Cultivating Quiet Retreats

Cultivating Quiet retreats are opportunities for participants to step back from their busy schedules, and explore what gifts a time of silence can bring to their lives. In an environment of mutual support, participants are encouraged to empty themselves of agendas, obligations, and goals, and allow themselves to just “be” for a day, to become comfortable with the quiet, and experience what happens.

The retreat’s short time of less than two days can be richly rewarding and renewing. Trying out a time of quiet and stillness among friends can ease anxieties and open up spaces. It often provides a time of greater spiritual awareness and connection with God.

Silence is generally practiced from before breakfast until dinnertime, allowing for preparation the evening before, and reflective sharing during and after dinner. The last morning can be used for further reflection on the experience and how it can be integrated into participants’ lives.

Stony Point Center offers regularly scheduled Cultivating Quiet retreats. For upcoming dates, click here. For a flyer to print and post, click here.  We can also schedule a Cultivating Quiet retreat exclusively for your group, or help you plan an individual retreat for yourself as a spiritual sojourner. For more information, please email Kitty Ufford-Chase or call 845-786-5674 x121.

From Cultivating Quiet Retreat participants:
 

“There is a correlation between our willingness to quiet the noise of our lives and our ability to appreciate God’s magnificent kindness.”

“WOW! Cultivate Quiet Time was life changing. To sit in silence and listen to God speak through the birds singing, rain drop falling and eating without speaking, brought tears to my eye. God reminded me to ‘Be still and know I am God.’ To be silent is to listen and wait for God to answer the question.”

“I was able to be and to be silent…. I thirst for more, much more, silence.”

"I have been changed for life. The Cultivating Quiet Retreat was more than I ever could have expected. The nearly 12 hours of silence has helped me see God more clearly. God has become much larger to me because of the stillness and silence experienced at the retreat. The life change for me happened when I got back to work after leaving the retreat. I was able to access the silence that had been planted within me. Little did I know that the real change would happen within me. It is not about the actual giving up of speaking or even the lack of noise, per se, but rather what was formed within me during the silent time. What was formed in me is accessible even in the midst of my busyness. Thank you Stony Point for giving me the gift of a stronger connection with my God."

“I've learned to really appreciate intentional silence everyday.”

Retreat Leaders:
Kitty Ufford-Chase is a lifelong Quaker. She has been cultivating quiet in her life so that she can connect with the Divine, even as she co-directs Stony Point Center with her husband, Rick, and co-parents their three children. She has twenty years of experience leading spiritual workshops and retreats on various topics that provide safe spaces for participants to explore and reflect on their lives.  She enjoys listening and  accompanying others on their spiritual journeys, through challenges and fears, as they strengthen their relationship with the Divine and discover ways to live their faith.

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