“The Power of Love” Retreat

with Fran Grace, Belvie Rooks, & Alexander Vesely

july 18 – 21, 2024

OVERVIEW

Though we come from different walks of life, our common purpose is to inspire the path of Love through prayer, meditation, group discussion, and sharing of experiences. 

Now more than ever, in midst of a fracturing world, the path of Love calls to us.  Love heals.  Love regenerates.  The path of Love takes us beyond “us vs. them” to an experience of love that is dynamic and all-inclusive.  

“This love includes everything.  It belongs not just to a human relationship, or to an inner relationship with God; it is a love that is everything, that flows through all that exists.”—Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Sufi mystic, “Love and Prayer,” October 2023.

Mystics from diverse traditions affirm that Love is the greatest power in the universe, and that even a small gathering of people in the name of Love has a powerful effect on participants and in the world at large.

“When the goal is to love, every day has meaning.” —The Power of Love book 

Set within a beautiful seminary campus in San Anselmo, California, with trails to a forest lake and 30 minutes from San Francisco and the Pacific ocean, this four-day retreat will offer participants a deep engagement with their inner life, and a unique group experience with fellow travelers on the path of Love.

Based on our award-winning book, The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes the World, retreat sessions will explore the 4 parts of the book:  Searching for Love; Finding Love; Transformed by Love; Surrendering to Love.  Through lived experiences—talks from the book’s contributors, small group discussions, prayer and meditation, time in nature, shared meals, and self-reflection—each person will open to the next step that calls to them on the path of Love.   Our approach considers both introverts and extraverts.

DETAILS for the RETREAT

Hosted by:  Inner Pathway, 501c3 nonprofit organization

Dates: Thursday, July 18 (4pm) – Sunday, July 21 (10am), 2024

Location:  San Francisco Theological Seminary campus, San Anselmo, California.

Registration Fee: USD 395-625, depending on accommodation choice.  This fee includes everything for 4 days/3 nights of the retreat, except your travel costs. 

Lodging:  Most retreatants will stay in the Susanna Baird Lodging Hall, which is ADA compliant.  Each room has two twin beds.  Each floor has private shower stalls.  You may select “single” to have your own room, or “double” to share with a roommate.  There will be a few “commuter” spots available for those who procure their own lodging.

Single: $625.   Double: $485 per person.   Commuter: $395.

Needs-based “scholarships” are available to some participants to cover their registration fee. Priority given to people who took the online course.  We are very grateful to an anonymous member of our “Power of Love family” who made a generous philanthropic gift to lower the registration fee and fund some scholarships!

Note: Due to high demand and a limited number of spaces, we ask interested people to submit this Expression of Interest Form. You will be notified via email as soon as possible regarding availability.

Age: Due to venue restrictions, the lodging hall can only accommodate 21+ ages.  If you wish to bring children on your trip, an option is to register as a “commuter” for the Retreat, and arrange your family’s lodging close by.  You are welcome to bring your children to the Retreat activities as long as you have a way to supervise them.  

Retreat Outline:  Here is a DRAFT outline of the retreat.

PUBLIC PANEL

Although the retreat itself is private, there will be a Public “Power of Love” Panel on Friday, July 19, 4pm to 6pm.  Draft Information Here.. 

NOTE: If you are registered for the retreat, you do NOT need to register for the public panel event.

FUTURE RETREATS

We will offer retreats for 2025 and 2026, located in Southern California, and they will be open to public registration.

In meantime, you are welcome to attend our ongoing in-person “Power of Love” Gathering in Southern California, every last Saturday of the month, 10 am to 12 noon.  (Except July & August.) 

Please contact events@innerpathway.com if you have any questions, or if you would like to be on our email list for upcoming retreats.

RETREAT FACILITATORS – BIOS

ABOUT FRAN GRACE

Fran Grace, M.Div., Ph.D., serves as founding director of the nonprofit, Inner Pathway, and also Emerita (retired) Professor of Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Redlands (CA), where she pioneered a meditation program. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1997 and has been recognized for her teaching and research into spiritual life by appearances on CSPAN, NPR, a Pew Fellowship from Yale University, etc.  Academic life, however, did not fulfill her deep inner quest for Truth.  After encountering her spiritual teacher in 2003, Dr. David R. Hawkins, who taught her a path of inner freedom, she worked closely with him for many years, until his death.  She edited several of his books, such as Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender and the official revision of Power vs. Force.  Her recent book, The Power of Love, was a Silver Award winner in the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards for the “Best Inspirational Books in 2019.”  She was certified as a Spiritual Director in 2001, and in 2022, after her partner’s son died of Covid, she completed her training as a Death Doula.  Since 2008, she has donated her time, through the nonprofit 501c3 organization, Inner Pathway, by teaching classes and workshops, facilitating group meditations and retreats, and by offering private sessions for people seeking support for the Soul.  

ABOUT BELVIE ROOKS

Belvie Rooks, is an essayist, educator and human rights and social justice activist whose work weaves the worlds of spirituality, feminism, and ecology. Meeting Dr. Martin Luther King as a teenager had a lasting and transformative impact on her.  As Associate Director of the Third World Fund she traveled frequently to UN and OAU sponsored anti-apartheid meetings in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan and Nigeria. She was honored to serve as an election monitor during the transition to majority rule in South Africa and to later attend Nelson Mandela’s historic inauguration as South Africa’s first democratically elected president.  As an educator, Belvie was a member of the founding faculty of the College of Social Justice at the State University of New York (SUNY) Old Westbury and is the creator of Hey Listen Up: A Sense of Self-A Sense of Place, a groundbreaking multimedia urban eco-literacy project, and the creator and host of ConverZations That Matter, a series featuring thought leaders and innovative thinkers from around the globe. Belvie has served on the boards of Bioneers, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and the Institute for Noetic Sciences. She was a founding staff member of Wild Trees Press, cofounded by Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker. As an essayist, her published works have appeared in many publications and anthologies.  Belvie is an American Book Award winner as senior editor of Paris Connections: African American Artists in Paris, and co-producer (with Damani Baker and Danny Glover) of the award-winning film The House on Coco Road (now on Netflix). With her husband, Dedan Gills (August 21, 1945–December 20, 2015), she co-founded “Growing a Global Heart” and, following his passing, she published the highly acclaimed book of his poetry and her reflections: I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song. 

ABOUT ALEXANDER VESELY

Alexander Vesely, M.A., Dr. h.c., is the grandson of Dr. Viktor Frankl, author of the timeless classic, Man’s Search for Meaning.   Alex co-founded The Viktor E. Frankl Institute of America, as well as the Online Academy for Logotherapy at the Elisabeth Lukas Archive.  He travels the world speaking on the topic of Logotherapy, the meaning-centered school of psychotherapy founded by his grandfather.   In addition to being a licensed psychotherapist and head of the Viktor Frankl Media Archives in Vienna, Alex is a film producer and award-winning filmmaker working with StraightUp Films in Los Angeles. 

Alex’s talent for filmmaking was noticed at an early age, and some of his earliest video footage was taken of his grandfather, who bought Alex his first video camera.   His psychological and spiritual depth is apparent in his films.   Alex has directed many short films, commercials, and documentaries, but is most proud of, Viktor & I, which won several prestigious film awards in the United States, including the Diamond Award for the Best Documentary at the California Film Awards.    Another film, Wizard of the Desert, is about the American psychiatrist and medical hypnotist Milton Erikson, whose life’s work began at a young age. Paralyzed by polio and expected to die, Erikson discovered inner mechanisms of mind to reactivate healthy body function.  This film has received rave reviews.   Alex is currently working on a new documentary entitled Pioneer of Meaning.