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'mosaic'. i am ron swisher. it is a joy to have you this morning on behalf of dr. hugh burrell's and co-hurst, i was in tahoe with my methodist man from the fairfield church. hugh burrell emailed me and i checked my email. he said he wanted to do the next program on spiritual retreats. he did not know i was there. he was going to host a program this morning but had to go out of town. he asked me to do it and i am delighted to have, as our first guest, dr. thomas power who is over the jesuit center retreat. great to have you. >> nice to be here. >> tell us about the retreat center and the work you do. >> the place was founded in 1925 and the jesuits at santa clara university which was santa clara college back then, decided that they wanted to have a place where at that time, men could go on retreat . it was not until the 1960s that women started coming. in 1925,

it was february 7th, the first mass was celebrated at the retreat house. and the one building that was there which is a house and the house still stands and that is where the offices. since then thousands and thousands of people have come on retreat and they normally, there are retreats that start on friday and they conclude shortly after lunch on sunday. there are some retreats, retreats with talking. retreats for men and women and both. it is a lot of mixers and a lot of different topics. >> how long have you been with the center? >> two years last friday. >> celebrating going into my third year. >> and in one come to the retreat center? >> anyone. we have an amazing variety of people. christians and non-christians, catholics,

protestants, muslims, and jewish people. it is a jesuit receipt center, the society of jesus. the focus is primarily christian. this month we have retreats for homeless men and homeless women. we have retreats for ex-gang members from east l.a. we will have retreats for young adults, retreats for veterans. lots of different topics. >> tell us the location. you had some beautiful pictures where we did not get them in time. tell us where it is located. >> funny you ask. in los altos. not exactly the poorest town in the bay area. was a mention the property was purchased in 1925 for a song at the time. we have 38 acres in los altos that have views in every single direction. it is a beautiful location. >> lots of pass on the property. places where people can go and be quiet and

meditate. and also places where you can also have meetings and it is a welcoming environment. >> tell us about your background before we break. you have a doctorate in theology. >> systematic theology but my focus was on liberation theology one of my dissertation. i did my research in peru. >> that is where it started. >> indeed. >> then it came here with the emphasis of james and black theology of liberation. >> women's liberation theology. you will find it now it really has gone into every denomination, many religions, many different areas. the whole theme of liberation theology. >> we will come back to that as well as the spiritual retreats which is a theme. thank you for being with us . join us in our next segment with dr. thomas powers of the jesuit center in los altos.

welcome back to 'mosaic'. i am ron swisher . we have been speaking with dr. powers of the jesuit towers speaking about spiritual retreats. what would that be like? >> the jesuit retreat center is

very much rooted in the spirituality of saint ignatius of loyola, the founder of the jesuits. it is a very specific spirituality and it is difficult to actually pinpoint it to just a few words but one of the things that ignatius always said, find god in all things. around his whole focus was to have people not just be private prayers, but people who prayed and went into the world to change the world. to bring god to other people and do good. >> excellent. i think i mentioned to you at our treat at the methodist man, we wanted to have spiritual growth and development but we also wanted to be active in our world. that is how you see the purpose of the retreat. >> absolutely. in light of the spirituality, jesuit spirituality, it is meaningless if you go and nothing happens that you take with you. when you leave the property , when you leave the retreat. you come on a retreat to re-create , to refresh , to become more

centered . to be more in touch with god. but all of that has to be the focus to go out into the world. i don't know if you know about the spiritual exercises of saint ignatius. >> somewhat. i was a jesuit, not really but trained by them. >> university of san francisco. the spiritual exercises of saint ignatius, in its primary form would be a 30 day silent retreat. i have done that twice. i can tell you it is not impossible. >> not checking your email. >> you have to be careful. to tell you the truth when we do the spiritual exercises at the jesuit retreat center we asked people to turn in their phones and computers. most people don't want them back when we are done. the idea was that it is a very intense experience where you are able to slow down and you're able to truly flex on how it is that god is in

your life and how god is calling you. to live your life . and one of the things that is so important is at the very end of the spiritual exercises, ignatius wrote, love is shown more in deeds than in words. it is great to be able to say all the right stuff but if you're not doing the right stuff, it is not working. >> i think of the fact of the transfiguration when jesus takes peter, james and john to the mouth and peter want to stay there but when they come back down they cannot cast out the evil. >> good point. >> he says something about, it takes prayer and one said it takes prayer and fasting. our efforts at being in solitude is to strengthen us out in the world. >> it is an unusual experience.

