St. Catherine of Siena liked to say that God was madly in love with God’s creatures. Isn’t that powerful? Most of us know what it feels like to be in love. Imagine if we let ourselves believe that that is how God feels about us! That God can’t wait to spend time with us! That God looks upon us with a heart that adores and cherishes us!
If we really believed this …. would we, perhaps, live differently? When you are loved that way, don’t you feel like you can do anything? Achieve anything? Cure anything? Help anything? Love anything?
Love is the most powerful tool we have at our disposal. But many of us forget to take the time to refill that amazing cup of love that is God’s Love for us. My hope is that through the retreats I am offering, you will find yourself truly amazed at being the object of God’s "mad love," and allow your inner experience to transform how you life your life.
Mission
Inspired by the voices, wisdom, and fidelity of the women who have nurtured the Christian tradition, it is my sincere hope to companion women and men of faith in their journeys with God, serving the nourishment of their spirits, and helping them to receive the many spiritual gifts we have inherited from our faith parents.
Vision
That our time spent with the holy women who have come before us will enliven our faith communities, enrich our prayer lives, and embolden our service to God by loving one another more deeply.
Your Retreat Director, Karen Murphy
Karen Murphy has a BA in Theology and Philosophy from the University of Scranton (Jesuit) and an MA in Theological Research: Christian Spirituality, from Andover Newton Theological School, the nation's oldest graduate theological school, where she was also awarded the Gerald R. Cragg commencement award for outstanding achievement in Church History. She wrote her Master’s thesis on the blood of Christ imagery in the theology of St. Catherine of Siena.
Karen’s spiritual practices include Centering Prayer, which she learned at a young age from her mother, and Ignatian spirituality, a gift from her undergraduate days which has informed her interior life ever since. She is also a practitioner of Nonviolent Communication, a spiritual practice of empathy.
Karen is an alumna of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps: Northwest and has served in a variety of volunteer capacities for different organizations. She has been actively involved in all levels of campus and parish life, including: choir member, lector, cantor, trainer, lecturer, retreat facilitator, and RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) director. She is a member of the Ignatian Alumni Retreat program at the University of Scranton.
Karen is the author and creator of the spiritual practice The Dialectical Written Prayer Method©.