The office at Christ the King Retreat Center will be closed on Friday, December 8, 2023, in observance of the Holy Day of Obligation and the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception.
The office will reopen at our regular time on Monday, December 11. Have a blessed weekend.
Advent 2023 –
Each day of Advent beginning December 3rd, and going through December 24th, you can hear a new Advent Reflection written by Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI. Produced with music and professional voices, these 2 to 4 minute reflections will enhance your Advent experience and help you remember what the Advent and Christmas Seasons are truly about.
In this issue –
You can send us your prayer requests at ChristTheKing@kingshouse.com or use the form on our website. Please know that we keep all your intentions in prayer during our daily Oblate Mass.
Wishing you a very blessed Thanksgiving in Christ Jesus and Mary Immaculate,
With time, buildings (and people too, I guess) need some major maintenance. We have had an issue rear its ugly head this past spring and summer, that requires us to do some major work in front of Lethert House and near the chapel.
Even though this year has not had many large rainfalls, the ones we have had, the waters have found their way into a hallway in the basement by the Garden Court and into our maintenance shop. This is a serious matter, especially since it is entering near an electrical box.
With that said, we are going to be starting a water abatement and underground electric project beginning September 18th. This project will take approximately 2 weeks to complete. It has necessitated a cancelation of one of our women’s midweek retreats (September 19-21, 2023). Please register for the Women’s Midweek, September 26-28, 2023, if that fits your schedule.
At times, it will require the closure of the front circle entrance. Where you will enter the building for gatherings, retreats and evening activities will be dependent upon where your activity will be held. To the best of our ability, we hope to provide adequate signage to help you find your way during this construction project. Also, there will be some noise that we usually don’t have here in this place of “Dabinawa”. We hope this won’t seriously hamper your enjoyment of the activity you are participating in at the center.
We thank you for your understanding during the construction and should you find it in your heart, and in your bank account, to make any small donation to help defray the cost of this project, we will be eternally grateful. This beautiful place has been a place of peace and inspiration for many people for many years, with the maintenance of this facility we hope it will be such a place for many more generations.
September 21, 2023, 7-8 pm
Enjoy a glass of locally-produced Wine and learn more about the Word of God and Wine in the Bible. Open to all denominations – Free Will Offering.
Non-alcoholic beverages and light snacks will also be available – Call us and let us know you are coming 763-682-1394.
The City of Buffalo will begin working on the road that goes around the lake in downtown Buffalo on July 10, 2023.
This may affect the route that you take to the retreat center, which may be different than what is posted on your GPS systems. Please contact the retreat center at 763-682-1394 if you have any questions.
FROM THE NORTH AND WEST– AT HIGHWAY 55 BY THE TARGET STORE, TURN WEST ONTO SETTLER’S PKWY. AT THE ROUND-A-BOUT, GO SOUTH ON HIGHWAY 25 TO PIKE’S GAS STATION, 17TH STREET S.
TURN RIGHT ONTO 17TH ST AND GO TO THE “T” WITH MONTROSE BLVD.
TURN RIGHT ONTO MONTROSE BLVD, GO TO 7TH ST.
TURN LEFT ONTO 7TH STREET UNTIL YOU REACH THE RETREAT CENTER.
FROM THE SOUTH AND EAST – GO TO MONTROSE AND TAKE COUNTY ROAD 12 NORTH, IT BECOMES MONTROSE BLVD IN BUFFALO CITY LIMITS. GO TO 7TH ST AND TURN LEFT. FOLLOW 7TH STREET TO THE RETREAT CENTER.
Last evening God presented a beautiful sunset for us and we thought we’d share it with you. Experiencing the calm and quiet of our retreat center, we are blessed to be able to see the beauty that God creates. If time allows, take a few minutes to meditate on this image. Have a very blessed day!!
This is the message that is at the heart of Christian identity. In the 15th chapter of St. Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth, he proclaims the truth of the resurrection.
If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too…Because if the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised; and if Christ was not raised then your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are the deadest of the dead. If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of men and women.
The belief we have in the victory of the resurrection is something that we often take for granted. I would urge you to imagine what it would be like if you did not believe this great truth. I often do that very thing. I try to imagine what it would be like if I stood at the grave of my father and mother without the belief that for them life is changed and not end. I try to imagine what it would be like to face the death of dear friends without the promise of life eternal. I try to imagine what it would be like to face the pain and suffering of this life without the confidence of faith that allowed the mystic Julian of Norwich to proclaim, “all shall be well, and all shall be well”.
