Inspired by our love of God and the dear neighbor, our spirituality is at the core of who we are and what we do as Sisters of St. Joseph. We are humbled that others often turn to us when they seek to enrich or nurture their own spirituality. With your gift to the Enriching the Spirit Fund, our St. Joseph Spirituality Center can expand programming to meet the increasing and evolving needs of individuals of all ages.

Since 1997, the Spirituality Center has welcomed thousands of participants, from youth through elders, who are seeking spiritual nourishment or professional development through programs, retreats, and workshops. In recent years, we have broadened the scope of our programming in response to young adults who urgently long for a welcoming place to share their values and discover their life’s purpose. Against a backdrop of division in our world, we have invited others to join us for monthly Prayers for Healing. We also envision more family-friendly events that advance our values relating to the environment and social justice.

Ignatian Retreat Programs

Our Spirituality Center hosts a series of retreats of varying lengths and designs based on Ignatian Spirituality, which helps women and men deepen their relationship with God in the chaos and complexity of their everyday lives and discover their spiritual identity and purpose as people of faith. This spirituality is founded on the experiences of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. His Spiritual Exercises provide meditations, prayers, Sacred Scripture, and methods for making choices for one’s life according to God’s loving will.

Your support of our Ignatian retreat program helps us meet increasing costs associated with program development, materials and promotions; stipends and fees for guest presenters; and scholarships for individuals with limited means. By sponsoring our Ignatian retreat programs, you help us expand our spiritual outreach to many who seek meaning in their lives and comfort in prayerful surroundings.

Young Adult Retreats

We are committed to guiding a generation of young people who share our values and passion for all of God’s Creation. In these troubling times, many young people – those of diverse faiths or no religious affiliation – have expressed feelings of being “unmoored” or “scattered.” Through retreats and programs, we can offer young adults space and freedom with their peers for prayer and conversation and help them find their way to peace and purpose.

With your financial support of retreats, you can help defray programming, transportation, and meal costs for young adults with limited budgets.

Recovery Retreats

None of God’s children is immune to alcoholism and drug addiction, and since addictive disease is complex, the chances for recovery are most promising when the healing process involves the body, mind and spirit. We are graced with compassion and loving attention for others, and believe that our mission calls us to journey alongside people in recovery. In the coming year, we plan to host a series of AA recovery retreats for women, and to add men’s retreats in the following year.

Your donation in support of our recovery retreats will directly cover the costs of guest directors and program materials. However, the real beneficiaries of your support will be the women, and in time, the men, who will regain their lives and their dignity, and the chance to mend relationships that were once broken.

Fine Art Retreats

The arts are a profound way to explore one’s spirituality as we can attest. Whether teaching arts in the classroom or serving in an arts ministry, we have developed and shared a deep appreciation for the beauty and inspiration of art. Many of our Sisters’ original artwork graces greeting cards and adorns walls inside and outside the Motherhouse. In this tradition, our Fine Arts Retreats will explore St. Ignatius’ approach to prayer and study of the Scriptures through “the use of the active imagination.” Taking on a character from the Gospel, retreatants would imagine how others would think, feel and act or interact with Jesus, and reflect upon that experience.

We ask for your support to establish an onsite functional art studio, including the necessary complementary equipment and materials; and to provide stipends to attract visiting artists and presenters. With your gift, you will help inspire others to enliven their faith through creativity and imagination.

Chapel Organ and Piano

In celebration of God’s faithfulness and love, we share the gift of music with each other and with our dear neighbors. This source of joy has profoundly influenced our ministries where we taught voice and piano lessons in elementary and secondary schools, composed liturgical music, and pioneered music therapy for university students.

Today, we raise our voices with a community-based Unity Choir, uniting neighbor to neighbor and neighbor to God.

The Chapel in the Motherhouse is central to our spiritual life, and provides a welcoming place for our many neighbors who join us in prayer and song at Sunday Mass. Our current chapel organ is antiquated, but by donating to the Enriching the Spirit Fund, you can once again bring the full sound of organ music into our chapel with a new organ and enhance our liturgical and spiritual experiences.

We also hope to replace our upright piano with a baby or mid-sized grand piano which would be better suited acoustically for its extensive use during weekly and special Masses and a variety of celebrations throughout the year. Our piano provides musical accompaniment to our choir and instrumental ensemble.

By contributing to the purchase of a new piano, you will ensure that the spirits of all who attend events in our chapel will be uplifted by the music of our faith as it was meant to sound.