St. Raphaela Retreat Center

Home
United States
Haverford, PA
St. Raphaela Retreat Center

A place of peace, rest, and spiritual growth open to individuals and groups for overnight retreats.

05/27/2026

We love when Steven starts cooking outside! Looking for the taste of summer? Browse our upcoming retreat programs to take a pause by the pool! 🍉🍍

05/20/2026

Another recommendation from is now available on our shelves!

We have big dreams for our little gift shop! Especially, the section of books that serve as spiritual resources. This week, we’ve connected with as a mentor. We are learning from them how and where to order books and holy cards — over the next few months, we are eager to expand our community of spiritual authors! 📚

05/13/2026

We hope you will join us this Wednesday evening, May 13, at 7:30pm for Taizé prayer in our chapel. 🙏

It is truly a gift to have Becky McIntyre sharing a reflection on the power of art to draw us deeper into our shared humanity and closer to knowing the true heart of Christ. 🎨 ❤️‍🔥 ✨

05/06/2026

I carried this gem with me on my retreat to Belgium - and now again to St. Louis for a LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) conference on Transforming Hope. Jan’s words have become a companion to me in the solo moments— especially when there is the feeling of “I can’t put words to this.”

you always have the words — and I’ll share your wisdom next week in an 8am women’s prayer circle — Thank you for helping me pray when there is too much noise. Your words are always enough.

-Jackie Newns, Spiritual Director on staff

(And yes, you can get your copy of Jan’s newest book along with Circle of Grace and The Sure of Sorrow in our gift shop!)

05/02/2026

Huge gratitude to for an awesome collaboration this semester working with and learning from these 4 stellar humans in their Senior Capstone Course!

Jack, Caroline, Cate and Jon,
Thank you for the deep dive of your research into our internal and external vibe — your findings, perspectives, and recommendations will pave our way forward in our website and social media storytelling. You all were kind and curious, willing and present. You were patient and honest in our process of discovery. Know that our staff will hold you in prayer as you lean toward Commencement — and our doors on Coopertown Road will always remain open to you!

May the God of Hope be with you, inspiring, calling, inviting you to dream and to believe in possibilities. May you trust the dream that is forming in you and may your uplifted face and courageous spirit inspire others who have lost hope. In the
name of the Anointed One, may the blessing of hope be with you. 💫

04/24/2026

Today we were blessed to welcome a part of our extended ACI family from Ancillae Assumpta Academy for a day of connection with God, with one another, and with creation. The 8th grade students and teachers experienced the Eucharist, prayed and sang together, and were invited to participate in caring for creation in the spirit of Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si. We are so grateful that they are part of our community, and we pray that the graces from this day of retreat continue to unfold in their lives. 🕊️ ☀️ 🌳

04/20/2026

“To Human” Day Retreat, led by Dr. Dan Chen and S. Oanh Vo, aci.
May 16, 8:30am-4:30pm at St. Raphaela Center

We invite you to join us for a day of slowing down, reflecting on and honoring what it means to *be* human. This will be a time of nourishing the whole of our being, as individuals as well as in our relationships to the Spirit and all of creation. Sign up now at the link in our bio!

04/18/2026

A reflection by St. Raphaela Center Director of Ecological Stewardship, Phil Carlino

We’re planting groundcovers — sedges, ferns, a few flowers — beneath the trees. These are not flashy plants. They ask you to slow down and appreciate something quieter: texture, form, the way a fern frond unfurls, the way a sedge catches the light. They are simple. They are humble. And they are essential.

Ecologists call what we’re creating a “soft landing.” Throughout the growing season, caterpillars feed high in the canopy, hidden among the leaves. When the time comes for them to transform, they let go. They fall. And what meets them at the bottom determines everything.

All they need is the simplest, most humble home — a bed of leaves, a few fronds, living ground. A place to rest and undergo the hidden transformation they were made for. But in most modern landscapes, that place has been taken from them. Not out of malice — out of tidiness. The rake. The mower. The leaf blower. The urge to control, to dominate, to make creation conform to our idea of what it should look like. We clear the ground bare and call it clean. And in doing so, we close the door on the smallest and most vulnerable lives without even knowing they were there.

God is always choosing the humblest place. St. Raphaela Mary knew this. She spent her last thirty-two years hidden away — so hidden that sisters in her own congregation didn’t know she was the foundress. Some of the last words she spoke were “humble, humble, humble.”

That’s what the Ignatian tradition means when it teaches us to find God in all things — not just the grand and the beautiful, but especially the small, the hidden, the easily overlooked. It’s an invitation to put ourselves into the smallest perspective and discover that God so wonderfully made all of it. That His mystery is revealed through all of creation — even in the humble fall from a tree into a humble soft landing. We are preparing a place of welcome for the smallest creatures on this property and saying: there is room for you here.

That’s the work of reparation: healing a break in the web of life by mending what was broken.

What soft landin

04/16/2026

Awaken Your Spiritual Story with Kathy Garrett at St. Raphaela Center!
Sunday, April 26, 9am-3pm

Awaken the deeper wisdom within your own life story through a gentle spring day of creative contemplative practices. You will have time, space, and community to reflect on the movement of God and the Holy Spirit in your life, listening for new insights and invitations, new clarity and discernment on your path. No experience needed with any of these practices. It will be a contemplative adventure!

You can register at the link in our bio 🕊️

Address

616 Coopertown Road
Haverford, PA
19041

Website

https://linktr.ee/straphaelacenter, https://www.straphaelacenter.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when St. Raphaela Retreat Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Place Of Worship

Send a message to St. Raphaela Retreat Center:

Shortcuts

Want your place of worship to be the top-listed Place Of Worship in Haverford?