Because we are believers in the resurrection, we are not afraid to confront the difficulties of life. Because we are believers in the resurrection, we are not afraid to lay down our lives for others. Because we are believers in the resurrection, we overcome our fears. Our hope can be seen in the lyrics of the song by Bette Midler “the Rose”
“When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong. Just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows, lies the seed that with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes the rose.”
Alleluia! He is risen. He is truly risen!! Fr. Richard M. Sudlik, OMI, Director
The offices of Christ the King Retreat Center will be closing at 4 pm on Thursday, April 6, 2023, in observance of the Easter Triduum. The offices will reopen on Monday, April 10, at 8 am.
Due to the pending weather for Tues-Fri of this week, we are cancelling the Women’s Silent Midweek retreat scheduled for Feb 21-23, 2023.
We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause, but we’d rather err on the side of caution and safety, not wanting to put anyone in harms way having to travel in bad weather.
If are scheduled for this retreat and want to reschedule to another date, please call the retreat center or email me with the retreat that you would like to reschedule to. Blessings and Peace.
Advent is a journey…We are waiting… moving toward…something better, we hope, that we will find on Christmas morning. On Christmas morning, we find the love of Christ in an infant. We find ourselves devoted to this little child who like all babes needs our care and support for the first several (18 or more) years of their life. As this child grows, we grow in our relationship with Jesus. This child becomes the Good Shepherd. There is something about the image of the shepherd that we find compelling, as most of us have never seen a shepherd. This image speaks of peace and tranquility and hope in the face of danger. We find ourselves praying Psalm 23 – The Lord is my Shepherd – in times of grief and sorrow, to give us comfort that the Shepherd is with us, guiding us. This year at Christ the King Retreat Center, the image of the Good Shepherd will be the focus of our spiritual journey (retreat theme). We pray that you will find the image of the infant at Christmas and the image of the Shepherd a place of peace and tranquility, leaving the dark valley behind.
We at Christ the King Retreat Center wish everyone a happy and safe Labor Day weekend. Our offices and the retreat center will be closed on Monday in observance of the Labor Day Holiday. The office will be open on Tuesday at 8:00 am. Peace and Blessings to you.
It was 70 years ago, September 1952, that the Mission Oblates of Mary Immaculate purchased the land and property of the Lethert family on Buffalo Lake in Buffalo, MN, and hosted the first Silent Retreat at King’s House. Through the many years of ministry, there have been thousands of retreatants experiencing peace, renewal, and joy through the multitude of priests and religious who have served here. In celebration of this milestone, there will be a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, August 21, 2022, at 2:00 pm with reception following. All are welcome to attend, please RSVP using the form below.
A gift has been given to Christ the King Retreat Center in memory of Fr. Jim Deegan, a beautiful replica of the Pieta found at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
At Mass on Ash Wednesday this year, Fr. Lon gave us this verse from Isaiah – Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine. Is 43:1.
His message was that during Lent, there is an underlying sense of Joy as we have already been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb.
In these final days of Holy Week, leading up to the Triduum, our sorrow at seeing the Lord’s suffering and death becomes our focus. We have prepared our hearts, souls and minds to place ourselves in the midst of His Passion and grow in our love for the Lord, knowing that His sacrifice has given us our life.
We anticipate, with confidence, the Resurrection waiting for us. And we celebrate, again, the everlasting Joy of the Risen Christ. For 40 days, we have been about Penance and Pray. After the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, it will be time to Sing Alleluia again. From death comes life.
Many blessings to you this Easter Season.
These words of Jesus take us to the supper that Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before his death. These are the words that remind the disciples of the great gift Jesus gave them, which is the gift of His presence as He becomes for them the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation. In this time of Eucharistic renewal and revival, at Christ the King, we will remember that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist as the eternal sacrifice and the manna for the journey of life.
On that sacred night, the disciples remembered many things. They remembered that they were to be one as Jesus and the Father are one. That they were the branches connected to Jesus, The Vine. That whatever they did or didn’t do for the least of them, they did or didn’t do for the Lord. And that they were to forgive as the Lord has forgiven them. It is these memories that will guide our retreats for the year 2024.
Scan this code for the 2024 Retreat Brochure
