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Thus says the Lord:
Cease your cries of mourning,
wipe the tears from your eyes.
The sorrow you have shown
shall have its reward.
There is hope for your future!
(cf. Jeremiah 31: 15-17)
Announcing a
Rachels
Vineyard Retreat
For Women and Men Suffering from the Trauma of an Abortion
February 25-27, 2011
American Martyrs Retreat House, Cedar Falls Iowa
Registration begins on Friday evening.
The retreat concludes on Sunday afternoon
Suggested Fee: $200.00
(Scholarships are available)
Co-sponsored by
Rachel's Vineyard Ministries of Iowa
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque
Wheaton
Franciscan Health Care of Waterloo
The Catholic Parishes in Waterloo
American Martyrs Retreat
House
What Is a Rachel's Vineyard
Retreat?
The unhealed trauma of
a past abortion experience can create a living hell for those who
suffer. The quest for healing and peace frequently becomes a
spiritual journey and a Rachel's Vineyard Retreat can be an
important component of that journey.
A Rachel's Vineyard Retreat is a safe, loving and
non-judgmental environment in which participants can examine
their abortion experience, identify the ways that the loss has
impacted their lives in the past and present, and acknowledge any unresolved
feelings that many individuals struggle with after abortion.
The retreat provides an opportunity to get away from daily
pressures and focus on this painful time in your life through a
supportive and non-judgmental process. It provides an
opportunity to enter more deeply into the grieving process and
to identify
all the ways an abortion may have affected you.
This unique renewal experience allows the soul to speak its
grief and sorrow and helps participants connect to their inner
voice, to others, and to the love and compassion of God.
How Does a Rachel's
Vineyard Retreat Work?
The
Rachel's Vineyard Retreat has a number of helpful exercises which allow
the soul to speak its grief and sorrow. The exercises help to
connect participants to their inner voice, to each other, and to
the love and compassion of God. The retreat exercises help
participants to accept forgiveness for themselves and others.
There is also an opportunity to re-connect with the children
that have been aborted on a spiritual level, to give them honor
and dignity through many special and creative spiritual
exercises as well as in a memorial service.
Those who are willing to
journey through their grief in this retreat process will experience the power of
resurrection in their own lives. They will find meaning in what
has happened and allow God to transform the experience into
something that gives hope, liberation and peace.
Who Should Attend a
Rachel's Vineyard Retreat?
Any individual who has been affected by an abortion
and is struggling with the personal, emotional or spiritual
affects of an abortion may attend a Rachel's Vineyard Retreat.
This includes married couples, mothers, fathers, grandparents,
siblings of aborted children, and health care professionals who
have been involved in providing abortion services.
The retreat is meant to help those who are trying to fit
the very normal epiphany of grief into a world that would rather
have them feel numb and blind, so as to maintain a safe distance
from the truth. The retreat experience is particularly
helpful to those who intuitively sense that
life is a precious seed which has been given to us for
cultivation. We acknowledge the loss of that irreplaceable life
and the grief that comes from relinquishing one so intimately
connected to us.
The retreat is based on the conviction that mourning and grieving are necessary milestones which must be
passed so that our lives can continue after an abortion. When this process is
complete there is re-birth and resurrection. There is new life
within our spirit which gives us hope in the future. There is an
opportunity to explore our lives, and appreciate our human
fragility. Through a very personal and intimate encounter with
the Living God, we come to know that God knows and loves us
despite our many weaknesses and human failures.
More About Rachel's
Vineyard Retreats
The Rachel's
Vineyard program takes its name from a figure in the Old
Testament, Rachel, the barren wife of Jacob who eventually bore
Joseph and Benjamin but mourned the destruction of the Kingdom
of
Israel by the Assyrians in the Eighth Century BC (see Jeremiah
31: 15-17).
The retreat format was
created in 1995 by Dr. Theresa Karminski Burke, founder of The Center for Post
Abortion Healing and author of A Psychological and Spiritual
Journey for Post Abortion Healing. Retreat weekends are offered throughout the
year in locations across the United States and Canada and at additional sites around the world.
Rachel's Vineyard Ministries is a ministry of Priests for Life.
Click here
for more information about Rachel's Vineyard Ministries and the
Rachel's Vineyard Retreat.
Confidential
Registration
By phone: call Kris
Gaspari at 515-306-7838
By email:
krisgaspari@mac.com
Online:
Click here to register online
For more information
contact:
Director of Adult Faith Formation
320 Mulberry Street, Waterloo IA 50703
Phone: 319-234-9912
Email: <DBQ208s3@arch.pvt.k12.ia.us>
Posted 12.16.10 Last Update:
12.20.10
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