Transforming Community® | 17

During the Quarter #9

TC Reading List for TC17 Retreats 1-9

SUBMITTING REFLECTIONS PAPERS TO YOUR READER

To extend your retreat either for more solitude or to simply make your travel easier is a wonderful idea!

The Transforming Center does not handle any arrangements for this personal time at USML - contact the USML Front Desk to make your individual reservation at (847) 970-4908 (based on availability).

Transforming Center: 630-588-8133 (x302)

University St. Mary of the Lake (USML): 847-566-8290

We offer the following payment options:

• Recurring payments via credit card or online banking system.  If you paid the registration fee online with a credit card and answered “yes” that you want to use this card to begin your monthly payments, we will begin those payments on the date you indicated. You will receive an emailed receipt when your first payment goes through. 
• Company/church check mailed to Transforming Center to arrive monthly (if a church would like to pay the entire program in 1, 2 or 3 installments, that is acceptable).
• Personal check sent monthly at the same time.
• Crowdfunding: the goal is that you would raise the full cost of the 2-year experience before the start of the community.  If you are unable to raise the full amount, you agree to pay the difference.

All checks should be mailed to Transforming Center, 400 W. Roosevelt Rd.-Suite 100, Wheaton, IL 60187. 

If you have questions about your financial arrangements, please contact Dina Coffey, your community registrar at dcoffey@transformingcenter.org or 630-588-8133 ext. 302.

What is included in the fees?

• Nine quarterly retreats, with a private room and bath for two nights at each retreat
• Refreshments and meals, beginning with dinner on Sunday evening through breakfast on Tuesday (and lunch for an extended retreat)
• Six teaching sessions at each retreat with guest presenters throughout
• Fixed-hour prayer and worship experiences in community (morning, mid-day, evening and night)
• Group Spiritual Direction with six or fewer members who will remain together throughout the two-year experience
• Retreat materials (excluding books)
• Reflections on the psychological dynamics of the spiritual formation process
• Quarterly assignments that provide reading assignments, written reflections and guidance for practicing spiritual disciplines personally and in community, with specific application to your own life in leadership
• Guidance for meeting with a spiritual friend/spiritual director in-between retreats
• Final project that guides you in the process of articulating your personal Rule of Life
• Certificate in Spiritual Transformation. Certificates from the Transforming Center will be awarded at the end of the program to participants who complete all retreats, required readings and written assignments.

GUIDELINES FOR MISSED ATTENDANCE

• If you are going to miss a retreat please email TC17@transformingcenter.org or call Tina Harris at 630-588-8133,  ex: 307, so she can plan for your absence.
• Please email the members of your small group to let them know you will not be at the upcoming retreat. Please share email addresses with your small group for this purpose only.
• Monthly payments will continue even if you are unable to come to a retreat.
• If you plan to earn credit from an academic institution or a Certificate in Spiritual Transformation, please read the information below.

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS (when applicable) AND CERTIFICATE IN SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION

For those who have missed a retreat, in order to receive credit for the Certificate in Spiritual Transformation and/or CEUs from the Transforming Center, you may make up the missed retreat via the written assignment below. Please complete your make-up assignment by the next attended retreat. All make-up assignments must be submitted by the 8th retreat, in order to give yourself fully to the final assignment at the end of the two-year experience.

GUIDELINES FOR RETREAT “MAKE UP” ASSIGNMENT

• Finish all required readings
• Listen to any recorded teaching sessions that are made available after the retreat
• Set aside time to spend in solitude with the assignment given
• Write a 7-10 page paper that describes: 1—your interactions with the teachings from the missed retreat, 2—your reflections on the required readings, and 3—your own experimentation and exploration of that retreat’s spiritual discipline. Feel free to include places of resonance along with questions you have about the material presented in either the teaching sessions or the reading material.

Remember the goal of this assignment: to demonstrate your completion of the assigned readings and your practice of the disciplines taught and experienced at the retreat.