

Saving Beauty
Recovering the heart of an abundance that can save us
MALAGA, September 14-19 2020
Retreat Description
Beauty is an abundance in the midst of want, a glimpse of wholeness among the fragments. It is that sense of fullness we sometimes glimpse that meets us in our longings. Together we’ll explore Dostoevsky’s bold claim that “beauty alone will save us” – because it has the power to awaken us to the “ordinary” miracles among which we live, in the midst of the struggles and disappointments we face. For beauty has the capacity to restore us to a simplifying vision that delights and provokes, soothes and quickens, lures and conspires.
Our encounters will offer guidance in “practicing” beauty, a journey aided by the witness of poets and artists – Mary Oliver and Isek Dinesen; Rainer Maria Rilke and Emily Dickinson; Pina Bausch and Alvin Ailie; Charlie Chaplin and Vincent van Gogh – who cultivated its gifts in fragmented and often destitute times.
Led by Mark Burrows and hosted by Guy Wynter and Daniel Muñoz at the Malaga Diocesan Spirituality House. The programme will follow the Los Olivos rhythm of prayer, meals, teaching/explorations, and personal space to reflect on the themes of the week. It also includes the projection of a film, a museum visit in the city of Málaga, and a day out in the stunning city of Ronda, in the mountains, where Rilke wrote some of his poetry.
Retreat Leader
Mark S. Burrows is a longtime resident of New England, currently living between Bochum, Germany, where he teaches religion and literature at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences, and Camden, Maine. Poet and translator, scholar and teacher, he is much sought-after as a speaker and retreat leader, exploring themes related to the arts and spirituality, poetics and mysticism. Recent publications include The Chance of Home: Poems (2018) and, with Jon M. Sweeney, Meister Eckhart’s Book of Secrets. A recipient of the Witter Bynner Prize in Poetry, he is a member of the BochumerLiteraten, a circle of professional writers living and working in the Ruhr Region. www.msburrows.com
Retreat Chaplain
Daniel Muñoz Triviño is a lecturer in History of Christianity at the Faculty of Theology of Madrid (Fliedner Foundation). He has led retreats and courses on the Spanish mystics, and is the author of Transformed by the Beloved: a guide to spiritual formation with John of the Cross (BRF, 2014). Until October of 2018, he was chaplain and programme director at the Los Olivos Retreat Centre in the Sierra Nevada National Park, Granada (Spain). Alongside his husband, Guy, he is the co-founder and co-director of Los Olivos Retreats.
Venue
The venue for this special retreat is the Málaga city diocesan Casa de Espiritualidad (Spirituality House ).
Set on the edge of the city, this former seminary is now a beautifully refurbished and comfortable retreat centre, with en-suite accommodation, terraces and gardens, chapel, lecture halls and individual dining rooms for groups.
To find out more about the location and the venue click here.
Price: €775 (shared occupancy)
€845 (single occupancy)
The price, per person, includes:
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6 days / 5 nights full board (en-suite accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, mid-morning refreshments and afternoon tea, except 1 lunch in Ronda).
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Retreat sessions: teaching & input.
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All visits and entry fees to sites during your stay (see programme).
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Mineral water and wine with lunch and dinner.
The price does not include:
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Travel insurance.
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Flights and transfer to/from venue. (Estimated at €25-30 from the airport to the venue)
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Lunch when out in Ronda.



CANCELLED
due to Covid-19


All details correct at time of publishing, but subject to update/change.