CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT

CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT – STEPPING INTO STILLNESS

"Be still and know that I am God"

Tuesday 18^th – 27^th August 2026  Full board (All rooms single and ensuite) 

Arrivals: 18^th August from 3.00pm Departures: 27^th August after breakfast (by 10.00am) 

BOOKING:

• For further information, to check availability, or to book 
  • email: paddyrylands@gmail.com

  • or telephone Paddy on: 07815 517 152

DETAILS:

The Retreat 

• 8 Day Contemplative Retreat for those familiar with this way of praying as well as introducing the Gries Path to those for whom it is new. The team will include the current director of Haus Gries, Fr Lutz Mueller SJ as well as Margaret Castro and Paddy Rylands.
• Sometimes people find their prayer is changing – they feel drawn more and more into a place of stillness with God. These residential retreats provide participants with a space for such prayer. They are based on Franz Jalics SJ’s Way of Contemplative Praying and Living, also known as the Gries Path of Prayer. They offer an introduction to this prayer for anyone seeking a more contemplative way of praying and living midst the busy-ness of daily. 
• For those familiar with this form of contemplative prayer, the retreat offers the opportunity to refresh and to deepen it. 

Background Information

•  Fr Jalics SJ, in 1984 established Haus Gries Spirituality Centre in Germany to develop a particular style of contemplative retreat/school for meditation rooted in his own experience of contemplative praying and living. Over almost forty years, the retreats have spread across the world. Since 2015, the retreat has been offered in the UK - at St. Augustine’s Priory, House of Prayer, Old Colwyn, The Monastery of Our Lady and St Bernard, Brownshill, Stroud as well as St Rita’s. 
• Fr. Jalics’ publications include: The Contemplative Way – Quietly savouring God’s Presence and Contemplative Retreat. An Introduction to the Contemplative Way of Life and to the Jesus Prayer. 

There are many paths to contemplation. I show you just one of them. I’m conscious of the fact that God leads many people to contemplation without any external help. Frequently he uses natural circumstances. A simple life of love, some years on a sickbed, a brush with death, the leaving of one’s homeland in order to live among the poor, and other events can lead to contemplation. I also deeply respect the non-Christian ways of contemplation. And there are in the Catholic Church itself many other introductions into contemplation. I do not want to exalt my way above others. On the contrary, I am very happy that they exist and I appreciate them. I myself have walked the way I describe: should it help someone else to find his or her way I am satisfied.

Franz Jalics. Contemplative Retreat. P 6.