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault as the first teacher for the Wisdom School at Rolling Ridge. I have been following Cynthia Bourgeault's work for a number of years, and have found her to be my best teacher for centering prayer and inner practice. I stumbled upon her work while exploring the connection between the Christian contemplative tradition and the Fourth Way inner work inspired by Gurdjieff.

Cynthia Bourgeault is the principal Teacher and Advisor to the Contemplative Society, an ecumenical, not-for-profit association that encourages a deepening of contemplative prayer based in the Christian tradition, and an adjunct faculty member at the Vancouver School of Theology. She is a retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer, writer on the spiritual life, Episcopal priest, and part-time hermit, spending half of each year in solitude on Eagle Island in Maine.

Cynthia is passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path and has worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating and others as a teacher of centering prayer, as well as in Sufism and the Christian inner traditions. She is the author of Chanting the Psalms, Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Love is Stronger Than Death, and The Wisdom Jesus, and many articles and audio tapes on the contemplative life. She is a past Fellow of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural research at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN, and an oblate of New Camaldoli Monastery in Big Sur, California.

In 2001 she was invited to become a charter participant in the "Deepening the American Dream Project," sponsored by the Fetzer Institute, joining a select group of other American spiritual writers including Kathleen Norris, Jacob Needleman, Elaine Pagels, Huston Smith, and Parker Palmer. The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart is a revision and expansion of the essay originally written for this project. The Wisdom School at Rolling Ridge will study this text during our week together. It is required reading before coming to the school.

To register for the event, send a $100 deposit to Rolling Ridge. The cost of the school is $465, and includes lodging and meals at the Claymont Society near the Rolling Ridge Community in Harpers Ferry. The school is limited to 40 participants. Cynthia's retreats have a reputation for filling up quickly. If you think you may want to come, sign up soon. The deposit is refundable up to 30 days before the event.

NOTE: This school is currently FILLED. If you would like to be put on the waiting list or be notified of future Wisdom Schools by Cynthia Bourgeault in our area, e-mail Bob Sabath at bsabath@rollingridge.net or phone him at 202-531-7572.

Is It REALLY the END of Men?

A Web Cast and Conference with Fr. Richard Rohr in Washington DC
October 24, 2010
2:00 - 4:30 pm
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Many were rightly shocked by the statistical assessment of males in our society by Hanna Rosin's article The End of Men (July-August Atlantic Monthly). Rosin argues that modern, postindustrial society may simply be better suited to women and that an unprecedented role reversal with vast cultural consequences is now under way. What does she have to teach us?  What can this perspective offer us?  How is Rosin a "stand in" for what many women have been saying to, for, and about men?

Unless men can find an inner path that can transform their pain rather than transmit it, men's contributions may be more destructive than healing, and they may become increasingly absent and irrelevant in the places where their energy is most needed. Sadly, neither our culture nor our churches really encourage an inner life for men.

After working with men for the past twenty years, Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has come to the conclusion that most men will not engage on a serious inner journey unless they have to -- often only after great suffering. He has been quietly working with groups of men all over the world to build a new model of male spirituality.

Based on decades of his own study and centuries of wisdom teaching around the world, Richard has created a transformative initiation experience called Men's Rites of Passage. An international network of Men as Learners and Elders (M.A.L.Es) has been created to extend this work to local regions around the world. This growing network seeks to reclaim the spiritual initiation of men through experiential journeying into the True Self, creating a tradition for future generations and building a vision for the next five generations of men.

This event signals the start of Men as Learners and Elders in the Washington DC Region. We warmly invite men and women in our area to join us on Sunday, October 24, 2010, to listen to Richard Rohr's exploration of these questions, and to have a chance to ask questions and dialogue together about how to extend this work in our area.

The presentation and discussion will be held at Crossroads United Methodist Church, 43454 Crossroads Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, 2-4:30 pm (gather at 1:45 pm for seating). Registration Fee: $25 (or $15 student/fixed income). Live Webcast (for those who cannot attend): $10. We encourage everyone to register online at Center for Contemplation and Action, but you are welcome to come whether or not you have pre-registered or can afford the registration fee. Childcare is available. Llet us know your needs ahead of time.

Register online at the Center for Action and Contemplation:
http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/webcast/2010-series/end-of-men/

Also mark your calendars for October 12-16, 2011 (yes, one year away), when Richard will return to our area to lead our region's first Men's Rites of Passage at Rolling Ridge Retreat Center near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. See dc.male-spirituality.net for more information about this and other regional events, and for details about how to register.

Download PDF Brochure: End of Men October 24 2010

Poetics of Journey to the Common Good: A 24-hour Study Retreat

October 22-23, 2010
Friday 7 pm - Sunday 6 pm
Deer Spring

Walter Brueggemann is acclaimed as currently being the "world's leading interpreter of the Old Testament". He enables us to access the memories of Judeo-Christian ancestors, through their poetry and stories concerning enduring themes in human faith journey. Those themes, in broad stroke, continue to be recognized in our contemporary western culture. Thus, we discover that drawing on memories of the ancestors, joined with personal memories and contemporary experiences, we in effect are provided an itinerary for an imaginative life journey.

So, in this retreat we turn to the medium in which the ancestors engaged their world -- poetry and story. The creativity and hope to be discovered through such speech is articulated by Walter in an earlier book -- Finally Comes the Poet.

"The entertainment of a 'fiction' drives us beyond known truth. From the great narratives of Israel to the prophetic poems to the testimony of early Christians, the singers and storytellers spoke dangerously about dangerous matters, about new possibilities. The settled, entrenched, and certain heard only fiction, but it was a 'fiction' more powerful than facts".

"After the engineers, inventors, scientists, 'finally comes the poet' -- 'shattering evocative speech that breaks fixed conclusions and presses us always toward new, dangerous, imaginative possibilities".

Preparation for this retreat is to read Brueggemann's current book -- Journey to the Common Good, 2010, 122 pages through which we each will discover rich insights to be shared with one another in retreat. HOW we find our way to the common good in our contemporary communities of faith or other ventures of 'doing good' is so central to whether those life ventures will be experienced as blessing.

The structure of this retreat is a simple one as follows:-

  • October 22, 7:00pm-- dinner and sharing current life journey notes.
  • Following dinner, around the fire we meditate on samples of poetry read aloud from ancestors in their quest for the common good.
  • We close with music and bedtime prayers.
  • October 23, 8:00am-- breakfast.
  • Following breakfast at 9:00 for sharing our respective learnings from reading of Journey to the Common Good.
  • At 10:30 -- time of reflection and journaling while walking on Rolling Ridge trails in the Blue Ridge.
  • Lunch at 12:30.
  • Second time of sharing insights at 1:30.
  • Dinner of celebration and thanksgiving at 5:00pm
  • Depart for home at 6:00pm.

Our study source, Journey to the Common Good, is an easy accessible read, 122 pages, and packed with rich insight from an outstanding scholar. Obtain it from your bookstore or favorite on-line bookseller.

To register for retreat call us at 304-725-2312 or e-mail Vvatrr@juno.com. Bring your own wash towels and comfortable walking shoes. Retreat fee is $30 covering meals, and lodging to be paid upon arrival. Those who prefer to do so may arrive for retreat by 9:00am on October 23, for which retreat fee is $20.

If you need directions to Deer Spring House at Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community can consult our website: www Rolling Ridge.net or call us at 304-725-2312.

Seasonal Quiet Day: Trust and Surrender

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
10 am - 4 pm
Retreat House

Please join us for our next Seasonal Quiet Day, this one celebrating Autumn: Wednesday, October 20, 10 am - 4 pm. You are welcome to overnight in the Retreat House Tuesday or Wednesday to extend your retreat time!

