6-Day Intensive and Post-Intensive Centering Prayer Retreat
Overnight Contemplative Retreat
May 3-8, 2026
Fr. Justin Lanier and Mike Smoolca
This retreat offers two tracks simultaneously: intensive and post-intensive. Everyone attending will share three sets of two 30-minute periods of Centering Prayer, daily. The intensive retreat will watch and discuss teachings from Fr. Thomas Keating’s The Spiritual Journey. Instead of teachings, the post-intensive retreat includes an additional hour of Centering Prayer each day. You choose the track that works best for you. Lectio Divina will be offered daily, as well as optional soul-friending with the staff. Silence is maintained throughout the retreat.
Pre-requisite: A daily practice of centering prayer for 1 year or longer.
Offering: Private Room with Private Bath - $1,000
Private Room with Hall Bath - $850
We thank the Trust for Meditation Process for their grant, which sponsored our work with Contemplative Outreach, LTD, and Contemplative Outreach of CT to develop our capacity for offering this retreat at Holy Family. We desire to make this an annual offering based on the foundational work done due to the generous grant we received.
We thank Contemplative Outreach, LTD for their grant from the Contemplative Outreach Divine Economy Fund, which made a $100 discount available for our first 14 registrants. The fund is dedicated to making Fr. Thomas Keating’s teachings in Intensive Retreats accessible to centering prayer practitioners.
Contemplative Outreach in conjunction with the Contemplative Outreach of CT Chapter are also offering a limited number scholarships for those who would like to attend this retreat but cannot afford to do so. Please email contact@co-ct.org for further information.
Arrival and Departure Day Schedule Outline:
Sunday, May 3, 2026
3:00 pm - Registration and settle in your room
5:00 pm - Prayer Room Orientation, 20 min period of Centering Prayer
6:00 pm - Dinner
7:00 pm - Retreat Orientation - ENTER INTO GRAND SILENCE
Friday, May 8, 2026
9:00 am - Closing Session
COME OUT OF GRAND SILENCE
11:00 am - Retreat closes
12:00 pm - Optional Lunch with talking
If you're flying into Holy Family, the closest airport is Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT: https://bradleyairport.com/
This is generally about a 30 to 45-minute drive to Holy Family depending on traffic. Uber is available from Bradley.
Holy Family's address is:
Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center
303 Tunxis Road
West Hartford, CT 06107
If you're looking to stay at Holy Family in advance of the Retreat or afterward, please contact Kasia Owczarek, Director of Special Events/Facility Rental at kowczarek@holyfamilyretreat.org or 860.760.9799.
Presenter Profiles
Fr. Justin Lanier
Fr. Justin Lanier serves as Priest and Curate of Saint Clement’s Church in Philadelphia. He is a retreat leader with a devotion to intensive contemplative immersion practice. He conducts Centering Prayer workshops and classes in contemplative practice and theology. Fr. Justin’s early training includes monastic formation at Saint Benedict’s Trappist Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, under Dom. Joseph Boyle, O.C.S.O., and Fr. Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O., as well as at Tofukuji Rinzai Zen Training Monastery in Kyoto, Japan, under Keido Fukushima Roshi.
Mike Smoolca
Mike Smoolca is a contemplative group and workshop facilitator, and a dedicated teacher and student of contemplative practice and wisdom spirituality. He is a Contemplative Outreach presenter and coordinator for the Christian Contemplative Experience at Holy Family, Contemplative Outreach of CT, and the Northern CT Chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society. Mike is a spiritual director and supervisor as well as a BioSpiritual Focusing companion and teacher.
Dietary restrictions? Holy Family is committed to making your stay as comfortable and enjoyable as possible, and to that end, we can accommodate most dietary needs. Please email Ted, our registrar, at tjastrzebski@holyfamilyretreat.org, if you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies, so that we may make preparations in advance of your retreat.