The Busy Woman’s Retreat
If you’re anything like me, you want a retreat but never have time. Or if there’s time, there aren’t any to attend. And when they are offered, you may have already made commitments for that time that you can’t get out of (or don’t want to exert all the energy it would take to change).
Now you’re stuck in a rut, with no idea how to have a retreat without fighting the giants and climbing all the mountains of all the things to get there and it seems so hard that it’s just not worth making the effort.
Because, what if it doesn’t live up to all your desperate hopes and dreams? What if it falls short and you’re left feeling like you wasted all the energy to get there, only to come back to real life with minimal (if any) changes?
WHEN: Wednesdays
7-8:30pm
(May 18 to June 22,
six weekly virtual meetings)
Are you so busy that you can’t read all the info,
but already know you want to enroll?
Choose Your Experience:
VIP
$149
The Standard Experience includes all the group meetings and a private VOXER group to communicate with each other in between weekly meetings.
You are responsible for obtaining your own copy of “33 Days to Morning Glory”, links to purchasing options will emailed to you after you register. Books cost as little as about $6 on Amazon.
VIP Premium
$224
The VIP Experience includes all the group meetings, the private VOXER group to communicate with each other in between weekly meetings, PLUS:
- The Retreat Participant Pack from All Hearts Afire – includes the book, prayer card, a miraculous medal, rosary, and more!
- A 15-minute private coaching call with Denell, your group leader and discipleship coach
Does this sound familiar?
You desperately want to have the time away from life, but life is so busy and complex it seems easier to just keep going in the dreariness and burn out than it is to make the effort to take the time off, make all the plans for your absence, and actually unplug for a few days knowing that what waits for you when you return may be even bigger than the work it took to prep for leaving.
Maybe it’s not the timing that’s the hardest, but being excited about the theme or leaders or location. I’ve been there! I’ve declined invitations to events or faith formation programming because the theme just didn’t seem relevant. Maybe it was good and holy, but you’re like me and those just aren’t good enough reasons to make the effort. You weren’t excited, maybe not even interested in at all, what the outcome seemed like it would be.
If you’re anything like me, anxiety also rises up about being away from home, eating unknown food (on a schedule you didn’t plan), having to be friendly with women you don’t know if you WANT to be friends with (but have to for a few days), you know you won’t get enough sleep every night (why can’t there be a retreat of JUST sleep and naps?) or if you’ll be comfortable enough on an unknown bed to even fall asleep. On top of which, how do you find a chunk of money to allocate to something you may not be sure is totally worth investing in? And so many more little things that add up to a lot.
And then we circle back to your desire to grow your relationship with God in a way that a retreat uniquely addresses. The desire may be so strong it’s an actual ache in your soul to be able to connect with God on a retreat. Either because you have in the past and want it again, or because you never have and want it. But you don’t know how or where to find a retreat to get you started.
The good news is that you’re not the only one!
The better news is that THE BUSY WOMAN’S RETREAT is designed for you.
Now that you know you want in, let’s talk about all those things that cause anxiety which tend to be the real decision makers for us. The theme, food situation, location, time commitment, and financial investment that may be the deal breakers in your deciding to jump in!
Retreat Theme:
To Jesus Through Mary
If you’ve been around the Catholic Church for a while, you might know this is the full title of what’s commonly shortened to “Marian consecration.” I struggled for many years with this idea of being consecrated to Mary because (and especially due to) growing up Pentecostal there is NO God but God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) so consecration is unacceptable to any persons outside the Trinity. However, I also became quite a fan of and attached to Mary several years before I converted and came into full communion with the Catholic Church.
She has much to teach us about our relationship with the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. She has much to teach about being a woman, a daughter, a mother, a member of the Church. It’s almost overwhelming and enough to make us not even start learning for fear of getting overwhelmed! (or is that just me?)
This Busy Woman’s Retreat is meant to keep learning about her into easy to digest, small, bite size portions. We’ll focus on how can we relate to Jesus, be in relationship with, love and serve Jesus with Mary as our example, guide, and Mother.