Our Fall theme is Trust and Surrender. During this time of year the wind picks up, the air turns crisp, and leaves fall "home." This is an invitation for us to let go deeper into God's loving embrace. "Come away and rest awhile" in the season's brilliant red and yellow beauty. Our day will include a gentle rhythm of guided meditations and silence allowing you to explore the landscape around you and in your soul.

There is no cost, donations are welcome. Bring a bag lunch. Please let us know that you are coming, contact Trish at tstefanik@aol.com or call 304-725-4301. See www.rollingridge.net for more information and directions.

Introduction to Ikebana: The Art of Japanese Flower Arranging

Fall Meditative Arts Retreat
October 15-17, 2010
Retreat House

Introduction to Ikebana
The Art of Japanese Flower Arranging

Fall Meditative Arts Retreat
at Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
October 15-17, 2010

The Ikenobo School of ikebana draws on more than 500 years of history and tradition to allow us to express the spirit of peace and harmony through the arrangement of flowers and branches. Appreciation of the beauty of our natural environment is essential to our spiritual life. The natural setting of Rolling Ridge allows us to study that beauty and learn to express it in our arrangements. 

During our retreat we will study the basic forms and principles of traditional Ikenobo teachings. And we will explore the woods and trails around us for materials to use in our arrangements. In all we do, we will take time to experience peace and harmony. Of course, we will also take time for tea, a tradition in Japan and many other cultures.

Rachel Van Wingen, a longtime associate of Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community, will lead us in our time together, and RRSRC resident, Trish Stefanik, will assist. Rachel is a certified instructor in the Ikenobo School of ikebana. First introduced to ikebana while living in Japan, she has studied and practiced the art for more than two decades. She is a member of Potomac Valley Chapter of Ikebana Ikenobo Society and of Ikebana International, Washington DC Chapter.

Things to bring:  vases--simple and uncomplicated are best; hasami--clippers; kenzan--pin frog(s).  Feel free to bring readings or pictures that you would like to share with the group.

For more information and to register, see www.rollingridge.net, email tstefanik@aol.com, or call 304-725-4301.

Advance registration is necessary. The cost is $95, which includes 2-nights lodging, all meals, and program materials. Participants are welcome to arrive and settle in at the Retreat House beginning 5 pm on Friday. Dinner will be served at 6:30. The retreat will conclude with lunch on Sunday. Please make checks payable to RRSRC and mail to: Rolling Ridge, 186 Tupelo Lane, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425.

Annual Labor Day Weekend

September 4-6, 2010
Retreat House

Labor Day Weekend 2010

Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
September 4-6, 2010

Woodhaven Building
Wood spitting/stacking and cleaning of Retreat House

Good for the body is the work of the body,
good for the soul is the work of the soul, and
good for either is the work of the other.
– Henry David Thoreau

Saturday and Sunday (September 4-5) – Come out for the weekend to help work on Woodhaven.  We have a variety of tasks from working on the cob wall to doing cordwood to painting and putting up window trim and soffits, depending on interest and skill level.  As a last tribute to summer we’ll be sure to have plenty of fruit popsicles and frozen grapes! To see the most recent photos, please visit http://straw-bale.blogspot.com/

Monday (September 6) – Our traditional community work day at the Retreat House, preparing wood for the winter and special “deep” cleaning projects. 

Labor Day Schedule:

9:00 am - 10:00 am Gathering for coffee, muffins, fruit and fellowship
10:00 am - 1:00 pm Shared work (can include building at Woodhaven as well)
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Reflection and lunch (provided by the residential community)
2:30 pm - 4:00 pm Shared work (can include building at Woodhaven as well)

Come when you can and stay as long as you want, but please let us know your plans.  Especially let us know if you plan to come for Saturday and Sunday as we will need to plan for housing and food.  The Retreat House is not available, but the residential community can provide some rooms. 

Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community Scot's phone: 301-275-2009
Scot and Linda DeGraf Scot's e-mail: scot@rollingridge.net
120 Jubilee Lane Linda's phone: 301-789-9097
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425 Linda's e-mail: linda@rollingridge.net
Office Phone: 304-724-1069 Web: www.rollingridge.net

Seasonal Quiet Days at Rolling Ridge

SUMMER -- Delight and Abundance
July 28, 2010
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Retreat House

 

Seasonal Quiet Days

At Rolling Ridge Retreat Center,
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

“Come away…and rest a while.”
Mk 6:31


What would happen if we took time aside from our ordinary busy weekday schedules simply to pray and reflect in a natural place apart? What would it mean to the ‘rest of our lives’ if we took one day every few months for silent retreat? How might we grow in our relationship with God?

These four quiet days during the year offer you the opportunity to rest in the beauty of Creation’s varied seasons. They are a time apart to look and see, listen and hear in new ways. They are a chance to be nurtured by guided reflection around the seasonal themes, meditative walks in the woods, journaling and art, and the companioning presence of each other in prayer and sacred silence.

Leader:  Trish Stefanik, contemplative artist and retreat leader, is a resident at Rolling Ridge and member of St. Agnes Catholic Church.

Each day is 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Advance registration is necessary. No cost, donations welcome. Please bring a bag lunch. For more information contact Trish at tstefanik@aol.com or call 304-725-4301. See www.rollingridge.net for directions. Overnight accommodations are available at the Retreat House for a small fee.  

WINTER: Stillness and Listening
Wednesday, March 3
During Lent, gather in the stillness of the trees and in front of the Retreat House hearth to listen within for God’s word. 

SPRING: Awakening and Newness
Wednesday, May 12
Easter heralded rebirth and challenges us to new awareness. Explore the budding landscape and discover what is awakening for you.   

SUMMER: Delight and Abundance
Wednesday, July 28
Join the chorus of birdsong and pray gratitude for the longer days and abounding blessings of the earth and your life.

FALL: Trust and Surrender
Wednesday, October 20
The wind picks up, the leaves turn and fall “home.” We are called to trust and let go deeper into God’s loving embrace.

Download PDF Flyer

Cob Workshop

June 18-20, 2010
Retreat House and Woodhaven

COB WORKSHOP
at Rolling Ridge
Study Retreat Community

Harpers Ferry, WV

June 18-20, 2010

 

Roll up your sleeves, take off your shoes, and get your fingers and toes down in the mud! Woodhaven is ready for its sunroom entryway cob wall to be built. Cob is a mix of clay, sand, and chopped straw and is used to make durable, sculptural walls with the capacity to collect and store heat energy (thermal mass).

Woodhaven is the fifth and final house to be built at Rolling Ridge Study Retreat, in keeping with the covenant to preserve most of the land as mountain wilderness. It will provide much needed space for residential staff to be able to continue to care for the land and to nurture retreat programs.

The workshop will cover a description of the function of each ingredient in cob, benefits and challenges of cob construction, establishing a basic recipe, how to test site soil for clay content, mixing techniques, and hand-on experience building with cob.

  • Friday evening- Tour of Worksite, Cookout/campfire, and Discussion of Natural Building
  • Saturday* -- Overview of Cob Construction, Demonstration, Hands-on Experience Mixing Clay and Building a Wall with Sigi Koko
  • Sunday -- All-Day Hands-On Building and Camaraderie of Shared Work

Cost of the Workshop Weekend - $145, including meals and housing. (If finances are an issue, please contact us.)

Please contact Scot at scot@rollingridge.net (202-330-6874) or Linda at linda@rollingridge.net (301-789-9097) to register by June 1st. Directions and details on what to bring will be emailed to those who register about 1 week prior to the workshop event.

To see our progress so far, including photos from the 2009 strawbale workshop, visit this photo site: http://straw-bale.blogspot.com/

*Sigi was the architect who designed Woodhaven and she has done strawbale and plastering workshops here at Rolling Ridge and many other places. She founded Down to Earth to provide healthy, sustainable design and consulting services in the Mid-Atlantic region. For more info visit: www.buildnaturally.com.

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