Free to Let Go 🍂
Last month, we invited you to start one small thing, a few quiet minutes a day, and see what grows (revisit the September edition). A month into being back to work and school, life can get so full that it feels like there's hardly a moment left to pause. Yet everywhere we see the trees doing the opposite. They are quietly letting go.
In letting go, they don't stop being trees. The same is true for us. What is truest about us is not what we produce, but what remains when the busyness drops away: who we are, the people we love, and God who has been there all along.
Some seasons ask us to release what we treasured: a role, a plan, a version of ourselves that fit for a while. Both Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis let go of everything they owned, and found a freedom they had not expected. We invite you to a simple habit: hold everything as a gift, gratefully and lightly. With Thanksgiving next weekend, it's a good time to practice.
One way to start that habit is a five-minute Examen. One evening this week, look back over your day. What filled you? What drained you? What are you ready to surrender? Then breathe and receive the gifts of what you've noticed.
Our free Noticing with Gratitude Workbook below can help you keep at it. And when you need more than five minutes, the ISCM remains a sacred space to slow down—be it in silence by the lake or with someone to guide you each day. It's a privilege to journey alongside you.
May this October give you room to breathe, and the trust to let fall what is ready to fall.
| | |
Choose Your Advent Experience
December is near; here are four ways to experience Advent more connected
to yourself and God.
Choose the ones that resonate with you.
| |
Spiritual Art Retreat — The Nativity Scene Within
Wickham Centre
December 5, 2026
This day is a chance to step out of the rush for a while and to prepare your own inner nativity scene: a small, uncluttered space within you where something new can be born, and where you can notice what you’re being invited to receive this Christmas.
| |
Advent Retreat — Welcoming the Peace of Christ
Villa Saint-Martin
December 11-13, 2026
These three days of rest and reflection are a chance to do exactly that — to become attentive, and to make room for God who comes to meet us in the middle of busy, confusing, sometimes chaotic lives.
| |
Retraite d'art spirituel — Un voyage au cœur de l'amour
(in French only)
Villa Saint-Martin
December 11-13, 2026
À travers le silence, la conversation spirituelle et l'expression artistique (argile, peinture, collage), cette retraite vous invite à entrer dans ce mystère et venir explorer comment accueillir sa présence au quotidien.
| |
Retraite de l’Avent — Un oui qui change tout
(in French only)
Villa Saint-Martin
December 11-13, 2026
Au fil de ces trois jours, nous entrerons dans un chemin de disponibilité à nous laisser transformer de l'intérieur par la Parole de Dieu, la prière, le silence et l'Eucharistie. Car lorsque le Christ devient la vie de notre vie, son amour ne reste pas enfermé en nous : il rayonne.
| | | |
Featured Retreat
5-Day Silent Accompanied Retreat
November 2-6, 2026
| | |
Upcoming Formations for Everyone:
Fall 2026-Winter 2027
Register Now for Our Ignatian Spirituality Formations
*No previous experience required
| | |
Photography Workshop · Learning to See
In-Person
October 24, 2026
Join us for a morning of contemplative photography around the Wickham Centre to capture colour, texture, light, perspective, imperfection, and the unexpected.
No experience or expensive equipment required. If you have a camera or smartphone and are comfortable with a 60–90 minute walk, you have everything you need.
|
|
Images of God, Images of Self: Discovering the God Who sees You – and the You God sees
Online
November 3-December 15, 2026
Release limiting perceptions of God and create a personal, authentic relationship with the Divine and with yourself. Cultivate trust, intimacy, and inner freedom in your spiritual life.
This 4-session online module invites you to explore how your images of God shape the way you see yourself and your spiritual journey.
|
| |
Spiritual Art Workshop – Dreams and the Inner Journey
In-Person
November 5, 2026
What if your dreams weren’t puzzles to
solve, but invitations to listen?
We dream every night, and most of it slips away by morning. This two-hour evening workshop is a chance to slow down with a single dream and let it speak — to notice what it stirs in you, and to wonder where God might be present in it.
No artistic experience needed. All materials are provided.
|
|
Spiritual Art Workshop – The Way of the Heart
In-Person
December 3, 2026
We live in a noisy, fast-paced world, constantly surrounded by voices, demands, and distractions. At times, you may find yourself longing for a deeper place of rest, stillness, and connection.
This two-hour art and contemplative workshop invites you to move gently from your head to your heart and make space for the silence within, the quiet depths of your being, where you may become more attentive to the presence of the Divine.
No artistic experience needed. All materials are provided.
|
| |
3-day
• November 20-22, 2026
| |
| |
5-day
• November 2-6, 2026
| |
|
Upcoming Retreats:
Fall 2026
Plan your next retreat now!
| | | | |
10-Day Introduction to the Spiritual Exercises
November 13-22, 2026
| | | | |
Spiritual Art Retreat:
Encountering God Through Line and Colour
Facilitated by Lucie Ruel McElligott and Trinh Ta, csc
November 20-22, 2026
| | | |
LGBTQ+ · Loved for who I am
Facilitated by Mark F. Langlois
November 20-22, 2026
| | | |  | |
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.
— Saint Ignatius of Loyola
| |
|
Ongoing Formation for Spiritual Directors only:
Fall 2026
| |
Accompagner la traversée du deuil
(in French only)
Facilitated by Nada Nahas
October 24 and November 28, 2026
| | | |
✨ The Free Noticing with Gratitude Workbook ✨
If any month is made for gratitude, it's this one, with Thanksgiving next weekend and an invitation to hold everything as a gift. This workbook is the simplest way to practise: five quiet minutes a day, seven days, and a page waiting for whatever you find.
If you began with it in September, this is a good month to go back to it.
If you didn't, it's still here.
| | | | | |
A Blessing for the Feast of Saint Francis
Be praised, my God, with all your creatures,
especially Brother Sun, who is the day, and through whom you give us light.
Be praised, my God, for Sister Moon and the stars;
you formed them in the heavens, clear and precious and
beautiful.
Be praised, my God, for Sister Water, so useful and humble, precious and pure.
Be praised, my God, for our Sister, Mother Earth,
who feeds us and keeps us, and brings forth fruit of every kind, with bright flowers and grass.
— Saint Francis of Assisi
Adapted from the Canticle of the Creatures
| |
| | Ignatian Spirituality Centre of Montreal | 21269 Boul. Gouin O | Pierrefonds, QC H9K 1C1 CA | | | | |
