Holiday Retreat
Love Within, Love All Around
Love Within, Love All Around"
Saturday, December 28th to Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
“When we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
You and your family are invited to join us for our end-of-year Holiday Retreat. It’s a time for looking inwards, taking stock and starting afresh. It’s a time for renewing our practice, our relationships, and our aspirations. Let’s make this year a celebration of love.
“To love is, first of all, to accept ourselves as we actually are.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Singles, couples and families with children are all welcome. No prior experience with meditation is necessary.
The retreat will offer opportunities to create deep moments of joy and peace. We will practice mindfulness in all our daily activities, including sitting meditation, walking meditation, eating meditation, washing-up meditation, deep relaxation, and mindful community service.
We will enjoy listening to live Dharma talks and coming together in small Dharma sharing circles. We will celebrate the coming of the New Year in a midnight ceremony and have a transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings for those who wish to receive them.
Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love. – Thich Nhat Hanh
This is a wonderful opportunity to come together as a family, to celebrate the joy of togetherness and learn ways to live together with more harmony, acceptance and love. Whether you bring your children or whether you come alone, all are held in the collective embrace of the community. With our practice of mindfulness, we contribute to and benefit from the collective and healing energy of mindfulness around us.
Our monastics will offer separate programs for children (6-12) and teens (13-17) with age-appropriate sharings, mindfulness practices and games.
We hope to see you this Holiday Retreat as we welcome the new year of 2025!
–Magnolia Grove Monastics
Some important information that might be helpful:
– Camping (bring your own tent/camper van): $ 240.00
– Commuter (staying in nearby accommodation): $ 240.00
– Bed in shared room (dorm/cabin): $ 400.00
Please note that cabins are reserved for families and couples, based on “requested roommates.” All families/parents with children will be placed in cabins, if available – if not, they will be waitlisted. Other options are camping or commuter; or staying in the men’s/women’s dorms (if no cabin becomes available), which may mean splitting the group up. If waitlisted, we will follow up about these options – and/or you may include your preference in the notes section.
**The Holiday Retreat is now FULL and registration closed. For our 2025 themed retreat schedule, we invite you to visit this page. We hope to see you another time at Magnolia Grove.**
A 20% discount for seniors (over 64) and young adults (under 27) is automatically included when you register. For students who require financial assistance, please mention this in the Notes section at the bottom of the registration form. For anyone else who requires financial assistance, please contact our office.
Due to the renovations of the main dining hall and kitchen, we are obliged to cap the number of registrations this year as we have limited space for indoor seating. All meals will take place at the Brothers’ Hamlet, situated in the forest below the Big Meditation Hall.
If you have any mobility issues, please speak to the office before registering.
As registrations for this retreat often fill up quickly, do not delay your registration if you would like to join us this year.
Due to the cap of 120 retreatants, the intimacy of the retreat will allow for a more personal experience with the monastics and other practitioners.
**The Holiday Retreat is now FULL and registration closed. For our 2025 themed retreat schedule, we invite you to visit this page. We hope to see you another time at Magnolia Grove.**
If you would like to contribute to the construction fund, we are gratefully receiving donations:
The retreat opens on December 28th with onsite arrival between 2 and 5 pm CT, and the retreat ends on January 1st after lunch.
There will be morning meditations, mindful meals, walking meditation, Dharma teachings, chanting, singing, group sharing, mindful services, Five Mindfulness Trainings transmission, and Noble Silence for certain hours.
Please note the Holiday Retreat is considered a kind of family retreat, with more families/parents and children attending than some of our other retreats. It is a very joyous occasion, and can be quite different from a silent retreat.
In this retreat, our monastics will offer separate practice programs for teens (ages 13-17) and children (ages 6-12). Both of these programs will offer appropriate aged spoonfuls of Dharma for our youth which will also include some games, shorter meditations, and snacks.
5:15 Wake up
6:00 Morning Sitting Meditation; Sutra reading / Touching of the Earth
7:00 Walking Meditation
8:00 Breakfast
9:15 Mindful Service
10:30 Dharma Talk
12:30 Lunch
2:00 Deep Relaxation
3:30 Dharma Sharing
5:15 Personal Time / Private Consultation
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Evening Sitting Meditation / Presentation
9:30 Noble Silence
For families with children: Please be aware that we currently have an open construction site for the renovation of the main dining hall and kitchen and that you are responsible for safeguarding your children and not allowing them to enter the construction zone. Please speak to the office for more information if you have concerns about this.
**The Holiday Retreat is now FULL and registration closed. For our 2025 themed retreat schedule, we invite you to visit this page. We hope to see you another time at Magnolia Grove.
**We will accept Volunteers for the Holiday Retreat! More info will be provided soon. Please save the dates!
Offer funds to support Magnolia Grove Monastery
Donations are processed on our behalf through the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation.