Weekend Retreat: Caring for Our Common Home
October 20 @ 6:00 pm - October 22 @ 12:00 pm
$350
Directed by Dr. Rob McDowell, PG
Pope Francis’s 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ describes how our Sister, Mother Earth, “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her.” He asks that we change our hearts and minds in how we view God’s Creation by drawing on centuries of Christian spiritual experience and informed by modern science and its assessment of humans’ impact on our common home. This retreat is a deep dive into creation spirituality from the Old Testament to the Gospels to modern thinkers, focused on examples presented in Laudato Si’.
The goal of this retreat is to embrace the Holy Father’s call for an “ecological conversion” necessary for all future generations to enjoy the fruits of the Earth.
This is a silent retreat. Guests are expected to maintain a sacred silence throughout the retreat, including at meals, unless otherwise noted.
Dr. Rob McDowell is an Assistant Professor of geology and environmental science at Georgia State University. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Rob has been encountering God in nature for his entire adult life. He was honored to serve as co-author of the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Laudato Si’ Action Plan, now being used by the dioceses of New Orleans, Boston, San Francisco, and Savannah. From 2015-2021, Rob served on the Ignatius House Board of Trustees. He is a Cursillista, and currently a lector at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta.
