The Spirituality Center of the Sacred Heart in Warsaw, whose goal is to glorify the Heart of Jesus, was established on November 1, 2019. We are convinced that our spirituality is a gift to the Church and that it responds to the needs of today’s world, and so we share this spirituality with others.
In our retreat house we desire:
- to provide individuals with the space and opportunity to experience the love of the Heart of Jesus;
- to create a range of retreats, days of silence, sessions, workshops, and meetings based on the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus;
- to support leaders/multipliers bringing the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus into the world, groups drawing from our spirituality, and young people.
- The Spirituality Center’s purpose and means are solidified in what we offer to those who wish to participate, both lay and religious.
We offer the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius – Ignatian retreats of 5 days and 8 days, as well as a five-day retreat: “The Heart of Jesus“ and “Retreat for Women – If you had known the gift of God …“. A very important part of our proposal involves the thematic retreats and the desert days, which last several days. The themes we propose are related to the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus. These include: “Relationships as God’s Gift“, “The Visible and Invisible Wounds of the Heart of God“, “Inner transformation as a path to freedom“, “Finding the meaning in loneliness“, “Healing wounded feelings“, “Praying with Dance“, “Surviving loss“, “Forgiveness“, “The body as God’s Temple”. You can see the whole offer on our website (in Polish) and by following our Facebook page (in Polish).
We find that it is a gift of God and a great joy to collaborate both in our team, where we lead most of the retreats, and to undertake collaborations with other RSCJ and lay people who we invite to lead retreats and to accompany individuals during Ignatian retreats. In working with others, we learn to be more creative and listen more deeply to the world’s spiritual needs.
One of the essentials for the people who come to our retreat house is the need for silence; for prayer in silence and an atmosphere of silence, which is why the retreats are held in silence. This atmosphere helps the retreatants to encounter God and themselves in the silence of their own hearts. During some retreats, we offer meditation through art: with clay, painting or the contemplation of images. Many individuals have discovered that this helps them explore the hidden places of their hearts to find God there. We invite our retreatants to contemplate the beauty of creation and to integrate the body in prayer.
Another form of commitment we undertake at the Spirituality Center is to work for the renewal of religious life in Poland – we run formation sessions and support groups for Superiors.
The aim of all our activities is to glorify the Heart of Jesus and to show the great Love with which His Heart embraces us all and heals the scars we carry within ourselves.
We live in a community that serves the Spirituality Center, with each RSCJ supporting this work in their own way.
One of the proposals we have prepared for Advent is a retreat: “What are you longing for, who are you waiting for?”, which will be accompanied by the icon of Christ, Holy Silence.
Jolanta Olczyk RSCJ and Joanna Moś RSCJ
Section |International News
Province |Poland
