Welcome to Immaculate Heart Retreat Center

  
 
 Why should you make a retreat?
 
Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to visit our website.   I am Rick McLean and I am grateful to be the director of Immaculate Heart Retreat Center.  I love the rewards and the blessings of this retreat apostolate.  In our mission statement, we are: Rooted in the Catholic Faith, Immaculate Heart Retreat Center provides opportunities for spiritual growth to all people as they journey toward God in an atmosphere of prayer and reflection.   
 
Many of us ask this question:  Why should I make a retreat?  I can think of seven reasons why:
 
1. Happiness   The only genuine source of happiness is living a holy life.  A retreat will show you not only the importance of striving for wholeness, but will also demonstrate to you how that happens by performing the ordinary duties of living.
 
2. A new look   A retreat will help you draw close to God.  A retreat is an encounter with God.  As we draw close to God, our whole perspective on life – with its challenges- changes.  Our life becomes Christ-centered, happier and fuller.
 
3. Renewal   A retreat experience can be a deciding factor in affecting personal renewal, which God is asking through His Church today.  
 
4. Fear  Fear is the deepest of emotions that lies beneath many of our reactions.  We fear the unknown, we fear those against us.  We fear we don’t measure up to our own expectations, a retreat can counter-attack this.
 
5. Vocation   God has a special plan for each one of us.  As parents, spouses or in your career – God is expecting you to sanctify yourself and also those around you.   A retreat will help us refocus our outlook and will give new and greater significance in our journey.
 
6. Apostolate   Your personal apostolate is first of all the sanctification of yourself and then others.  A retreat is designed to give us some practical suggestion on how to accomplish this mission in life.
 
7. Problems  All of us have perplexing problems from time to time.  A retreat will not remove the problem, but it will give us a new insight into the problem.
 
Immaculate Heart Retreat Center offers a wide range of directed or private retreats to help you with this process.
 
Following Christ’s model of healing here on earth, we focus on our retreats and programs on spiritual healing.   Retreats for women and men to help them heal from life’s wounds; to weekends for youth; to Serenity, 12-Step retreats;  to individual spiritual direction; retreats focused on prayer and Ignatian spirituality;  we provide opportunities for people of all faiths to find renewal and hope. 
 
The well being of our ministry is based on the generosity of many people.  Volunteers enrich the life of the retreat center every day.  And of course, all those who support this mission provides the blessings of retreats for those who cannot afford the cost, and they help us maintain our building and provide the  best hospitality possible for all who come through our doors and spend time here.
 
I would like to end with this reflection by Henri Nouwen, from the Genesee Diary.
 
The many guests who come here all seem to sense this (that God dwells only where man steps back to give Him room) and feel more unified after their visit, even when it is a short one.  Some even go home with the feeling of having seen the Lord and feel a new strength to face the struggle of everyday living.
 
Again, I will ask this question:
          Why should you make a retreat?