most people are not going to do a 30 day retreat. but also the spiritual exercises are possible to do over a number of months. where you are meeting with a spiritual director weekly. and we do that at the retreat center also. we have eight day retreats, 30 day retreats. the weekend retreats extend from september through june. our last retreat of the season is this coming weekend. and it is a retreat for women in recovery. >> excellent. have you met some of the facilitators? >> i know them all. in fact, i work with my staff and with the jesuit staff , they do a lot of the retreats but also we bring in people from the outside. that are good at particular topics. just before we came on, i got a call from one of the bishops who is want to do a retreat for us next year. >> okay. just thought of some

notes i had taken that i would like to share with you, just a few of them. that john wesley asked his persons and their develop and of their classes . he broke it down to image management, have information, self-deception, and sin of idolatry. these are some of the questions that we looked at in the last day of our retreat . and my honest in all my actions and words or do i exaggerate? cannot be trusted? am i self-conscious? self pitying or self-justifying? that is image management. under have information, did the bible live in me today? am i enjoying prayer? do i pray about the money i spend? under self-deception, in my defeated in any part of my life quest am i jealous , impure, critical, distressful? if i am, what am i doing about it? under the sin of idolatry, is there anyone who my fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward her disregard? to ira gumbel or

complain currently? is christ real to me? what do you think of those? >> it is interesting. one of the things you learn in the spiritual exercises or anyone who studies spirituality is thing called the examine or the examination of conscience. everyone is asked to trained and asked to stop a couple times a day other questions you just pose a very much the questions people are asked to pose to themselves. i always say , rare was it that you found god or where was it that you might have felt the absence of god and why? i do it in a physical way. i go, where you pushing got away or telling god to come closer? it's a good habit to get into because , you take just part of the day that preceded you and asked, let's stop and look at that for a moment. in our busy lives, that can be really important.

we can go the whole day without even thinking about it. >> what is also challenging is to ask this in a group that you have confidence in. >> absolutely. >> that you can be confidential about. but you share this -- some of those questions with each other. it is not just an individual growth but collective response. >> right . one of the other things that we do at the retreat center is a thing called a program. peter faber was one of the original jesuits with ignatius of loyola. ignatius said he did the exercises better than anyone else. it was a pretty big compliment. this teaches people to give the exercises. >> thank you, tom. i look forward to coming to that center. thank you for being with us. please join us in the next two segments with mike carr who is over a retreat center.

welcome back to 'mosaic'. we have been talking about spiritual retreats but where do we go? there are many places in california. mike carr is here to tell us about those places. great to have you. tell us about some of your places. >> united camps conferences and retreats. in what we do for a living and have done for almost 45 years is to manage and operate camp conference a retreat centers throughout california actually. our customers come to our facilities really to unplug, relax, we look for a sacred space and as you know, retreating means something different to everyone. >> that is true. we mentioned

earlier about renewed and restored and revitalized. but we also mentioned there is different kinds of retreats . >> that is correct. people in recovery. >> people who are seeking other kinds of issues, that they need to do with. >> it is available at your center. >> yes. the types of programs, retreat programs that usually attend our facilities , can be very spiritual in nature. but retreats can also be movement. it can be dance. it can be sinking. it can be hiking. really the term retreat means to seek a safe haven. >> i like that. >> for some people to feel the earth beneath their feet, is really important. to get away from their normal daily activities. and to engage with others. maybe that is the retreat or maybe the retreat is

to really explore their spiritual experience , while they are at one of our facilities. many of the programs that attend our facilities are led by a group leader. we have many types of programs that come through from youth programs. we have family programs. we have men's retreats, women's retreats, many different types of retreats. what we are able to do it our facilities is to provide the behind-the-scenes , operations. and to help lead these retreats , so they are not distracted in what their focus is and what they are there to further. whether to further themselves spiritually or maybe to be with an organization. and to accomplish some larger goals with that organization. >> i heard you have been doing it a long time. >> we have been around for almost 45 years and i have been involved in this business since the mid-80s. during that time

i have seen a variety of groups come through . i have seen yoga retreats. i have seen tai chi. we have even have retreats that focus on laughing. laughing really opens up the spirit and opens you up physically. we are exposed to a lot and our staff that manages our facilities , they have this opportunity to experience a lot of these retreat types that come through. and we have a lot -- quite a long staff retention and i think it is because the variety of these wonderful groups of people that come through they get to serve. >> it was fascinating where you began. >> glide memorial church. very interesting story. united camps conferences retreats was started by a group of bay area pastors. and during the 60s they were getting together, regularly, to talk about how different the cds were from the

50s. and during those meetings, they discovered they each had may be a retreat center, a conference center or a camp center that they were using for their own retreat. they would go in and blow the dust off and creek the doors open and get in and do their own thing. that was just a few times a year but these beautiful properties, some on 800 acres, 600 acres, 1000 acres. beautiful properties. as a got to know each other they came up with a business idea, why don't we use each other's facilities? why do we take a retreats and move to each other's facilities? they started that. and they said why don't we open these beautiful places up to the public? everybody needs a retreat. everybody needs to get away . get away from your normal life and find something different . so the business started. >> and you are throughout california. let's name some places. >> the conference center .

pilgrim pines conference center , which is in ukraine but in southern california. and speaking of dr. tom powers, with the jesuit retreat center, they also have another retreat center in the sierras called jesuit retreat center of the sierras. >> that is in auburn. >> right outside. another one just across the bay, westminster retreat in alamo. currently, we manage 13 different properties. we have upwards of hundreds of thousands of retreats that come through our facilities every year. >> where are you skated? >> petaluma. uccr started in glide memorial church. the first couple years the offices were in glide memorial church in downtown san francisco. very historic. religious center, really. and they moved across the bay. later in the 70s. and

we have just continued moving north. we try to stay central to all of our facilities. in our organization we feel strongly about staff retreats and we get all of our stuff together several times a year and talk about business. but we also slow down those retreats and give our staff opportunity to relax. >> early 60s at glide? >> correct. >> cecil williams and janice were in the mid 60s. they have a new autobiography out that is exciting. beyond the possible. they probably did not know as much about you than that they heard about you. >> yes. that was a genesis.. >> that is really good. >> i look forward going to one of those. i was in tahoe. >> you were at the zephyr conference center.

>> zephyr point. >> that is not connected. >> no. but a beautiful facility. i imagine , you and many of your colleagues and peers have attended retreats and conferences out of facilities. >> i have are the names. that you mentioned. let's come back in our last segment and talk a little more about those locations. and about the retreats. >> let's do that. >> we have been talking to mike car. welcome.

welcome back to mosaic. we have been speaking about spiritual retreats with mike carr. what are some reasons for retreats? you have some reasons why people go. >> really what we have filtered out is that there are five basic reasons why people like to retreat and need to retreat. the first one is really to disconnect. and i think you and i touched base about that a little bit earlier this morning. just unplugging from everything. i don't know if you've heard the phrase , unplugged. there is the unplugged which is unplug your phones and your facts and computers. get away from that. there is the term unpack. when you come to our facilities, there is the physical unpacking your bag but there is the unpacking . you are away from the plug-in things. it is time to really unpack. find something new. you have an opportunity to find something new. the second part is connect . you disconnect

from all of that. but when you are at a retreat center the best thing to do is to connect. people come to retreat centers to sometimes connect with themselves. they are disconnected and now they need to connect with themselves. they are there to connect with other people as well. community and teambuilding as well. of retreats , people sit and share and laugh and they may often sing together. they may play volleyball or shoot hoops. >> that is important when you are unplugged from that and you are in a retreat setting your focus changes when you get to know yourself and others and others better. accomplish goals. groups come to our facilities to accomplish goals.

they further their mission whether it is individual or a group that needs to accomplish and further their mission. and rest and relax. and to have time during a retreat, if you're doing some group processing. make sure your participants have time to nap, take a hike. they are unplugged. this is an opportunity for them to learn more about themselves and learn more about the others they are with. >> i think we touched upon that. to a certain extent. it is great to hear some of those reasons why we go on retreats. dr. thomas powers, which i was mentioning, he not only was a jesuit, but of course, he is a jesuit. pope francis. we commend them in that respect

not only of course has been emphasizing i think retreats and solitude but also involved in the world. concerned about poverty in the world and injustice and inequity. again, i think what we do all those things and disconnect and build community and some of the things you mentioned , we want to go back into the world and be able to give what we have experienced. >> absolutely. retreats, i think retreats, the opportunity to retreat and when you go back to your community , i have been a big believer and have said this for decades. it makes our communities better. and often times the organizations that use our treats as organizations, fill the cracks. >> thank you. i am ron swisher. thank you for joining us. go out and be renewed and restored in one of those retreats and come to one of the centers.

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