(Last Updated June 1, 2022)
- Silence and Cell Phones: Please switch your phone to airplane mode during the retreat. If you absolutely need to talk on your phone, please do it in your room, but do not do it in any public location in the house or grounds of Featherock. Seeing or hearing others talking on their phones would be a distraction for other retreatants.
- Confession: The times the priest is available for confession will be marked on the schedule or announced by the director. The Church teaches that to receive Holy Communion worthily Catholics need to be in the state of grace, free from serious (mortal) sin. Of course, it is always worthwhile to make a good confession on the retreat/workshop, gaining the grace of the sacrament and the opportunity to receive some spiritual direction. A Short Guide for Confession is available as a means to take better advantage of this sacrament.
- Spiritual Direction: For those who are interested, there will be a sign-up sheet if you would like to speak to the priest outside of confession.
- Chapel: The Blessed Sacrament will be reserved in the chapel. A good way to make use of the free time between activities is to spend time in personal prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
- Receiving Communion: Don't feel obliged to follow a strict pew order when going to receive communion. Please form a line to the right of the oratory central corridor, to allow those that have already received communion to return along the left side of the corridor.
- Thanksgiving after Mass: After Mass, you are invited to remain in the oratory for ten minutes in personal thanksgiving for receiving Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. Please feel free to sit down during that time.
- Schedule: Please try to be on time, or a few minutes early, for the scheduled activities. The talk and rosary take place in the living room; meditations, the Way of the Cross, and examinations of conscience are in the chapel (oratory). Feel free to sit down during the examination of conscience.
- Diet: Please inform the director if you have a special diet.
- Meals: Audiotapes will be played at meals. Please wait for the director before going into the dinning room before lunch and dinner. Meals are usually served. Please wait to be served dessert. If you need anything ask the director, avoid talking to the staff. If you are planning to skip a meal or must leave early, please let the director know in advance. After meals, please keep your napkin in one of the boxes in the cabinet to the left of the door, as you exit the dining room.
- Please do not take food or drinks outside of the dining room area.
- Free time: Feel free to go out for a walk in the free time. There is an exercise room in the lower floor of the north-south wing next to the parking lot. If you rise before others in the morning, try to be quiet so as not to wake those close to you.
- Books for sale or for reading: There are books for spiritual reading available in the cabinet in the ante-oratory or in the living room. Books and some videos and audiotapes are for sale in the hallway before the oratory vestibule. You can pay for these with cash or check; checks should be made payable to Featherock Books. It is also possible to pay for books with the Featherock app, or the website: www.featherock.net You can also send your checks later with your copy of an invoice.
- Retreat Fee: $465.
- Small jobs: A list of small jobs will be set out; please try to help by taking care of the task assigned to you. If you have questions about your small job or you don't think you can carry it out, please talk to the director
- Sheets & Towels: Please turn-in your used sheets, towels and pillow cases (not mattress covers or blankets) to the carts in the ante-dining room before the first meditation on the last day of the activity.
- If you need anything or if you have any question, please ask the director.