Sacred Earth Retreat – Hildegard…Thomas

To Love Our Sacred Earth Retreat
Hildegard’s Viriditas Meets Thomas Berry’s Spirituality of Earth

Tuesday, Sep 17
10 AM – 12 PM (CT)
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The “Love Our Sacred Earth Retreat” series, facilitated by Maureen Wild, SC, explores teachings within the writings of cultural historian and geologian Thomas Berry as they interweave with the wisdom of nature-centered mystics and of nature-inspired scientists. You may register for any or all four sessions.

Each session is two hours long and includes a contemplative break. For those who participate in-person at The Well, you are welcome to stay the rest of the afternoon to process and reflect in a retreat style fashion, for an added cost.

Hildegard’s Viriditas Meets Thomas Berry’s Spirituality of Earth:

A focus on Hildegard of Bingen’s concept of Viriditas, the greening power of God, merging with reflections on Thomas’ essay “The Spirituality of Earth” – Earth’s processes expressing an abiding numinous presence, an intrinsic spiritual quality from the beginning.

“The soul is a breath of living spirit, that with excellent sensitivity, permeates the entire body to give it life. Just so, the breath of the air makes the earth fruitful. Thus, the air is the soul of the earth, moistening it, greening it.”
Hildegard of Bingen

“We should be listening to the stars in the heavens and the sun and the moon, to the mountains and the plains, to the forests and rivers and seas that surround us, to the meadows and the flowering grasses, to the songbirds and the insects and to their music especially in the evening and the early hours of the night. We need to experience, to feel, and to see these myriad creatures all caught up in the celebration of life.”                      Thomas Berry

Register for other sessions/ series of four

This retreat is In-Person and on Zoom. Retreat Director is on Zoom.

Zoom participants will receive Zoom sign-in information via email
upon registration + a reminder the day before the program.

For those attending the retreat in-person, you may choose to add $40 to stay after the session in retreat fashion, with lunch included and the use of a quiet space in The Well for the afternoon. 

Retreat Director: Maureen Wild, SC

Maureen Wild’s graduate studies focused on Living Cosmology and Sacred Ecology, leading her to create many educational programs and retreats. She served as Director of two spirituality-based ecological learning centers: Genesis Farm, NJ, and the Centre for Earth and Spirit, BC, which she co-founded. Maureen has helped foster the international network Sisters of Earth since 1994, and is among those featured in the book Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology (2007). Blessed with many great teachers, one most enduring influence was Thomas Berry, who challenged all to live a resolute life of Great Work that protects, rather than ruins, Earth.

Maureen is the 2023 recipient of The Well’s Sacred Universe Award.