Retreats& Pilgrimage
Living the Gospel at all times in everything you do is incredibly rewarding but often something we aren’t accustomed to.
Gospel life is a way of thinking and a way of living which can be challenging, confusing, rewarding, emotional, or all of those things at once! We know and that’s why we have your back. It’s why we provide monthly one on one support, it’s why we share weekly community nights with you and it’s why we’ve developed a comprehensive retreat and pilgrimage program for you. The ability to step back and consider your experience, how it is impacting you and how it is changing you is essential if we truly hope for you to be inspired to and be able to “preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words!”
The program is designed to build off of itself so each retreat provides new insight into what came before and what you are experiencing. Each retreat and the pilgrimage comes at a certain time with certain goals in mind, goals that help you get the most from your experience! The program includes:
Orientation Retreat
First Week of the FrancisCorps Year
You’ve arrived! You’re meeting your new community members and are excited to get started. At orientation we begin the process of moving from “me” to “we”. We get to know each other better, we meet the persons of St. Francis and St. Clare and begin to establish trust, expectations, and a vision for your community for the year.
Community Retreat
Weekend in October
After a few months you’ve been able to settle into your new routine and you’ve gotten to know your community members. You’ve become housemates but a community rooted in the Gospel is more than just “housemates”. With this in mind the Community Retreat looks at the dynamics of community and asks the questions that will get you and your community thinking about what kind of community you want to be.
Service Retreat
Weekend in January
Serving with FrancisCorps is about building real meaningful relationships with the people you serve and the people you serve alongside. It’s about being a brother or sister to them. At the service retreat we look at your service through the lens of the Gospel and how you see Christ in those around you and how you become Christ like to others through service.
Prayer Retreat
Weekend in Lent
St. Francis’ service to others was rooted in and flowed from his deep, prayerful relationship with God. For St. Francis, God’s presence could be felt in all things, and therefore, everything and everyone deserved care and compassion. St. Clare of Assisi was moved by this example and when she joined St. Francis on his journey, she and her sisters became the prayerful foundation of the Franciscan movement. During this retreat we slow down and learn about how St. Clare uses prayer to build a foundation for action.
Charism Pilgrimage
Week in May
The FrancisCorps experience is integrated in its entirety with a very special pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy provided to you through the generosity of the benefactors of FrancisCorps. On this 9 day pilgrimage, experienced in the last weeks of your FrancisCorps year, you will have the amazing opportunity to integrate your lived experience of community, service and prayer through a Franciscan lens by walking in the footsteps of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi.
Transition Retreat
Last Week of the FrancisCorps Year
Your year was a powerful experience of Gospel life with your community and saying goodbye to those you have served and served alongside is important. During this retreat we reflect on the year and bring the experience to a close, learning how to say goodbye well as well as other skills that can make transition easier both now and for all the transitions you will experience in life.
“The retreats provided me a space to deeply contemplate the impact my service year with FrancisCorps has made on my life. Because each retreat focuses on one specific aspect of the Franciscan charism, I was able to reflect and recognize how the tenets of community, prayer, and service specifically shape my own life and how my participation in them shapes the lives of others. The Charism Pilgrimage further deepened my understanding of the interconnectedness of the Church and of the world. Everything I had witnessed and learned in my service experience became full circle as I physically walked in the footsteps of St. Francis and St. Clare in Assisi, just as I had done metaphorically in my service year with FrancisCorps in Syracuse.”
– Alli, FrancisCorps 24
