Fill your fall by feeding your spirit and experiencing joy at the Chiara Center, a scenic and inspirational site for contemplation. Hundreds of guests each year are uplifted and enlightened through retreats, days of quiet, the Food and Faith series and collaborative programs. The Chiara Center is one of the healing ministries of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, an international religious community that follows in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi and welcomes people of all faiths. The Chiara Center invites people for reflection, retreats and conferences on the beautiful grounds of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis Motherhouse.

In the upcoming Food and Faith series, attendees will find joy by celebrating everything from dogs, to community theater, to laughter and vocations. The series includes community members and speakers who will provide insight into relationships, healing and hope, and encourage both knowing joy and inspiring it in others. For example, laughter, the expected result of a magic show to be presented to both children and adults, is a celebration of incarnation because of how it unites body and spirit into a joy-filled response.

According to Dan Frachey, the center’s program director, “Sharing a good meal with others is first and foremost an important and beneficial activity, given the fragmentation and frenetic pace of our society. Scrolling down one’s social media page and feeling inundated with so many trivial realities, it is essential that people gather to collectively delve deeply into subjects that warrant our attention. Coming to a Food and Faith event allows a speaker to bring forth the substance of an idea for others to take up and then discuss with one another.”

The “spirituality of place” is something all people can appreciate, as Frachey emphasizes that simply being on the center’s beautiful grounds is a gift of great value.

“To begin with, it helps to know that the Chiara Center is a faith community dedicated to the discovery and healing presence of God within one’s self, everyday life, relationships and all of creation. All programs, services and hospitality are grounded in the spirit and heritage of Francis and Clare of Assisi. Relationality is an important Franciscan value, so bringing people together to share a meal and meet others is a tangible way of expressing that value. To hear a lively speaker presenting a spiritually oriented topic helps us live out our mission as a Franciscan place of spirituality that welcomes is what inspired this event,” he said.

In addition to programs that highlight various spirituality aspects of joy, other opportunities include bringing seniors together, small groups walking the candle and moonlighted labyrinth, tai chi classes and enrichment through self-care, reflection, and self-guided and group retreats.

“Programs like the ‘Death Café’ and ‘Beneath Scandal, Beyond Policies: Men & Women at Work Together’ are meant to bring people together who are attempting to plumb the depths of some very serious matters that humans have to reckon with,” Frachey explained. “The Food and Faith evenings are certainly lighter in character and allow people to enter into a spiritual topic in a relaxed setting. Opportunities to kneel upon the earth and build a cairn with smooth stones is perfect for the solitary visitor who has come to reflect on the need for balance or to simply enter into the present moment with the elemental pieces of creation. In essence then, to be human is to be spiritual in nature, so we seek out those who desire to attend to any matter dealing with transcendence and wellness.”

For more information, visit www.chiaracenter.org or call 217-523-0901.

Chiara Center Events

• Tai Chi Basics Classes: Oct. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 at 5:30 pm, Oct. 2, 9, 16, 23 30 at 10:30 am
• Tai Chi Flow Classes: Oct. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 at 5:30 pm, Oct. 2, 9, 16, 23 30 at 11:30 am
• Companions on the Journey: Oct. 1
• Getting to Silence: Meeting God in a Place Called “Still.”
An overnight seminar and retreat experience: Oct. 2-3
• Touched by the Holy: Women in Watercolor –
A 5-day Conference Retreat for Women: Oct. 7-12
• Death Café: Oct.16, 10:30 am or 7 pm
• Ah Day of Quiet: Oct. 23, 9:00 am
• Silent Directed Retreat: Oct. 28 – Nov. 2
• Beneath Scandals, Beyond Policies: Men and Women at Work Together: Nov. 1
• Companions on the Journey: Nov. 5
• Food & Faith Dinner JOY! A Spirituality of Community Theater: Nov. 8 at 6 pm
• Death Café: Nov. 13 at 10:30 am or 7:00 pm