I am writing this from St. Edmund’s Retreat Center on Enders Island, CT – the home of the Sacred Art Institute offering a beautiful selection of exclusive programs on sacred visual arts and writing. This is my fourth year enjoying classes here. There is no other school in the nation like this and I am very grateful to live only two hours away. They hire expert teachers from all over the country and students arrive from near and far.

Over the years I have met like-minded adults from Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, Texas, Iowa, Illinois, and California, as well as fellow northeasterners from New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. This year I was stunned to meet two sojourners from Calgary, Alberta, Canada! They drove for four days each way to attend Sarah Cortez’s Spiritual Journaling class.

These week-long retreats provide more than an opportunity to hone and grow our drawing, painting and writing skills. The quiet seclusion of this special island jutting into the Long Island Sound with its magnificent sunrises and sunsets, beautifully manicured flower gardens, and rhythmic lighthouse foghorn provide a peace I have not encountered anywhere else. The beautiful chapel, facing east to the ocean, houses sacred art unique to the island and the morning church bells draw neighbors across the bridge for daily Mass.

This facility is also rich in its tradition of serving young men in their residential recovery community and spiritual retreats for individuals and groups. Today my new friends were reflecting on how we are on sacred ground here. The prayers, the writing, the healing, and the art that this special place has inspired through the grace of the Holy Spirit is palpable. And the waves pounding on all sides seem to be sacred too, rhythmically cleansing and refreshing its shores. What we can’t see, touch, or measure, is what radiates and ripples away with those waves. The cleansing that those sacred waters are capable of and the healing they produce on the other side. Each visit reminds me of how glad I am to be Catholic and united with our Church’s rich history of love, beauty, service, and trust in our Lord.

Scripture: Read Mark 1:35. What stands out?

Call to Action: Get away this summer for a day or a week to this nearby sanctuary. Learn more at endersisland.org.