Calendar of Retreats

Belonging to God’s Holy Family: The Saints as Hope for our own Families

with Fr. Michael Niemczak, Tomasz Misztal, and Br. Cyril Drnjevic, OSB

March 7 – 9, 2025

The title of this retreat describes what participants can expect to learn from it: we each belong to God’s Holy Family, the Church. In God’s Holy Family we learn from saints how to live our Christian life very well. During this retreat we will learn about several saint families. They began with many of the same challenges we experience in our daily family life. We will learn how they grew into holy models of hope in their Christian family life. We will also learn how this same hope is present to each of us daily in our Christian family life. This is because Jesus guides our Christian family.

As a Lenten retreat, we will also reflect on how living a holy Lent helps us to live in hope within our own family.

Retreat Speakers: Fr. Michael is a priest of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and serves as a formator for the Mount Angel Seminary propaedeutic year, the first year of seminary formation. Tomasz is a Catholic artist from Poland and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. His bas relief of the Last Supper is in the Saint Benedict Guesthouse dining room. Br. Cyril is a monk of Mount Angel Abbey and has given and participated in a variety of healing retreats across the country.

Cost: $350 single occupancy; $550 double occupancy

Email retreat@mtangel.edu to register.

(Schedule below subject to change)

Faith Over Fifty 2025

A Quick Trip Through the Afterlife

with Chris Anderson
March 28 – 30, 2025

This retreat is a three-day pilgrimage through the afterlife, taking in the most famous sites in Dante’s Divine Comedy: a pilgrimage about love and freedom, about joy, and about a new way of looking at the journey of growing old.

Please bring a notebook, a journal, or a laptop.

Chris Anderson is an emeritus professor of English at Oregon State University, a Catholic deacon, a poet, and the author of a number of books, most recently, Love Calls Us Here, a book of poems.

Cost: $350 single occupancy; $550 double occupancy

Email retreat@mtangel.edu to register.

Women’s Retreat

Childless and Catholic

with Pati Kiley
August 8 – 10, 2025

If you are, like me, childless and Catholic, you are or have been asking yourself a lot of “why” questions. Whether you are a newlywed, or approaching menopause, coming to terms with infertility as a Catholic creates a burden on one’s heart that is hard to lift.

Expectations of marrying and having children have been ingrained in us. As Catholics, we come from large families, are related to large families, or are surrounded by large families. My mother and father come from large families, and I am the sixth of seven children, with close friends who have four or more children. So why not me?

If we are not to have children, then what are we supposed to do as a Catholic married couple?

What is God’s will for our lives?

I know you are asking the same questions of yourself, and I’d like to help you begin your journey of discovery of how to be childless and Catholic.

Pati Kiley is a former youth minister who now works full-time for a general contractor and aspires to become a Catholic life coach. From high school throughout college, she participated in Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) weekend retreats in various leadership roles aiding confirmed Catholic youth in exploring their relationship with God and their faith by sharing her own. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Graphic Arts Management with a minor in writing.

Throughout her life, Pati has utilized her communication and organizational skills in each industry she has worked in, be it print production, educational materials, and now general contracting. She strives to connect with people whether clients, subcontractors, neighbors, or complete strangers at the grocery store (much to her husband’s chagrin).

The sixth of seven children, with both parents from large families, her husband of 24 years and she are childless. It has been on her heart to share her journey of understanding God’s will in her life as a married Catholic without children with other women who have or are currently struggling with this same question.

Pati strives to deepen her relationship with God through the Mass, prayer, scripture, conversation, and writing. Friends and family are accustomed to receiving texts or calls from her out of the blue to share revelations or questions encountered in everyday life. Pati and her husband live in Keizer, Oregon.

Cost: $350 Single occupancy
Email retreat@mtangel.edu to register

Faith and Writing 2025

A Quick Trip Through the Afterlife
Praying and Writing with Dante

with Chris Anderson
August 18 – 20, 2025

In this retreat, author Chris Anderson leads retreatants on a three-day pilgrimage through the afterlife, taking in the most famous sites in Dante’s Divine Comedy while keeping a travel journal along the way. This is a pilgrimage about love and freedom, about joy, and about a new way of praying and writing.

Please bring a notebook, a journal, or a laptop.

Chris Anderson is an emeritus professor of English at Oregon State University, a Catholic deacon, a poet, and the author of a number of books, most recently, Love Calls Us Here, a book of poems.

Cost: $350 single occupancy; $550 double occupancy

Email retreat@mtangel.edu to register.

2 Become 1: A Retreat to Explore the Beauty and Truth of Catholic Marriage

with Fr. Matt Libra, Patricia Mackie LPC, and Br. Louis de Montfort Nguyen, OSB
September 26 – 28, 2025

The retreat includes marriage inventory, talks on sexual intimacy, spirituality, theology of the body, Mass, beer with the monks, and much more!

Cost: $575 per couple, all inclusive.
Information about financial assistance and scholarship available upon request.

Email retreat@mtangel.edu to register.

Please note: the schedule is subject to change. A final schedule will be emailed to registrants closer to the retreat.

Women’s Saints & Souls Retreat
with Dina Marie Hale

October 31-November 3, 2024

Retreat director and founder of Faith Moments, Dina Marie Hale presents spiritual conferences with the theme “following the saints to heaven.” Time is scheduled during the retreat for spiritual direction and the sacrament of reconciliation. 

Confession: sign up for confession, offered on Saturday afternoon.

Spiritual direction: sign up for 30 minute sessions, as time allows.

For more information and to register, contact Dina Marie Hale of Faith Moment at www.dinamarie.org or email dinamariehale@gmail.com.