RETREAT INTO GOD

The Sisters of the Visitation Monastery of Brooklyn welcome you to a monastic retreat. We invite you into our garden oasis

where you may find God in nature (yes, even in NYC!),

to our choir with its monastic ambience and liturgical chant,

and to the silent refectory where you may learn about Salesian spirituality through our daily reading at table.

Our Founder St. Francis de Sales was a firm believer in the making of spiritual retreats.

He explained,  “ The saints retreated to solitary places, so that, with worldly cares left behind, they could more freely and ardently give themselves up to heavenly love.

Souls that long to love God in real earnest, close their minds to talk of worldly matters and use their understanding to meditate with greater intensity on what is divine; they concentrate all their striving in one single aim which is to love God and Him alone.” 1.

To facilitate the accessibility of an environment conducive to solitary retreats by the laity, St. Francis de Sales had approved by the Holy See a unique outreach to laity from within the enclosure of the Visitation Monasteries he founded.

The Constitutions of the Order of the Visitation contain this invitational clause: By virtue of the Order’s own special privilege and in conformity with the initial intentions of the Founder, women and young girls desirous of making a spiritual retreat are allowed to do so within the enclosure.”2

1.Treatise on the Love of God, Book XII, Chapter 3, St Francis de Sales

2.Constitutions of the Order of the Visitation, 59L

The testimony of those women who have made retreats with us speaks for itself. One retreatant said, ” When I make a retreat here I feel a blanket of peace”. The Lord’s presence permeates the Monastery.

Another said that her favorite kind of retreat was a silent retreat.

But the silence is not empty, it is full- of the Lord’s presence.

We offer both private retreats- for those wanting to pray alone and with the Sisters, and discernment retreats, if you are thinking about the possibility of becoming a Visitation nun.

If you are interested in either one, please call us at the Monastery to make arrangements.*

The Lord is waiting for you!

* First time retreatants are asked to send a letter of reference prior to the retreat.