Spirituality

Donna and Mike Eisenbath have enjoyed the frequent blessings of taking time apart from work, family, daily duties and noise by making or leading numerous retreats. We feel called to help others take delight in the Presence of the Lord, enhance their prayer lives, deepen their faith and find greater joy in knowing how much God loves them.

Our approach can be uniquely tailored to each group’s desires. We can offer a silent retreat, with talks to help guide each person along. We can provide opportunities for sharing and discussion in small groups, along with reflection. Prayer is an essential aspect of everything we do.

Perhaps you have a group of people within a diocese or deanery who all share the same ministry, e.g. youth ministers or outreach ministers. Maybe your group involves folks from a variety of ministries in your parish. You might like to offer a retreat tied to a specific time of year, such as Advent or Corpus Christi. Or the group could be a large family, a group of friends or people who share something in common – perhaps a depression support group or nurses.

What follows are some things we have organized. By no means consider this a complete list of things we can offer. Look for our address in the “Contact Us” section of this site and let us know of your needs. If you have an idea, try us.

Retreats

• Discover Your Story About His Glory: Jesus used parables when he wanted to teach his followers. Those stories still resonate with us today when we seek to understand the Kingdom of God, the character of the Father or a variety of other aspects of our faith. The Lord still can teach us through contemporary stories, those that unfold in the lives of people around us and in the daily activities of our own lives. In this retreat, we will give you tools to help you discover the unique parables within your life, help you find God’s presence in those tales and discern what he wants to teach you and those you meet.

• Practical, Everyday Spirituality: Using some of the physical symbols of the Catholic Mass, we try to help you find ways to feel God’s presence in relatively easy ways throughout each day. Presentations will help you make contact with the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) through the Sign of the Cross and with God’s people through the Sign of Peace, among several others.

• Heroes of Faith: There are “official” saints, those canonized by the Church. And there are those holy men and women who serve the Lord each and every day in the modern world. We will introduce you – sometimes in thought-provoking ways, sometimes in emotional ways – to some Saints that can have a lasting effect on your Christian journey.

• Living With and Around Depression: Clinical depression carries a stigma, both for those suffering from the disease or those loved ones who try to support friends or family with the disease. That stigma makes it difficult to talk about the depression with others. We will offer opportunities and guidance that can help depression sufferers better manage their way through each day. And we will provide a supportive atmosphere and helpful advice for family and friends of depressives.

Days of Recollection

• Discover Your Story About His Glory: A one-day version of the retreat designed to give you tools to help you discover the unique parables within your life, help you find God’s presence in those tales and discern what he wants to teach you and those you meet.

• Practical, Everyday Spirituality: A one-day group of presentations in which we try to help you find ways to feel God’s presence in relatively easy ways throughout each day.

• Heroes of Faith: Concentrated into one day, we will introduce you some holy men and women – some living, some already in heaven – who will help provide powerful examples for your Christian walk.

• Living With and Around Depression: A one-day “workshop” that will help anyone affected by the disease, either because they are afflicted, they have a friend or family member with depression or work professionally with depressives.

Presentations

• Living With and Around Depression: An honest one-hour talk by Donna and Mike that provides insight into exactly what someone with chronic, severe depression experiences, the frustrations and desires of someone who lives with a depression victim and some thoughts on managing each day with the disease based on our experience of the last six years. Extremely well-suited for family and friends who haven’t found a support group as well as for medical professionals who work with depressives.