As I said earlier, the theme “To Jesus Through Mary” is what’s known as the Marian consecration. This means that you will have the opportunity to choose consecration at the end of the retreat if you desire it, but there is NO requirement or expectation that the retreat will end in your consecrating yourself to Jesus through Mary. NONE. Seriously.
What you can expect is that this retreat will bring you to a greater love of Mary and through that you will know Her love for you doesn’t require consecration or any action on your behalf besides loving her in return.
Even if you’re not fully committed to loving Mary now, but you love Jesus and you’re curious about Her and what the Church teaches, this is the retreat for you.
Location & Food Situation
Travel time is minimal, comfort level is high, and pee breaks are whenever you need them! Access to your favorite snacks is easy, plus you get to eat whenever you want.
Weekly meetings are on Zoom,
and daily reading is wherever you are!
Bring your dinner to the Zoom meeting each week (meals are important and shouldn’t be skipped!).
You can make the weekly meetings extra special by ordering delivery, so you don’t have to cook on meeting nights, adding that “someone else cooks for me” element to this retreat!
I’m really busy, how much time will this actually take?
Total Time required:
~10-15 min per day
~90 minutes a week for 6 weeks
Weekly Meetings:
Time: 7-8:30pm (Pacific Time)
Dates: May 18, 25, June 1, 8, 15, and 22
The Busy Woman’s Retreat is based around the book, “33 Days to Morning Glory.” It’s a daily reading that takes about 10-15 minutes every day and is just 34 days long – which is why the Busy Woman’s Retreat is 6 weeks! It’s 2-3 pages per day of reflection, intended to be read in the morning so that you can have it on your mind all day – but you can read it whenever you want to because I’ve found that sometimes once I read it in the morning I don’t always think about it again till the next day. No forced reading schedule!
The Busy Woman’s Retreat is based around the book, “33 Days to Our weekly group meeting is limited to 10-12 women total, so we can build a safe place to honestly share our thoughts, feelings, victories, and struggles with each other during these weeks. Each meeting is 90 minutes so that we have time to listen to the week’s teaching, discuss the week’s topic and any victories or struggles we each have, and to pray as a group.
Weekly meetings are on Wednesday’s from 7-8:30pm (Pacific time).
If you already know you want to complete the Consecration, you should plan to do that on June 25, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We’ll discuss the Consecration details during the meetings.
Choose Your Experience:
VIP
$149
The Standard Experience includes all the group meetings and a private VOXER group to communicate with each other in between weekly meetings.
You are responsible for obtaining your own copy of “33 Days to Morning Glory”, links to purchasing options will emailed to you after you register. Books cost as little as about $6 on Amazon.
VIP Premium
$224
The VIP Experience includes all the group meetings, the private VOXER group to communicate with each other in between weekly meetings, PLUS:
- The Retreat Participant Pack from All Hearts Afire – includes the book, prayer card, a miraculous medal, rosary, and more!
- A 15-minute private coaching call with Denell, your group leader and discipleship coach
Meet Denell, Your Retreat Leader
November 2021 January 2011 March 2017
Denell has been a leader for retreats since high school, a speaker and retreat director for nearly 20 years. She grew up in the Assembly of God church and joined the Catholic Church on April 20, 2003. Her first few years in the Catholic Church were spent at the St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center at the University of Wisconsin. While there, and in the few years that followed, she completed training by the Evangelical Catholic to lead small groups, to train leaders, to run Newman Centers based on their framework. She was the Coordinator of Youth & Campus Ministry in Ashland, Oregon between 2006 to 2012 and spoke at the Young Adult conference (middle pic above), was emcee for the Archdiocese of Portland’s Youth Conference, lead numerous teen and college student retreats. She helped bring the ACTS retreats to Oregon, attending the first one in Southern Oregon in 2011 and later completed the Director’s training to be an ACTS women’s retreat director in 2017. Now, she’s put all her training and passion into creating Coffee As You Are, a discipleship ministry. You’ll find her doing what she loves most, discipling women to greater relationship with Our Lord Jesus, fostering community through Coffee Club and retreats. If you’re interested in more of what she’s doing, you can reach her at denell@coffeeasyouare.com or text her at 541-264-7478.